I have been hooked on watching fishing shows since I was a little kid.\u00a0 To really illustrate this, let\u2019s go back to winter, 1975.\u00a0 On a Saturday morning, my mom announced that the family was going to go to a movie, it was the new Mel Brooks film, \u201cYoung Frankenstein\u201d.\u00a0 Well normally that would sound great to me, but I had scouted the TV Guide for weekend viewing, and saw that there were back-to-back fishing shows on that day, and I had been looking more forward to watching them than I had looked forward to Christmas morning a few weeks prior.\u00a0 No way was I going to miss my heroes Virgil Ward and Roland Martin to see some movie.\u00a0 Well I got my way and was dropped off at my grandparents\u2019 house to watch my beloved shows.\u00a0 I remember that old Virgil was fishing for white bass, I don\u2019t remember where, but I\u2019m sure he was catching them on a Beetle Spin or a marabou jig.\u00a0 Speaking of Virgil Ward, how many remember his catchy theme song?\u00a0 I still know the whole thing\u2014 \u201c\u266aFrom the lakes of Northern Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico\u2026\u266a\u201d And there is no way I’m not watching until the very end to see his aquarium demonstration of the lures they used. My family returned from the movie and proceeded to mock me for missing out on a great movie to watch some dumb fishing shows.\u00a0 The mocking continued for decades, and to this day if you mention this movie to my mom she will bring this up.\u00a0 \u00a0That put into play my longest running lifetime ban.\u00a0 I have never watched that movie, and I never will no matter how many people tell me how great it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those early fishing shows weren\u2019t that great, but to be honest\u00a0a lot of the current ones aren\u2019t much better.\u00a0 Nonetheless, on weekends in the winter when I typically don\u2019t have anything going on I\u2019ll tune in to a couple hours\u2019 worth of mostly locally produced shows.\u00a0 Some are good, with anything done by the Lindners setting the gold standard.\u00a0 Most are pretty average, just checking the boxes, but some are just plain awful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

None are as memorable as a movie that was shown to my entire grade when I was in\u00a0kindergarten.\u00a0 I can still remember my excitement\u00a0when Mr. Suzuki announced that the movie about to be shown was about fishing.\u00a0 In the movie, a few guys were on a muskie fishing trip.\u00a0 They were unsuccessful [I can relate] so they switched it up and started fishing for smallmouth bass instead.\u00a0 At some point a muskie grabbed one of the smallmouth as they were bringing it in.\u00a0 I don’t remember any more details as it was over 50 years ago, but it is safe to say that the movie left a mark on me.\u00a0 I wonder if a version of this old movie,\u00a0shot in the 60’s, still exists.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the best known of the local shows [when I say local, I mean \u201cmidwestern\u201d] is John Gillespie\u2019s Waters and Woods.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry I\u2019m not going to slam his show too much. \u00a0It is impressive that he has a new show virtually every week, and he lives the dream of getting paid to go fishing.\u00a0 Each week he has a local guide to take him out, sometimes his daughter accompanies him. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No secret that the key to the success of his show is his sponsors, and he definitely lets you know who they are.\u00a0 He is almost always fishing with lures from one of his sponsors, and always takes a break to eat some Johnsonville products.\u00a0 He used to be sponsored by Frabill Nets, not sure why he isn\u2019t anymore, but I miss those days as you could count on him screaming \u201cGET HIM IN THE FRABILL!!!\u201d every time a fish was boatside.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t love the show, I find the predictability of it to be amusing. His excitability is unmatched, but maybe my favorite thing I\u2019ve seen from him was a blooper from his show where he missed a muskie strike and proceeded to fill the air with a string of expletives that would have had Paul Fabian taking notes.\u00a0 The camera man thoughtfully panned to the others in the boat to catch their looks of shock. Poke around on Facebook and you might find it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next time\u00a0his show is\u00a0on, you can play \u201cJohn Gillespie Bingo\u201d using the bingo card here.\u00a0 You could also make it be a drinking game, but I don\u2019t really recommend getting that drunk before 10 AM, even on a weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most other shows are what kids today would call \u201cmid\u201d\u2014not great, just checking the boxes, using a bunch of B-roll footage, more or less following John G\u2019s formula.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some are really bad, like how did you get on TV?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I know bad TV\u2014I watch\u00a0a few hours of wrestling every week, I watch The Masked Singer, and I have been known to watch public access shows, like this one where you get these two dudes reviewing snacks:<\/span><\/p>\n

