My gripe of the month

[BSwan]

I used to really love watching TV fly fishing shows early on Saturday or Sunday morning. It was such a nice partial antidote to the long wait of winter. But now too many of those shows, regardless of the beautiful fish and exotic stunning locations, are too hard to handle. It's that wall of sound! Why does hooking and fighting a noble trout need ramped up guitar playing to make it more real? It's exciting enough. The shows are targeted at us fly fishers who appreciate what we are seeing. But who knows, perhaps fly fishers of the future will expect that prime beats on stretches of pristine "private" water have theater quality sound systems installed high up the opposite riverbank. Or maybe a mobile media truck that follows close behind playing loud music while also providing cell phone and internet access from its satellite antenna.

Please all, forgive the ramblings of this "old f**t" who's now resigned to the cooking channel. But really!

[Panman]

Agree. But what gets my goat even more is the excessive amount of commercials. It has got to the point that I seldom watch the shows and if I do the mute button gets a workout.

Tim

[rizeye]

it's all about hype and the upscale locations at an upscale lodge. hardly ever see anything for the DIY avg Joe. I guess that's not exciting enough to get sponsers. oh and it seems to be a 1/2 hr commercial for all the products the host uses. starting to look like a NASCAR driver or BASS fisherman with all the logos displayed nowadays.

[Shadow]

The question is: If you were doing the show would you chose to do one about the average "Joe" or one about a fancy location considering you will stay in a Great lodge for free and get a truck load of great stuff...... money drives the boat!!

[Buddy Sanders]

They use the music to cover the awful language the fishermen are spewing while fighting the fish? They want to appeal to a younger demographic and beleive that the music will help with that? Maybe, since it's obvious that the folks that work for the fly fishing shows are not at the top end in the world of production staffs, they use the music to easily cover up the poor sound quality caused by an angler that's moving around while fighting a fish? Or maybe it's easier and cheaper to just dub in the music than to take the time to properly edit the sound?

Most of these shows are extremely 'low budget'. The advertisers pay for the show, the audience is not where the money is in this industry. The majoriy of the host's time is spent getting sponsors rather than worrying about production issues. Does anyone else notice that the production values are outstanding during the portion of the shows where the 'host' is talking about the sponsors or their products?

I'm just thankful that we HAVE a few fly fishing shows, but I am a bit sick of the 'travel log' type shows. These seem more a 'look where I get to fish' and few of the shows try to teach anything. FlyFish TV (Kelly Gallop<sp?>) does do some instructional stuff and it's good to see it. Some day I hope a good host will decide to host a fly fishing show that runs itself along the lines of hte Bill Dance model...you seldom know where he's fishing, he just shows you how to catch fish with a certain technique or how to fish under certain conditions.

Buddy

[ducksterman]

Buddy, glad you mentioned Bill Dance so I can side track.....Are those Bill Dance foulups for real?

[chewydog]

Buddy, glad you mentioned Bill Dance so I can side track.....Are those Bill Dance foulups for real?

Don't know about all of them, but it seems it would be difficult to fake the hornets...

[BSwan]

... they use the music to easily cover up the poor sound quality caused by an angler that's moving around while fighting a fish?...

Buddy

But the music they use to cover the poor sound quality is akin to covering up a smelly 4 day old fish filet with a mixture of tobacco juice and Velveeta.

[nighthawk]

Buddy, glad you mentioned Bill Dance so I can side track.....Are those Bill Dance foulups for real?

I have one of his bloopers VHS tapes. Yes they are for real. Bill can cuss with the best of them espcially when he tangled eith the tre limb with a huge hornet nest on it. Also there was a show where he injured his knee on the trailer toungue. He had to have surgery so he was laid up for a while. Got to admit I really respect a man who got hurt for real but can still lagh at himself.

Bill's bloopers material are worth buying. If you like me you will feel for him when he gets into a situation you have been in before.

Here is a selection that will get you grinnin:

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/vid...nce%20bloopers


Have fun y'all!

[rainbowchaser]

Bob, you'll have to score a show to show them how it should be done. I vollenteer to go to Alaska and New Zeeland etc. and catch the fish for you. If you start fundraising now we should be able to start filming next spring.
edited to add: keep it simple. We won't be able to afford an entire symphony orchestra.