Locals make TV splash
“Seasons On the Fly” may be the first cable TV fishing show in which a Few fish is better than a bunch.
Greg Heister, Spokane’s multitalented TV personality, has launched a weekly Northwest travel and fly-fishing program that regularly features Mark Few, the Gonzaga University men’s basketball coach and one of the most recognized names in the region.
“Mark and I have been fishing together for about eight years, so he ends up on a lot of programs,” said Heister, the play-by-play announcer for GU men’s hoops and Shock football.
“The last thing I wanted to do was another fishing show with two guys in boat catching fish after fish. These are more documentary-style, with pretty photography, focusing on the history of the river and the fish we are catching and the flies we are using. It’s more of a deeper, romantic look at what the fly-fishing experience is all about.”
Heister has filmed 15 shows – 10 of which include Few in the cast – and plans to produce about 20 a year to be rotated weekly on Fox Sport Northwest (FSN).
The shows include rainbow fishing on Montana’s Bighorn River, steelheading on the Grande Ronde River, cutthroat fishing on British Columbia’s Elk and Wigwam rivers, and various salmon, trout and steelhead adventures in Alaska.
Today’s scheduled program on fishing for silver salmon on the Kodiak Island road system is one of the most visually stunning shows in the lineup, Heister said.
Filming in the wet, wild environment of trout and steelhead is not a cakewalk, Heister said.
“This project almost had an early death on the very first shoot,” he recalled.
“We flew into this remote place on Alaska’s Situk River near Yakutat, unloaded in a Forest Service cabin, put on our waders and hiked up the river.
“We had to cross the river 2 miles upstream, and being 6-foot-6, I wade a lot of places without giving it much thought. But I look back in time to see my photographer go down in the river with the camera and everything.”
Just like that, the show was in the hole thousands of dollars and in a remote location for a week with a pile of ruined production gear.
“We’ve been pretty lucky and clean since then,” Heister said.
North Idaho’s homegrown fly-fishing outfitter Joe Roope Jr. does much of the tutorial in programs on the Coeur d’Alene, St. Joe and Clark Fork rivers.
“Guides are there for their expertise on the rivers, but we’re all fishing together,” Heister said. “They’re on the show to catch fish.”
As the series develops, anglers will be able to log on to Heister’s Web site and learn how to tie the fly patterns used to catch fish on the show.
“Seasons On the Fly” seeks to portray the year-round cycle of Northwest’s best fisheries. The goal if fulfilled on some rivers, such as the Bighorn, when Heister can get back in spring, summer, fall and even in the nasty weather of winter to document the changes in the fishery and the fishing.
“The Kenai River is a different character, sterile in spring, full of salmon in summer and fall producing a massive food source for rainbow trout,” Heister said.
But some rivers don’t fit the four-season model so well, he said, noting, “I’m not going to waste time on the Methow in the winter catching whitefish.”
Ouch. Did we detect a little species snobbery there?
“Hey, if a fish will eat a fly – bass, carp, whatever – we’ll do a show on it,” he said.
But so far, trout, steelhead and salmon are the stars.
Heister, 40, has nearly 20 years of video production experience ranging from his sports and outdoor programs for Alaska television and Spokane’s KHQ-TV to his Iditarod sled-dog racing productions for the Discovery Channel.
“I hire a cameraman and do everything else myself,” he said, noting that his production experience helps distinguish ‘Seasons On the Fly’ from other outdoor sports programs. “Everything is high-definition, with a lot of underwater photography.”
But most important, he said, is that he’s been a lifelong fisherman.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I’m a great fan of Curt Gowdy’s American Sportsman. I hope people view the shows and see me as delivering the river experience rather than just being a guy who gets to go out fishing.”