Is There Any Such Thing as “Must See” Fishing TV?

I’ve been home quite a bit over the past few weeks and I’ve had my DVR working overtime to help me catch up on fishing TV. I’ve “taped” dozens of shows and tried to work my way through a representative sample – freshwater, saltwater, tournament coverage, travel, fly fishing – forcing myself to watch at least 10 minutes of each before I made a conclusion.

And here’s what I’ve learned. Most of it sucks. 

I’d guesstimate that 90 percent of fishing television is effectively unwatchable. Another 5 percent is tolerable. And perhaps 5 percent is good or great. That’s a really bad batting average.

Over that same time period, I also watched a lot of YouTube content. Now, if you look at the entire universe of YouTube (random home videos, investing scams, crappy music videos, even most fishing coverage) there’s lots of junk there, too, but at the same time I found some content that was incredibly creative and compelling. I subscribed to some new channels, anxious to see or hear what they’ll produce next. Much of it was fishing content. And unlike television, where they cram a lot of advertorial junk into a predetermined (usually 22 minute) time block, on YouTube you can go as long or as short as you want. 

In either case, the goal should be some combination of the following: educate me, entertain me, sell me something. The best of the best does all of those, with the commercial part being the least obvious. But on television, most of the programming puts sponsor advertising first and foremost. Sometimes it’s their sole focus. That rarely sells anything 

I’m particularly interested in fishing travel shows, many of which are sponsored by a lodge or convention bureau – and yet very rarely do I leave one independently convinced that it’s someplace I should go. They spend time talking to lodge owners, or dwelling too long on a single inconsequential fish fight, and I lose interest. For all meaningful purposes, fishing television hasn’t moved on from what it was in the 1980s – land of the hard sell. Except now we have more organic ways to sell, more outlets to learn about products, and we’re more wary of the actors. In effect, that means we’ve taken a step backwards.

Obviously, there must still be some value in having a TV show versus putting your content exclusively on YouTube. Either the time costs less today or the ROI has otherwise stayed strong. But today I will sit down and probably watch a good dose of YouTube fishing content and I will watch exactly zero fishing television. There’s a good chance I’ll order a product or two, possibly based on something I saw in one of those videos. That should be a warning to producers and marketing managers everywhere.