Inside Angles: 500 Episodes Down the Road with In-Fisherman Television

In-Fisherman has been, from the beginning, a Communications Network—the first in the outdoor industry to produce, in combination, magazines, radio, books, videos, and television. We celebrated more than 40 years on the air and the production of 500 television episodes and counting in January 2022.

In-Fisherman TV is all about multispecies fishing, a reflection of what’s covered in the magazine, which continues to focus on teaching anglers how to catch more fish. We might take a quick trip through time.

The first In-Fisherman Television Specials, as they are called at the time, play in early 1979, as four 1-hour Specials on select broadcast stations around North America. The primary fish species are North Country fish—walleyes, pike, largemouth bass, smallmouths, muskies, and panfish.

These shows are shot on 16-millimeter tape, the standard of the day. The footage is edited by hand-cutting frames of taped footage and splicing them together. Sound can’t be laid on that tape, so it’s recorded by tape recorder—or editors enter a TV studio to watch the footage as they voice over what’s happening on screen.

By about 1983, the shooting gives way to early video camcorder equipment, which allows live production of field footage, complete with recorded sound. This heralds a new era for television fishing.

Soon thereafter, In-Fisherman produces the first outdoor video in the entire outdoor industry—Ice Fishing Secrets, which sells thousands and plays to many more. In-Fisherman is also the first to air ice fishing on TV. Much of the outdoor world is transfixed as they watch anglers doing what they do on ice. The techniques brought to bear by In-Fisherman experts help to spark a revolution that forever changes ice fishing.

Ice Fishing Secrets is but one of a multiplicity of high-quality videos produced over the years. Some projects, like Muskie Trolling Today, rely on editors in studio narrating and introducing field footage shot for TV. Other videos are solely video projects, like one of the most famous trout videos of the time, Perspectives On Stream Trout. In-Fisherman contributors and editors teach the world to walk far and fish fast, using big lures to catch big trout.

Of course, there are so many video projects over the years—well over 100—in-depth looks at specific fishing situations for each of the popular fish species, including catfish, which we highlight in a bit.

By this time the one-hour Specials give way to half-hour programming to fit both broadcast TV and newly developing cable stations.

In-Fisherman is one of three original shows playing on TNN, The Nashville Network, in the late 1980s. Note an excerpt from a TNN promotion in 1989:

“The fishing season begins today on The Nashville Network with the return of three popular fishing series from last year and the addition of one, Bill Dance Outdoors. The Bassmasters, In-Fisherman Angling Adventures, and Hank Parker’s Outdoor Magazine begin new seasons this month.”

Besides the connection with TNN and its millions of viewers, In-Fisherman continues to run on many broadcast stations across North America. In-Fisherman has long been the most-watched program in fishing, not just lip service, but verified by industry audit.

This era produces memorable moments, many of them pioneering moments, historic moments—like some of the biggest pike ever captured on TV, with ­In­‑Fisherman staff members subduing monsters that may weigh 35 pounds or more. The only bigger pike captured for TV might be fish more recently filmed in Alaska. None of these fish are officially weighed, but, well, if you watch the TV footage you can be the judge. Giant fish look like giant fish.

Of course, giant fish have always been part of the In-Fisherman mystique. Not just giant muskies, pike, walleyes, and largemouth bass. We are one of the first to televise fishing for North America’s largest sportfish, the white sturgeon, beginning in the early 1990s. Many giant sturgeon are featured on TV over the years. Remarkable fish, indeed.

And there’s the alligator gar, once considered trash, reviled, steadily elevated to sportfish supreme in part through efforts of the In-Fisherman staff. The uniquely compelling nature of the gator gar speaks for itself, but a fish once reviled still needs a champion willing to take a stand in its favor. And In-Fisherman has never been shy about that.

Carp, too, are championed for what they are: If not yet North America’s favorite sportfish, at least widely considered the world’s greatest sportfish. British anglers visit In-Fisherman to highlight advanced techniques. We also feature fishing for fish like the smallmouth buffalo. So many fish that get so little notice, so little time.

Inshore fishing enters the scene, as editors and In-Fisherman experts testify that many of the same techniques and tackle used for freshwater fish transfer easily to spectacular fishing for redfish and stripers, and even tarpon and sharks. We cast jigs for tarpon. There’s fishing for redfish in waters from South Carolina to Florida to Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Sharks, too, are part of the parade, as editors shoot some of the first shallow-water footage ever captured of fishing for black tips, lemons, and hammerheads.

Note, too, that before In-Fisherman there is no catfishing on TV. The vision is to bring catfishing into focus for millions of North American anglers. In-Fisherman chronicles the march of catfish anglers all along the road to the modern age of catfishing, beginning in part with In-Fisherman TV coverage, starting in the mid-1980s.

Many more show segments follow, like “Brush Cats,” in 1991. Blue catfish enter the scene in 1995. Flatheads get a heads up, along with plenty of coverage for North America’s favorite catfish, the channel cat. Dozens of catfish segments play forth—another pioneering moment for In-Fisherman TV.

On another level, the television fishing gets a creative touch in other important ways. From early on, the graphics that illustrate fishing techniques and fish location go through a steady evolution, the visuals helping anglers to quickly grasp points being made in the field.

In-Fisherman also is among the first to bring underwater footage to bear. When diving and shooting proves too time consuming and cumbersome, underwater housings with plexiglass viewing portals are built to hold and protect cameras.

And, uniquely, in each In-Fisherman office over the years there’s a dedicated “tank room,” with a 2,500-gallon tank with thick glass windows housed in concrete. Here, sets depicting underwater situations are built and then fish added to facilitate the creation of underwater footage.

Always on the cutting edge of what’s happening on scientific fronts, In-Fisherman is the first to embrace coverage of radio-tracking studies to reveal the nature of various fish species, how they travel, where they live, and how they feed. Coverage of one of the first of those plays in 1991. The revelations are truly revolutionary.

In-Fisherman’s longstanding commitment to conservation also takes center stage, having long covered topics relative to the future of fishing. Television, for example, helps educate anglers about the benefits of catch-and-release fishing, until in 1990, we suggest a more sophisticated or nuanced approach. The concept of selective harvest embraces the release of larger, less abundant fish to sustain great fishing, while we continue a tradition of harvesting some fish, generally smaller more abundant fish, for the table. It’s a concept that’s now embraced across North America.

And so much more. Perhaps this helps to capture the nature of the endeavor, the quest, and In-Fisherman’s commitment to it on your behalf. For the past 20 years, In-Fisherman editors and field editors are the hosts of In-Fisherman TV. We embrace a straightforward format that promises viewers three different fish species from three different parts of North America on each show.

Science continues to play a vital role, always a backdrop to the extensive field experience that one of the most talented and experienced staffs in all outdoors brings to the scene. The quest to offer North America visionary, educational, and entertaining television fishing footage continues, as we head down the road to another 40 years.

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