After reading a few comments and threads on FishingMagic’s forums about all of the supposedly nefarious means that go into making angling TV programmes it made me laugh as to how out of touch with reality most people really are.
Before I go into my own personal experiences think to yourself, what is it that you want from an angling TV programme? Do you want a warts and all programme that could include no fish at all, or do you want the programme to be entertaining with reality adhered to as much as possible?
There are reasons for asking that question. If a programme is going to go out on terrestrial TV, or even on a main satellite station such as Discovery, the emphasis for those making the programme will favour the second type of programme as anyone could, in theory, tune into that programme as it is not on a dedicated sports/angling channel. Only on a dedicated station would the warts and all type of angling programme be acceptable as the preconception would be that on such a station only more hardcore viewers would be tuning in. So, with that in mind where you watch your programme may be just as important as to who and what is in it in order to satisfy your preference.
As anglers first and foremost we always want the programme we make to be as true to life as possible but you learn that it is depending on the target audience and, of course, how filming goes on the day is the key as to how close to reality the finished programme actually is.
To put that into context let’s take a look at what, to me, is the absolute pinnacle of angling TV ‘A Passion for Angling’ (PFA).
PFA went along the lines of telling a story, warts and all, however it told the story over a long time scale, the shortest filmed episode being one week at Redmire; other programmes in the series took years to produce and in that time the odds were that with two great anglers in the shape of Bob James and Chris Yates they would get the result at some point and, with the exception of salmon, they did.
Of course filming this way is ludicrously expensive and has to be as much a labour of love as a programme that will make anyone any money, few other programmes are made with that luxury and have to balance the two.
So to my own experiences in front of the lens starting back at the very first time I was asked to appear on a programme, that being ‘The Compleat Angler’ that appeared on the Sky Home and Leisure Channel. The chance to appear came about through the Angler’s Mail who recommended me to the producers when they were looking for someone to catch them a zander for the programme. However there were a few guidelines that we needed to adhere to for filming which were to say the least a little on the ‘problematical’ side!
• We needed to fish in the day when we were enduring a very Indian Summer
• Fishing couldn’t start before 9am and ideally be finished at 5
• We couldn’t fish anywhere where there was any background noise, which ruled out large chunks of fen drains or rivers as they have roads run close by
• We couldn’t use livebait on screen
Well, talk about going out with one hand tied behind your back! There really was only one option if we were actually going to show a zander on screen and that was to make sure we had one to hand in advance, and that meant going out and fishing the night before and keeping a zander tubed up just in case, as I suspected, we struggled to catch any zander during the actual filming window.
To cut a long story short we did indeed struggle during the day to catch zander as the start of the day in particular was very warm and sunny. The presenters, Ray Borras and Geoffrey Palmer, were great and really helped me through it and I quickly found I enjoyed the whole experience, but all we caught was a very small jack pike – which clearly wasn’t enough.
It then came to decision time; we could either have a genuine programme where we tried and struggled and we ultimately failed or we could fake the catching of a zander to show one on screen. Now, remember what I said at the start about where the programme was shown being important, as such it was decided that we really needed to get a zander on screen. So it was with a little bit of jiggery-pokery and two Tesco milk cartons tied to the end of a rod and a cleverly positioned zander in the net that we got a couple of shots of a zander being ‘played’ and going into the net. Most importantly to my mind at a time when zander rarely got much press we got to show them in a good light.
As it happened later in the day, as we leap frogged down the river and the weather had changed to pouring rain, Geoffrey actually managed to catch a schoolie genuinely caught fair and square, so that balanced things up a little.
So that was my experience and my one and only experience where we had to fabricate something for the cameras.
I should say here and now that none of us wanted to go down that route but we had a one day slot and what was to be on that day was to be. However that was just one programme, I have since gone on to do over twenty programmes, some presenting, some as segments for other programmes and in all of that time the only thing that was not exactly how it happened was on a boat shoot with Nige Williams on the River Severn.
Here we had two cameras, one aboard the boat with us and one on the bank, because of this when I did catch a decent zander from the boat we couldn’t get good shots on both cameras as the boat cameraman would have been seen from the bank. The bank shots took precedence in this instance but to add variety we added a couple of shots where I was actually bending into a cup tied to the line…but the capture was 100% genuine, as everything since has been.
As my filming career has moved on I have ventured away from just single day shoots but funnily enough, with the exception of a week on the River Ebro, the longer sessions proved to be every bit as problematical as the day shoots in their own way.
My first two day filming slot was also the only time that I pre-baited an area before fishing it for the cameras and as I watched the clear patch I was baiting go from the size of a laptop to the size of a Ford Fiesta, so my confidence for the shoot grew. We were at Fenland Fisheries in Cambs to catch catfish and seemed to be on a winner until, that is, the skies literally fell in. We then had two days solid of torrential rain that cooled the water enough to put the cats off and, though in many ways we still got a good programme as I managed to catch a 38lb carp on a livebait and my mate Richard had a 9lb zander, it lacked a certain feline presence!
