Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Wild Fish Wild Places was built starting in 2009, in the worst of the recession, by a former contractor who sold what he owned, moved into a paid-off house and worked for free to get in with people. The first years at the industry trade show ran at roughly a 99 percent rejection rate.
Dennis Isbister hosts Wild Fish Wild Places, a travel fishing television show, and fishes Pyramid Lake as his home water.
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How do you start a fishing TV show with no industry contacts?
The concept for Wild Fish Wild Places came out of conversations at Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan: a show that combined exotic travel and adventure with backyard fishing and how-to content, sitting between the pure adventure programming already on air and instructional shows. The path started in 2009, out of a contracting career, with borrowed money and handshake commitments, into an industry the host knew nothing about. The first two or three years at the industry trade show meant walking into a hall where nobody knew or cared who he was, and getting told to leave booths by people who had just lost most of their marketing budget.
What does it actually cost to chase a career in outdoor media?
The first question the host puts to anyone asking how to start a show is whether they can survive without a paycheck for a couple of years - and for most people the honest answer is no, because of a mortgage, a truck payment and a family. In his case it meant selling what he owned, moving into a house that was paid for, and driving a 1998 sedan for a couple of years while borrowing and getting by. He describes the ego hit as significant, coming out of a successful contracting career, and is blunt that the work is chosen for the lifestyle rather than the money.
Why fish Pyramid Lake with conventional gear instead of a fly rod?
Pyramid Lake is the host's home water and he fishes it both ways, but he prefers conventional tackle there for two reasons. The first is crowding - the tribe has closed many of the areas anglers used to spread out into, concentrating everyone onto perhaps 10 or 15 beaches. The second is variety: trolling opens up planer boards, flat lines, multiple depths and speeds and lure choices, and jigs and glide baits can be worked from a boat that crosses to water nobody else is on. The fish there also need baitfish to grow to the size they reach, which makes experimenting with how large a bait they will eat part of the appeal.
When does the chironomid fishing start at Pyramid Lake?
The midge fishing at Pyramid Lake kicks off in the weeks after the fish move shallow in early spring, and a run of warm days accelerates it. The host rates indicator fishing chironomids from a boat as more enjoyable than trolling for the same fish - but says it is neither as consistent nor as active for him at Pyramid as it is on the Kamloops-area lakes, where a good chironomid day means fish cruising with their mouths open and 40-fish counts. Cracking that pattern at Pyramid, he says, takes a partner willing to commit to figuring it out rather than defaulting to a jig or firing up the motor and catching fish immediately.
What is the fishing like on Lake Athabasca?
Lake Athabasca is one of the largest lakes in North America and has never been fished out, and the host has returned most years for well over a decade. It is a fly fisher's pike lake - big fish taken on stripped bunny leeches, and days where fish that would not touch a conventional lure ate a fly. The lake trout fishing is the other half: in September the big lakers move shallow and can be taken on a fly, and boating 60-plus lake trout in a day with a quarter of them over 25 pounds is not an unusual result. The scale is the limiting factor - there is more water than anyone can explore.
What happens when weather traps you on a remote northern lake?
On lakes this size the weather is the schedule. On one 18-day trip to a remote Northwest Territories lake southeast of Yellowknife, the crew had seven days of good fishing before an Arctic front moved in, flattened the barometer and never left - and they never caught another big fish. On Athabasca the exposed water where the big lake trout live is the first thing wind takes away, and anglers have spent unplanned nights on islands. Once, a float plane could not land in the crosswind and simply waved and left, leaving the crew to move their gear a mile down the shore to an old cabin and wait for the next day.
Where is a fishing show's audience going now?
Television as a delivery channel has been in steady decline for the entire life of the show, and the honest answer about five years out is that nobody knows whether it levels off or keeps sliding. The response has been to spread the content: streaming platforms and cable outlets in the US and Canada, a YouTube channel launched about ten months before this conversation that has done well with archive episodes and how-to content, and a behind-the-scenes podcast built around the filming stories that never make an episode. The stated five-year goal is the same quality of programming reaching more anglers through a bigger digital footprint.
Key takeaways
- Before starting an outdoor media career, ask whether you can carry two years with little or no income - most people cannot, and that is the honest filter.
- The show's first trade show years ran at roughly a 99 percent rejection rate; the 1 percent was what got built on.
- Pyramid Lake's closures have concentrated anglers onto roughly 10 to 15 beaches, which is a reason to consider fishing it from a boat.
- September is when the big lake trout on Lake Athabasca move shallow enough to take a fly.
- Sixty-plus lake trout in a day with a quarter of them over 25 pounds is a realistic Athabasca number, not an outlier.
- Plan remote northern trips around the possibility of losing a week to weather - and of spending an unplanned night ashore.
