Quality of Fishing TV Shows?

[FlaFly 0]

I'm wondering how others feel about what I consider the low degree of variety in fishing shows. Down here in Florida for instance, our FLW channel tends to be dominated by two types of shows:

1. Two guys in a bass boat, wearing jackets covered with advertising that makes them look like Nascar drivers, and chunking plugs with bait-casting rods, reeling in largemouth bass for the entire show, or

2. Two guys in a saltwater fishing boat, essentially doing the same in the Gulf, except minus the jackets.

 

Florida has around 8000 lakes, and most of its citizens don't live near the coast, and presumably fish in lakes. Never have I seen a TV show featuring Florida lakes, or fishing with other gear like spincasting, ultralight, or flyrods. When we do have a rare fly fishing show, it features either people fishing in lakes in Canada or the Canadian shield states, or fly fishing in Rocky Mountain streams. Never have I seen any attempt to produce educational shows aimed at new fishers, shows about our local lakes and rivers, shows about the history of fishing, shows about the development of fishing equipment, etc.

 

When I'm in North Carolina, there is one good weekly show, featuring fishing in NC lakes, for the kinds of fish that live there, mostly smallies and crappie. But that show is on an educational TV stations (WUNC), not on the fishing channel, which again is dominated by fishing in Canada for pike and muskies.

 

I wonder how others feel about fishing TV, and its usefulness, and whether those who produce fishing shows might be influenced by our concerns. Maybe we could get Ken Burns to show them how????

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Lots of fly fishing shows in floridas saltwater, but I agree that there need to be more that aren't so out there!

[mikechell 0]

I stopped watching fishing shows about 10 years ago. I got tired of just what you say ... shows about places like the islands cays or big lakes in other parts of the country. I don't even watch river monsters or anything like that.

I guess I'll just have to continue fishing on my own and doing a GoPro video once in a while.

[shoebop 0]

I don't watch them either. I am sick of the whole tournament bassfishing, NASCAR watching, hillbilly reality TV culture. But apparently I am in the minority on this because there seems to be no end in sight of this blight on humanity. Sorry if I stepped on any toes....on second thought no I'm not.

 

Time to take my meds now

[tidewaterfly 0]

Although I enjoy both bass fishing & saltwater fishing with a variety of tackle, I'm not a big fan of the fishing shows. Some I've seen in the past had some good information, but frankly most are nothing more than infomercials for the sponsors. I certainly understand that the folks paying the bills to get such shows on the air are not doing it to make friends or out of the goodness of their hearts. It's business, & it's about promoting their name & products, but IMO, both can be accomplished.

 

Unfortunately, with fly fishing, it's not exiting enough to simply have a show with fishing the average type waters most folks fish with flies. Why would anyone want to? If a person already fly fishes, they've been there & done that & if they don't, why would a ho hum fishing trip get them interested in the sport or the products the sponsor is promoting?

 

Generally it goes against human nature to want to watch "educational"! In this day & age, "excitement" is what folks want to see, especially younger folks!

 

I've often mentioned fly fishing on a bass fishing site I frequent & some of the folks, even those that fish tournaments regularly, do fly fish. But, it's something they do occasionally & a lot of them only for panfish. They don't share the same regard for it as a fishing method or excitement that those of us who regularly fly fish share, regardless of species we chase. It's not their "Thing"!

 

Also, if you take fly anglers as a whole, most of us are up in age & have been doing this a long time. Hard to impress an audience like that! When your demographic of newbies or potential newbies is small, it's difficult to produce shows that are both educational & exciting at the same time to the rest of the folks in the sport.

 

Frankly, in the past 20 years or so I've gained more from forums like this than from any TV fishing show. If I happen to see one that appears interesting, then I'll watch it, but don't go out of my way to watch any of them.

[Wavey1988 0]

I don't know how it is in America, but here in the UK, we've got a few good one's, but a lot of it is related to what we call "coarse" fishing. There's been a few good fly series though.

 

I also miss watching the Australian Rex Hunt fishing shows

[flytire 0]

8000 lakes to fish and you're inside watching fishing shows?

 

I just might retire in Florida and get to fishing!

[Crackaig 0]

Think yourselves lucky - we have Robson Green!

 

Cheers,

C.

[flytire 0]

in new england we get charlie moore "the mad fisherman"

 

or the giggling jimmy houston

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Charlie Moore is pretty cool, hank Parker too. I've fished with hank, briefly, and he isn't as bad as some other tournament angler, but surprisingly we mostly talked about deer hunting, as we were bass fishing.

[petelangevin 0]

Charlie is a clown who is all about pushing his image and less about fishing. I like the new flyfisher and on the water tv as they are more about educating fishermen rather than buy my signature items.

[flytire 0]

ditto on Charlie the clown!

 

new flyfisher is real good but i'll never fish those destinations

[atxdiscgolfer 0]

In The Loop is pretty good

[oldtrout58 0]

The only fishing videos that I have watched and deem good enough to recommend are the Hank Patterson tutorials.

http://hankpatterson.com/

 

Scroll down to the videos.

[mikechell 0]

Yyyeeeeaaahhhh ... riiiiiight, Oldtrout.