Northwest Fishing TV Shows

Well it looks like another Northwest Fishing show has been removed from the air.
The best of “Fishing the West” ran on the Fox Sports Northwest channel for quite a long time but has now been take’ in off. I emailed their web site and they told me they had no plans to put it back on the air any time soon. They also said that the show was not available on DVD either. So I guess another one bites the dust.
I’m glad I got about 47 of these shows burned to DVD before they pulled the plug on them.
Hawg Quest seems to be the only Northwest Fishing show still being aired and I hope they stay around awhile.
I was going through some of my old VHS tapes and I found about 8 hours of a show from 1991 called “Fishing illustrated Northwest”. It was a cool show where they would have local fishing experts come in to their studio and demonstrate fishing techniques. I recall one of the guest was Dick Johnson of Kingston Tackle fame. I managed to get all of these programs edited down to two DVD’s.
The TV show that I would love to find, but it remains a mystery is the “Outdoors Sportsman” that stared Jim Conway. I would like to find out who hold the rights to these old films and push for them to release these to DVD.
Does anyone remember these old shows ?
Does anyone remember some other Northwest Fishing shows ?

Don
Pacific Northwest Fishing Golden Years (Web Site)

wow...very interesting...we missed Hawg Quest because some of our channels are not working due to the snow...i enjoyed watching the shows afterwords...we just got back from Mexico with the guys from Hawg Quest, that show should air in Jan i think...it was a blast!! too bad they are not showing that anymore...im not sure it was on last week after Hawg Quest...hope they have a few more NW Shows...c

I was wondering what happened to Fishing the West. Hawg Quest is all we have left and I look forward to watching it every Sunday that I am not out fishing.

I remember Conway's shows - Very long time ago, he huffed and puffed in the mike a lot which obviously left and impression on me since I still remember that a lot of us used to imitate him.

Anything we do to preserve the history of NW fishing is worthy of everyone's support. For every Conway, ther are 1000 others who we've lost without any documentation of their legacy. Other shows of that vintage - I don't remember any. Larry came later and was always a bit of a joke since he seemed like such a dweeb, but i still watched every one I could, so maybe I'm the dweeb.

From what I understand possibly Joe's or GI Joe's did not renew their sponsorhip for fishing the west? Might be a question for the new owners of Joes.

WOW I had not heard they got pulled thats to bad i just spoke with larry a few weeks ago.. That man is the reason I am here today and fishing for a living. I had the chance to guide him for a week this summer and is the coolest guy I have ever met.

Thanks for posting that site...very cool!

i would love to have your copys of dvd,s at any cost p.m. me thx

I remember ol' Jim Conway and the huffing and puffing in the mic, must have had a cardiac condition! I also remember him calling to his son, "Stevo", all the time. That show jump started my fishin' career and I remember ads for the show in my early Northwest Fishing Guide books.
I know it was a KOMO TV 4 show like some other classics. Here is a link below to Captain Puget who also did Exploration Northwest if you remember that one. I know Don McCune's wife Linda is still active and writes a column (can't remember her e-mail address). She also has all the tapes of shows Don did. But I bet if you contacted KOMO TV and got connected with their archives or somehow contacted Linda you could get some answers how to get access to Outdoor Sportsman.

http://historyink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3468

Don McCune's wife is at different boat shows and sportsman's shows with dvd copies of the programs. Don was Captain Puget when he had a kid's show in the '50's.
Has anyone seen the two Canadian women, shelley and Courtney, that have a fishing show? I don't know if they are still on or not up north, eh?
I watched them on cable when we lived in B'ham:
http://canoe.ca/catchfishing2007/shelley_courtney.html

shelley and Courtney Rock.

Sucks about fishing the west. Used to be a family tradition Sunday afternoons in Portland during the original airings when our whole family mom, five kids, dog and all would gather round the TV and watch that show. Was the seed for many a fishing trip.

On one of the Fishing the West shows that I did get to DVD, Larry’s guide for the show was Jim Conway, it was very cool to see him on TV again.
I have also got some old Salmon Trout & Steelheader magazine 1967-1968 time period where Jim wrote an article as well.
There was a book that Jim Conway came out with years ago on some of his fishing adventures TV shows. It is called “Fishin’ Holes” and there are quite a few used copies out there if someone is interested in getting one. You can send me an email through my web site link and I will see if I can locate one for you.