And this show, where a guy puts together jigsaw puzzles:<\/span><\/p>\n

I even watch shows put out by a local square-dancing club. In these shows, the women all seem to be way into it, but the men\u2026hit and miss.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to watch the men and try to pick out which guys are truly into it, which guys are tolerating it, and which guys are thinking about where they can get rid of a body.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any of these are far more entertaining than most of what I see on Bally Sports on any given Saturday morning.\u00a0 [I’m looking at you, Skunk Boy]. Why do I continue to hate watch?\u00a0 \u00a0I know… it’s because I’m jealous.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>A\u00a0memorable moment of awesomely bad fishing video was on\u00a0a different, short-lived and forgotten show that had the hosts ice fishing for bluegills.\u00a0 At some point they had a close-up, slo-mo shot of the host releasing a seven-inch bluegill back into the icy water while John Williams type music played to add to the drama.\u00a0 My daughter happened to be walking by, she even laughed at how ridiculous it was.\u00a0 \u201cWow, you let a sunfish go.\u00a0 Awesome\u201d.\u00a0 If you’re getting called out by a ten year old girl, it’s time to rethink your business plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing, these TV fishing guys are supposed to be experienced, so why do so many act like a teenage girl that just spotted Harry Styles\u00a0at a\u00a0Starbucks\u00a0every time they hook a fish?\u00a0 Calm down fellas, act like you\u2019ve been there before.\u00a0 This one guy who does a muskie show comes unglued every time they hook one, scrambling around to get a different camera going and still scoop the fish in the net in less than 10 seconds.\u00a0 And [side rant] speaking of muskie fishing, if you are an experienced angler you don\u2019t need to measure\u00a0 a 37 incher\u2014just make a good guess and get the fish back in the water!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t set out here to take a giant shit on all of these shows, but it does seem like the bad content outweighs the good.\u00a0 One good\u00a0episode I saw recently\u00a0was the Lund Boats TV show [produced by the Lindners].\u00a0 They were on a trip in Canada.\u00a0 This fishing was good, of course, lots of pike and lake trout, and the production values were top notch.\u00a0 No one said anything stupid, no one spazzed when they hooked a fish, and none of the anglers had a radio face.\u00a0 What I liked best was the shore lunch they made.\u00a0 It was lake trout cooked on a fire.\u00a0 I’ve eaten my share of lake trout cooked this way, I could taste it just by watching.\u00a0 But they somehow had no silverware, so they ate their fish as well as baked beans using spoons for utensils.\u00a0 As in Five-of -Diamonds type spoons.\u00a0 I liked this because I once had this same scenario play out when I was guiding in Alaska when we didn\u2019t have silverware in the lunch box.\u00a0 At the end of the program one of the guys had his self-inflating life vest inflate for no reason while they were landing a fish.\u00a0 That\u2019s good stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

When criticizing these shows, I have to remind myself that awful as I often find them, most are still better than my fishing show, which consists of mostly average videos on YouTube.\u00a0 Check out my channel, maybe I can get my view counts into triple digits:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Big Brown Bass<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Or, check out \u201cFlyfishing for Smallmouth Bass\u201d, a “straight to DVD” video I made with my friends Pete and Chris.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t seem possible that it was 20 years ago that we made this. \u00a0I\u2019m my biggest critic, and I say considering what we knew and what we had to work with it turned out pretty good, even though we apparently used a potato for a camera. This was\u00a0before YouTube was a thing, but you can see it there now.\u00a0 I don\u2019t expect anyone to sit through it all, but at least check out the awesome intro:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Smallmouth Bass on the Fly<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Like most people I now get most of my fishing content on YouTube.\u00a0 There is no end to what is out there.\u00a0 Some is well done and entertaining but a lot of it is crap.\u00a0 But truth be told, I don’t even care much about what actually gets caught–the number one thing I am doing while watching is trying to figure out the spot. \u00a0It has become somewhat of an obsession.\u00a0 This is especially true with videos shot around here, but even if the host is fishing somewhere I know I will never be and fishing for fish I don’t care about, if I see a bridge, a boat landing, or a water tower I am compelled to figure out where he is, and I will spend an hour or more on google Earth to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other day I was watching one of the \u201cspinner fishing for trout\u201d guys.\u00a0 \u00a0This particular spinner guy [who has about\u00a0500 videos of him doing this] makes it a point to keep his spots a secret, which is a good idea. \u00a0I can still sometimes figure it out.\u00a0 One of the times that I was unsuccessfully trying to home in\u00a0on which creek he was on, the only clue was a bridge that was briefly shown.\u00a0 But then later on there was a scene where he is fishing near a barn that had \u201cGod Bless America\u201d written on it.\u00a0 A google image search for \u201cGod Bless America Barn Wisconsin\u201d gave me the result I was looking for\u2014a picture of that very barn and the town it was near.\u00a0 It then took 5 seconds on google maps to find the exact spot where I\u2019m sure that I too can catch 8-inch brook trout on spinners.\u00a0 I was so proud of myself.\u00a0 I know, get a life Chris.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enough with the bad…here are some YouTube channels that won\u2019t disappoint:<\/span><\/p>\n

Uncut Angling\u2014This guy is well known for his videos of him fishing around Manitoba.\u00a0 There is probably no one better at creating original fishing videos that don\u2019t follow the traditional script of how these things usually go.\u00a0 Virtually all his content is great but a few of my favorites are \u201cFidget Spinner Muskie\u201d, \u201cPike Smash Youtube Play Button\u201d, and \u201cSomeone I Used to Know\u201d, which is the strangest yet most awesome fishing video ever made.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Darcizzle\u2014Pretty blonde chick in a bikini catches awesome fish in Florida.\u00a0 How can you go wrong with this? \u00a0There are other \u201chot chick catches fish\u201d channels out there, but what brings me back to Darcy is her fish cleaning videos.\u00a0 Watching her turn a wahoo, tuna, cobia, or other catch-of-the-day into fillets ready for the grill is a thing of beauty.\u00a0 Then watch her dufus husband cook the day\u2019s catch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bindy Vang\u2014Just found this guy.\u00a0 Good content of mostly local bass fishing.\u00a0 He catches some really big bass, and I like that I can usually figure out where he is fishing on local waters.\u00a0 He could probably\u00a0cut back on the usage of \u201cBro\u201d by about\u00a080 percent though.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lost Lakes\u2014Not really a fishing channel, but Jon takes you along on canoe camping trips through the backcountry of Ontario.\u00a0 Great scenery, great camera work [especially considering he is usually alone], great narration.\u00a0 And he catches fish along the way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been hooked on watching fishing shows since I was a little kid.\u00a0 To really illustrate this, let\u2019s go back to winter, 1975.\u00a0 On a Saturday morning, my mom announced that the family was going to go to a movie, it was the new Mel Brooks film, \u201cYoung Frankenstein\u201d.\u00a0 Well normally that would sound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}