Fishing shows! Why don,t they……

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Eelpout show…. I want to see your specific “technique” for handling….

big G

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That’s easy. Just like bass. DON’T CATCH THEM!

I’d like to see you tackle weed walleyes in a lake, post spawn. It’s a huge weak spot for me that I could use some help with. Lakes like Cass and Gull come to mind. Possibly something like Waconia.

I,like others enjoyed the old In-fisherman shows.They gave an overview of what and why they were doing something then put it to use with enough detail that even my thick block could get the idea.

One thing I don’t want to see on a fishing show is a gab-fest with some sports hero or other “icon” in the back of the boat. I can get that watching re-runs of Carson or on the other 275 sports channels on Dish. A fishing show should be about the “fishing” details, the how-too’s, and the techniques. Equipment info – why this, why that – is great too. Yes, a guest is fine, but they should contribute to the interest, not just be there for the fluff. A fishing show should not always be hard-core either. (Leave that to the tourney shows.) …Fishing is about relaxation and fun. The fishing shows that have all of this will be the one’s I spend a 1/2-hour watching. Otherwise, I’ll be out on the water myself. Why waste the time!

To me there are two types of fishing shows, one simply for entertainment (with very little substance) and the other where the host/staff spends the majority of the program focusing on teaching his audience of all skill levels (seasonal patterns, boat position, weather factors, type of water-natural lake-river-reservoir, technique, etc.) while still catching fish. I feel IDO, The next bite, and Lidner all do a great job, with IDO being my fav! I personally don’t want specific lake, bay, or way-point locations just solid explanation how/why they arrived there. For myself the joy of fishing is applying past knowledge to decifer the present situation and hopefully being rewarded. I think shows like IDO are doing a great job of putting out good, specific info that can be used on your own body of water

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

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i really dont’ think it matters with most people what species you are catching as long as the majority of your shows take place within a reasonable trek of your viewing audience. (which i believe you guys do exceptionally well)

thing i would like to see more on fishing shows.

– information about the current conditions. water temp, fronts, air temp, wind all of that is important and many shows just don’t give you this information.
– it tends to be hard from a television viewer stanpoint to see exactly what a guy is doing to intice a strike or whats even going on. i think shows need to focus more on showing diagrams of what is happening. if that makes sense. liek here is a diagram of a river system, here is where we take our boat and then this is what we do. instead of just seeing joe bologna out on the water casting into the water and then having him attempt to describe what they are doing just doesn’t work sometimes at conveying the total package.
– stop wasting time with the battle. you set the hook, unless there is something specific that needs to be said during the fight, get it over with quickly with film cuts. show the first one or 2 if necessary but then unless its a monster don’t waste so much airtime on the fight.
– last but not least, stay away from fly in resorts and way out of the way fishing trips unless that is what you advertise your show to be. i really dont’ want to watch a guy in northern manitoba catching 10lb walleyes on a lake thta would cost me 10 grand to go fish. keep it close to home as much as possible. if you do fishing shows locally it doesn’t matter what you fish for, more people will watch it. and stay away from private lakes (AHEM BILL DANCE). keep it to places where a normal joe could haul his boat for the weekend and have a good time for not alot of money.

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

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i think it would be cool for over the shoulder shots so we could watch the flasher and the fisherman to see what he is doing to make the fish bite doesnt matter to me what your catching or where but it would be cool to feel like i was there just my 2 cents

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

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Panfish are always great,also would love to see walleyes around La Crosse.

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

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How about some sight fishing gills or perch on a Bluewater lake such as Okoboji

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or a small mouth show on Chequamegon Bay.

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There’s smallmouth in Chequamegon Bay

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or a small mouth show on Chequamegon Bay.

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There’s smallmouth in Chequamegon Bay

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That place gets tough to get specie selective at times when your trying to catch some decent eyes & keep catching them darn 20+” flying bronze carp. Guess we take the bad with the good huh!

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Guess we take the bad with the good huh!

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the bad are the walleyes right

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

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James,
Guess I should have read this thread before I sent you a PM… .. Any way.. What I enjoy about IDO is that it covers regional fishing.. by that I mean Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa…is Missouri in there?? Any way.. pretty much everything we see you all fishing for is doable with some planning..

I don’t think that there will be any one complaining about a species specific series of shows…

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Guys

I have a question about ice shows.

What do you prefer to see?

Panfish? Walleyes? Pike? Or species like lakers or trout?

Any specific destinations you’d like to see covered?

---

i think it would be cool for over the shoulder shots so we could watch the flasher and the fisherman to see what he is doing to make the fish bite doesnt matter to me what your catching or where but it would be cool to feel like i was there just my 2 cents

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Split screen, the lx5 enlarged in one and the angler in the other working the baits. Panfish, pike, eyes, trout….it’s all good

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Guess we take the bad with the good huh!

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the bad are the walleyes right

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Lets just say a fair Walleye outing can suddenly turn into a great Smallie outing ! Plus there can be numerous other fishing opportunities just minutes away in the outlying waters.

A good fat perchin show would be cool for the ice. As an avid walleye angler I love the walleye shows be it open water or ice. Them Rainy shows through the ice and LOW have me planning my first trip up there. James if you do a perch show get into some of these girls or I know Mille Lacs has bigger

When I had my fishing show (way back when) we experimented with a depthfinder cam and and a helicopter cam. And an underwater cam. That was before Nature vision. Now it wouldn’t be that hard or expensive to do all that. I always thought a camera on the depthfinder would be cool to see exactly what the guy sees when he catches a fish. Like depth, structure, temp, and any fish that are down there. Granted, there is more involved with all these cameras but this day and age when most fishing shows are the same old thing there needs to be something new thrown in the mix to make it not so “like the other shows”. It can’t be just on content anymore. After awhile it gets to be like watching paint dry.

