Spokane pair continues TV ‘Experience’

A year ago, I wrote about two Spokane-area men who were up to their gills in a dream come true.

Seth Burrill was fishing for fun, fame and fortune, and Mickey Hough was working the camera and editing for a television angling show, “Angler’s Experience,” that debuted in this market last January.

Most dreams of this nature are short, if not nightmarish. But Burrill, 29, and Hough, 34, have been standouts among the casts of thousands trying to angle their way into the tube.

“We’re signed up for another season with Fox 28 and the Sportsman’s Channel and we’re ready to release our first instructional DVD with a program that’s scheduled to run on Christmas Day,” Burrill said recently from his Spokane Valley office.

Their success is bittersweet, especially for Burrill, who might be happiest if he were on the water seven days a week. Please excuse them if they’re late with the holiday greetings.

“Mickey’s been working 12- to 13-hour days, seven days a week lately just to keep on top of it,” Burrill said. “By Jan. 1, we have to complete four shows, build five commercials and launch the DVD.”

The local anglers have drifted into new waters where the only thing better than netting fish is landing a new sponsor.

“We have six major ones now – Oxarc, Lincoln Electric, EZ Loader, Crestliner, Honda Marine and Tobler Marina,” Burrill said. “That’s how we make a living.

“People think, ‘He’s on TV; he must be making a lot of money.’ Noooo. I have to pay $98,000 a year just for the air time. That has to be recouped with advertising and sponsors.”

“Angler’s Experience” keeps the overhead low. “We have just three employees,” he said. “Me, Mickey and my mom, who does the books.”

The show is broadcast in 47 states, 2,100 cities and it’s available to 14 million households, but that’s still a long way from the big time, he said. “The Outdoor Life Network is bigger, but I’d have to pay $10,000 a weekend to be there as opposed to the $2,000 or so we pay to be on the Sportsman’s Network, which is available only by satellite in some areas.”

In Spokane, “Angler’s Experience” is carried on KAYU Fox 28, where it has about 26,000 viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. “Other fishing programs didn’t even make the Nielsen book, so we’re proud of that,” he said.

All this attention on the bottom line hasn’t diverted Burrill’s focus from what’s attached to the fishing line.

Indeed, the lack of a lunker expense account forces Burrill to be a better angler and Hough to be sharper with the camera.

“Those big shows like “Bill Dance” might go out on location for five days to make a show,” Burrill said. “Mickey and I might have only Monday and Tuesday to make something happen.” That’s pressure fishing, maybe, but it also gives viewers a more realistic picture of the fishing experience.

Most of the programs are filmed at Burrill’s favorite fishing holes, which explains whey they rarely pinpoint the show’s locations.

The segments emphasize “how-to” rather than “where-to,” although local anglers might recognize places as close as Newman Lake, the Snake and Columbia rivers or the show’s closing shot with the boat running down the Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt.

The Christmas Day show will detail a fishing technique called “drop-shotting,” in which a sinker is tied to the end of the line and a plastic minnow is attached to a hook tied a few feet up. The technique isn’t new to the United States, but it’s become the rage since a Japanese angler wowed the pro bassing scene with a technique used routinely in his country’s crowded waters.

“I’ve found that you can use drop-shotting to target almost anything,” Burrill said. “Walleye, smallmouth, crappie and lake trout obviously, but also perch, bluegill, rainbow trout, ice fishing and in the ocean – it doesn’t matter.”

“The Angler’s Experience” has plenty in the can for 2006, including a show that details how they caught a 16-pound walleye. “From what we’ve heard, this could be the biggest walleye catch ever fully recorded on film,” Burrill said.

But for now, Burrill is plagued by the same woes suffered by nearly all anglers who have real jobs. Except for a brief North Idaho foray to check out the ice fishing last week, he’s been stuck in the office, waiting to enjoy his new Crestliner.

“But that’s all going to change in January,” Burrill said.

The show must go on.