The worst of all was also to feature Richard as the star guest and when we started we thought it was going to be so very easy.
The programme was a trip to Norway in search of pike and we had been sponsored by the Norwegian travel company Dintur for the trip. As such we expected that we were going to be put onto some great pike fishing and we were gagging at the bit to go. I had researched the water that we were due to go to and it really looked like we were going to have a great time as it was a noted pike water for fish of all sizes and it looked stunning.
Then we got the bombshell dropped upon us: Ian, the Dintur representative, was taking a friend of his with us too. This meant that the number in the party rose from five to six and as the accommodation the company had at Ransjfjorden, where we were due to go, only held five, so we were instead switching to a place called Sperellin. That in itself may not have been too bad aside from the fact that I could find out nothing about the place, other than it was the 17th largest lake in Norway! Ian assured us that we would have a local guide who would help us out and all would be well…stupidly I trusted him on that!
Without going into too much detail things went wrong from the very start. First off the boats we had been provided with went varied from a barely adequate cruiser to downright dangerous small lake boats. Only the cruiser had an echo sounder fitted, essential kit when you are fishing a glacial lake with depths down to 300ft. Accessing the boats was something else too, involving traversing a bit of 4 x 2 inch plank on a swaying dock, something best done on a clear head and it was incredible that not one of us went in over the course of the week, but it was bloody close!
Worse was to follow as the guide was ill for the first three days and by the time that he became available we had pretty much found the fish anyway, 17 kilometres from where the boat was moored at the other end of the lake involving a trip of over an hour on the big boat and nearly two on the smaller ones!
We did, in the end, manage a few decent pike over the last few days, including a twenty and a near miss, but as we found out from one of the locals pike had only been in the lake for 15 years and any caught by the locals were destined for the pot. Not really the best place to take a group to show them the best of Norwegian piking! We had anticipated making three or four films over the course of the week; we just managed two, so it shows that not everything goes right all the time!
Of course sometimes you do get lucky and there have been many other occasions when we got the programmes together very quickly, in fact it has to be said that generally speaking I have been lucky in my time in front of the camera, landing most of the time what was required straight off the bat.
Two occasions particularly stand out on that front: the time that I was asked by Sky Sports Tight Lines to catch a double figure zander in mid winter, in the daylight. I didn’t quite get the double but was only 6oz short and in just a couple of hours to boot; a fact very much appreciated by the producer who was freezing!
The other time we got it spot on was when I was asked to do a DVD on Fenland piking. I was co-presenting with Chris Ponsford and after blanking on the first day on a certain ‘banker spot’, we went onto the Sixteen Foot Drain, not an easy task at the best of times and had a seventeen pounder, followed by a twenty one pounder both to Chris whilst I managed a number of jacks and a twenty three pounder on the Sunday! As if things couldn’t get any better, when we returned the next week, this time to the Twenty Foot Drain just to finish off the DVD Dave, the crew gopher, managed to pull out a 26 pounder – a huge fish for the fens at any time!
Since that first foray in front of a camera I have been involved with in excess of 20 other programmes and nothing has been faked, we have either caught or we haven’t, but mostly we have caught and I firmly believe that 99.9% of other programmes are filmed in the same manner. So let’s take a final look at the most commonly made accusations about fishing programmes and hopefully dispel the myths from the facts once and for all.
“It’s alright for those TV anglers, they have access to waters that no one else can get to”
Well in all the programmes that I have done, we have gone to a private water just once, that water is now an open syndicate that anyone can join. The vast majority of my programmes were filmed on day ticket and free sections of river or open access lakes available on a club book or day ticket.
“It’s alright for those TV anglers, they get the best swims reserved for them”
Filming angling programmes costs a lot of money. If the viewer wants the angler on TV to fish the same waters as he does he has to accept that you cannot take the risk of there being no swims available. I have had swims reserved for me twice, both on DVD shoots, both times we caught better when we moved elsewhere!
“It’s alright for those TV anglers, they have swims baited for them for weeks ahead”
This isn’t beyond the wit of anyone to do, in fact I know most serious specimen hunters do the same, however with travelling all over the country to film, it’s not particularly likely on a regular basis. We did it once and it really didn’t work and have never bothered again.
“It’s ok for those TV anglers, they can go back and back again until they get it right”.
I would hope by now that you will realise this is just not financially viable on 99.9% of angling series. One or two days maximum is most common – about the same amount of time that any angler may be able to fish at the weekend.
“Those TV anglers have other anglers there and they hand over anything that they catch”
I’ve never seen this done and I certainly haven’t done it myself.
Maybe over the course of reading this I have changed your minds about what really goes on around the camera in the course of making your favourite shows…?