Pacific Northwest Fishing Golden Years (Web Site)

I remember Jim huff’in and puff’in as well back then, but if you saw a picture of the big old microphone he had to lug around his neck you would understand why, it looked like a studio microphone (old school style). Back in the 1960’s when they filmed this show there was not to much “portable equipment” available, so I guess they did the best they could with the stuff they had to use.
Jim was defiantly a pioneer in the field of TV fishing Shows.
Exploration Northwest was another great show with host Don McCune, I think I have all of the shows available of his that involves fishing.
I do see his wife at most of the Sportsman shows and it’s fun to talk with her.
My next door neighbor worked with Don down at KOMO back in the 50’s and 60’s and he has shown me some great rare footage that he had take’ in of Don..

I just checked "Hawg Quest's"Schedule. It does not reflect the show being aired on Wednesdays. I could swear, I heard Glenn say they were going to also being aired , 2200, Wednesdays. I think, I heard him say this on NW CAll of the
Wild, last Saturday. morning.

Ramrod,

I think that Wally Pease in Yakima did a show for a while some years ago.

Linda should be at the Evergreen Sportsman's Show in Monroe in late February.

Seems to me that she has a web site, which I'm sure would show up in an internet search. It probably is http://www.donmccune.com?

I have a few copies of Fishing Holes Magazine from the early 1980 that I'd be happy to give you for your collection.

I also have several issues of Western Outdoors from the mid to late 1960's that contain PNW articles which I wrote when I was a contributor and field editor so many years ago. I wouldn't want to part with those, but I could scan some of the articles and make PDF files which I could burn a CD for your historical collection.

HQ multi airs start in Jan I believe

Oh yes ! Fishing Holes magazine, I’ve got to tell you a short story.
I subscribed to a local Magazine from out of Duval I believe that was called "FISHING MAPS & SUCH" in the early 70’s. I paid for a year’s subscription of it and the damn thing went out of publication leaving me high and dry.
Within a year or two after that happened this "NEW" Magazine called "Fishing Holes" started out with the same Editor and owner that "FISHING MAPS & SUCH" had.
Well I was down at the Seattle Sportsman Show and low and behold "Fishing Holes" had a booth there. I ripped into the Editor about getting ripped off on his earlier publication, well I guess it worked cause he gave me a free one year subscription to "Fishing Holes".
I guess it pay to bitch a little.
I still have my copies of "FISHING MAPS & SUCH" and they seem to be a very rare collectors piece.
Anyone else out there ever see or have any of these ?

I don't think that John Thomas, Terry Sheely and Milt Kaiser actually owned Fishing Maps, but were the staff.

After it folded they started Fishing Holes on their own, but it struggled financially from the get-go and eventually they had to sell ownership to pay the printing bill.

It struggled along under new ownership (twice) until finally folding.

It seems to me that Dave Vedder's first magazine article was done for Fishing Holes.

John Thomas passed away from cancer several years ago. He was working for Luhr-Jensen at the time. Milt Kaiser is retired and living in Carnation. Terry Sheely is still one of the PNW's most active writers and publisher of the Washington State Fishing Guide.

I loved the Fishin Holes magazine when I was growing up in the 1980s. Very nice articles, especially salt and freshwater writeups for the bankbound angler.

Sebastes: I remember your lure company from the about the same time in the 1980s. The "balanced" jighead for bottomfish with curltail worm (it would stand upright while sinking) was the first lure that I ever owned--I got it through some sort of free offer ad in the Fishin Holes magazine, I think. I also remember getting other free Sebastes jig heads/worms through ads in the magazine.

I love this topic! I am always on the lookout for old books that capture the "glory days" of sports fishing. Here are some that I have:



I have a pretty complete STS going back to 1977 and have Fishing Holes back from Volume 1. We could probably put a pretty good show among all of us.

eddie: you have got some great stuff there. I also have the "Pacific Northwest Steelhead" magazine from 1955. It has the earliest Fenwick ad in it that I have ever seen.
Another great story in it is about Buzz Fiorini with his limit of BC Steelhead, an 18.5 pound, 20 pound and 21.5 pound fish. not a bad day on the river.
I have attacted a link if you would like to read a little more on the birth of Fenwick.

I just set my DVR to record all of the HQ episodes. It airs most Sundays at 9:30 on FSN.

The Hawg Quest shows that have been on lately are new ones. If they keep showing the new ones, I should have my 9th DVD made up soon for that show. I record the show in the SP mode which will record about 2 Hr & 7 min on a DVD-R. It is a tight fit, but with all the commercials cut out, I get 6 shows on to one disk.
Hawg Quest does make their shows available on DVD, but I'm not sure how many they have done so far.
I think that I have over 50 shows of theirs in my collection so far but I'm only recording them for the Guitar work they have on the sound track.........NOT..........hee hee hee

ramrodncf : You had better luck with the guy at the Fishing Holes booth than I did. He made promises but I never received another magazine.. I tried hard to get that magazine with negative results.. I had to buy at cover price on news stands.