The reason I like watching IDO fishing shows is because of the local connection with James and where he fishes. But if I was a guy from California or Alabama…it really wouldn’t interest me. It might be boring to me then?

i usually watch or dont watch a show based on what i dont like.
cant stand the over-the-top histrionics (screaming, sticking face in camera) and hyperbole (“look at the size of that walleye!!!”; uh, looks like a 14-incher to me).
as for what i would like to see in a show … different strategies and techniques for locating and catching walleyes and saugers from the mississippi river, which is what i spend most of my fishing time doing.

I’m not into the bragging of small fish either but after watching so MANY fishing shows I like now to be entertained. I am not into watching the same lure fished the same way over and over again. But..with that said…the industry needs those to spur on the future anglers. That’s why my next bunch of shows I was going to produce was a basics to pros. The first half of the show was at a location where the fish were easy to catch and just showed how to get started. The second half of the show was to be shot with a pro and going more indepth on how to catch more and bigger fish. Beyond the basics if you will. Cuz you have to admit…the first part of most shows that show the same type of fishing as the last part get boring. They need to change it up the second half to keep you there thru the whole show. Just my take.

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I like now to be entertained

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I have to agree, if it was about learning we’d all have phD’s. I was following this post last night and watching The Hunt for Big Fish with Larry Dahlberg (plus girls hockey). Larry was fishing pecock bass with big topwater prop baits. Even though you know the strike is comming, when they unload on the bait it alsmost scares you to death. I could watch that kind of action forever. The key is to blend learning and entertainment.

John

A few more things I would like to see are more underwater shots to see what kind of structure your fishing. Also I would like to see the depth finder. It would he helpful to know what you are looking at or looking for.

I do like your shows better than the others. You “show’ me more than the others do. It is why I joined your web site.

Keep it up James and the gang!

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Last night during the snowstorm, in my office I dug out an old VHS fishing tape I had bought back in 1989!! I had, believe it or not ever watched it. Turns out it was an instructional tape by Steve Fellegy on how to fish Mille Lacs for Walleye. In the tape he shows exactly how he rigs his bobber rod, his crank rod, his live bait rod ect. He breaks it down to the point of “the leader should be this long because”………. All great information if you have limited experience (like me) fishing Walleye’s. The best part for me was he showed exactly the hooks, line, sinkers, blades everything he was using.

Last thing he did was put up a map and show you where on each side of the lake he fishes. He pinpointed which side of the reef would produce if the wind was from x direction ect. All the way around he did this. Showed you some spring spots, summer spots, late summer ect. Really informational stuff in my opinion.

I found it to be really educational and I only wish I had watched it years ago!!

BTW, he never caught a fish during the whole show.

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Bad news Hoffie, nothing that they taught in 1989 will work now in 2009. Those walleyes have been watching that video for years in their schools.

Just pullin’ your leg Dude. I love watchin fishin video’s old and new.

Alot of good suggestions here James.
I’ll tell you what I don’t like—-fishing in remote locations in Canada. How in the heck does Midwest Outdoors end up in northern Canada???? If I see one more show from Wollofson Lake Lodge I am going to spew chunks!! Fish the waters that we are going to fish.
Let’s be honest here—some of those fly-in trips to Canada an 80 year old blind woman could catch fish there. Not impressive. You want to impress me show me big walleyes on Pool 4 in late April
I thought the show with Scot pre-fishing was one of the best yet. Alot of information and insights into what what he was trying to accomplish. Two thumbs up

Since 1989 was brought up…here’s a link to Steve’s (now) DVD version of the VHS tape.

School for Walleyes<<<

Some segments I’d like to see:

Catching and keeping bait, from minnows to leeches and crawlers.

More “under-utilized” fish. Seriously, if you can’t figure out how to catch a walleye or bass by now, no amount of television is going to help you. There are lots of fish around here that are fun and challenging, but nobody’s filming them.

An urban fishing show would be outstanding.

A shore fishing segment or two every now and then would be good. Some people don’t have boats, but still do quite well from shore.

Sponsors are important, and it’s necessary to mention them now and then. You gotta get your money so you can keep making fishing shows. But I also think it’s important for people to realize that it doesn’t take thousands of dollars to have a good time fishing. You don’t need a shiny new $20,000 boat. You don’t need a $2,000 sonar. You can get a decent, workable rod for less than $20. There are ways to keep it on the cheap, catch fish, and have a blast. If a show can convey that message successfully, I’ll be watching it every week.

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You don’t need a shiny new $20,000 boat. You don’t need a $2,000 sonar. You can get a decent, workable rod for less than $20. There are ways to keep it on the cheap, catch fish, and have a blast. If a show can convey that message successfully, I’ll be watching it every week.

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I agree 100% however having these items really makes a 90% difference in the amount of fish caught and the quality of fish caught. Like I said I am not dis-agreeing with you but I am saying these things can make or break a day fishing sometimes.

I 2 have always wanted to see some shore fishing shows not for trout but for walleye, I know 1st hand it can be done as I was without a boat for amny years but still caught alot of nice eye , casting and pitchinmg from shore

More time fishing less time holding a dieing fish by the gills. Catch and release only works when what we are releasing is alive