Hall of Liars

[grouse]

I just stumbled across this site, and thought gee, Don sort of got me into freshwater fishing. I grew up in nw york city, back in the eighties,but i had a cool pond to fish in on long island. Anyway, i didnt think NY had any good freshwater fishing. Boy was i wrong. At a time when the area i lived in had no cable. Dons fishing show was the ONLY fishing show i got to watch on PBS. I saw him fishing small ponds, streams, and then larger bodies of water all in NY state. and Pa. too. I fondly remember learing about casting rubber frogs for pickerel. Hey i tried it, and it worked. Don seemed to have such a gentle nature to himself, and a humble heart. anyway great show and great guy good to see he is still working it!

[billhaenel]

I owe quite a bit of my love for fishing to Don as well, grouse. Fishing has been the great thing that got me through lots of not so great things during my lifetime, and I can honestly say that I would not have the appreciation for it that I do had I not found Don on WPBS as a youngster.

We only had three channels, and one of them was French-language TV from Canada! The other two were both out of Watertown, NY, one of those being WNPE/WNPI. If it wasn't for Don's show, there really wouldn't have been fishing on TV for me.

I confess though, that I remember all of the parts of the show that weren't as much about fishing, more than I remember the parts that were! Don crawling through the grass and crouching in the middle of a path of Caribou was particularly unrelated to fishing, and yet somehow became a "fish story"!

I have my own stories of encounters with wildlife while on the water, one of which involved cows on an island in the St. Lawrence river rather than with caribou in Alaska.

[donmeissner]

I want to thank you Grouse for your kind comments. Feelings like those you expressed are the greatest reward I could ever receive from the opportunity to share my love of the outdoor world with others. My contention has always been that it doesn't matter where we live: there is usually someplace to go fishing, and even spending time on a small urban pond can have its own special meaning. I guess my goal has always been to try to get folks to see that fishing can be a way to discover a greater meaning and joy in life.

We have lots of interesting plans for this site, and believe it can become a continuation of the direction that was began with the show. Stay with us and always feel encouraged to add anything you feel might benefit others.....Don

[mark]

Don, I am so excited to have found this site. Your show on PBS back in the 90's was the only fishing show I would watch! I was so tired of the hosts with the expensive boats and tackle I could never afford and they would travel to places I didn't have the money to go to! Then one day I saw this mild mannered guy fishing out of a COLEMAN CRAWDAD and fishing water near where he lived, I was hooked!!! Sadly a few years later and IOWA PBS stopped running your show. Will you please consider posting your old shows on this site, or offering them for sale for a reasonable price? Thanks for the memorys.(I went out and bought a crawdad) Mark.[/b]

[gadabout]

I'm also very happy to have found this site. I started watching Rod & Reel Streamside when it first started and continued to watch it religiously for many years. Sadly, the local PBS station here on Long Island eventually stopped airing the show and I have been "Don-less" ever since. Fortunately I recorded many of the shows on my VCR and still have them.

As a direct result of R & R Streamside, I would make the long trip from Long Island to the Watertown area every fall when I was still single so I could fish some of the waters I would see on the show.

One thing I always wanted to know was who played the great jazz guitar that was used as the background music in the early years of the show? I've always loved it. I'm listening to it right know as I type this in fact.

[tom]

I also need to chime in here. I am from Minnesota and I haven't seen Streamside on TV in some time. I have an old VHS tape with an early 90's episode where Don, in the rain, has many difficulties including wrapping his fly line in the trolling motor and getting two lines badly tangled together. BUT in the process he catches a few amazing brookies. I didn't know at the time how great those fish were.

I watch the tape every few years when I rediscover it. It's great to see Don's sense of awe or the fish and sense of humor for everything else. I miss that show (and the opening music)

I'll keep checking back in on the site here!

[Scott S]

I read this thread. And I can relate. For the most part. I started watching Rod and Reel, with Bill Saiff. I watched back in the late 70's, yea 5 stations and one was Canadian, chanel 8. I saw the stocking of Kings in 78, and the fish ladder built for those Kings to run up. And I did make it up to the Black river in 1982, what a kick in the pants. I'll never forget it. You could feel the excitement in the air, it was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I remeber when Stream Side started, it was a simple mans show. No big rigged out Boston Whaler, with graphs and down rigger, kicker motors and all that head acke. Small streams and rivers with waders and drift boats. I grew up with one of those rivers in my back yard, I had it good.

I moved out to Arizona in 86 and all but gave up on fishing. This isn't fishing, New York is FISHING! My oldest daughter loves to fish, and we've been fishing together for the past 5 years, mostly trout in the White mountains. Last year she caught a nice 10 pound rainbow. I joined a bass club in December and will be fishing my very first tourney this month, yes we fish all year out here. Thank you Don, thank you for keeping the work that you and Bill started years ago alive and well today.


Scott

[Dave Swanson]

Having moved to "the North Country" some 38 years ago, I too started fishing some of the local waters whenever I could - then one day, I stumbled across Don's show on PBS and there he was, fishing one of the exact spots that I frequented (but not with the success he was having). I became "hooked" on the show and think I watched most of them at one time or another. Then, I was given the opportunity to meet Don and since, have become good friends. That said, we have been collaborating lately and over the past 5 or so years, we have accumulated quite a bit of footage of fishing the local waters and have started recently posting some of those videos on the site. We hope you have the chance to look at some of the videos and hope you enjoy them as much as we did filming them. I have to admit that it has been a learning process - both in terms of shooting video and editing - and I hope you will bear with us as we work our way through this process. We'd love to hear what you think.

[Ragincajun]

I think the videos are great. They are right on the waters that I have fished for years as well. And just as you said, with more success. I can't help smiling to see that others too, find themselves unprepared after catching a muskie. I too have had the experience of wishing I brought a net.

I notice the date on the site is when the video was posted. It would also be nice to learn the time of year when the video was taken. Also, I can't help but want to buy a "wobble " lure now. More info on how and where would be great as well. Thanks

Keep the videos coming. I enjoy and look forward to them.

[Dave Swanson]

The bigger muskie was caught on August 14 and the smaller was caught on September 17. As for future videos, I am editing a number of them for Don with periodic postings planned. Sometimes two in a week will be posted (one with notification and one without) Not sure everyone wants to see emails from the site too frequently. I usually upload video with Don's text on Fridays sending the email notification then, but sometimes add another during the week - so stop back to check! Unlike the video editors at PBS, this is not my day job and I am learning as I go along, so from time to time you may see some experimentation with placement of logo, special effects, etc. Any comments are encouraged and welcome - if you see something you like or dislike let me know.

[cheaproomd]

I guess my goal has always been to try to get folks to see that fishing can be a way to discover a greater meaning and joy in life.




replica Ed Hardy

[chiclothe]

The bigger muskie was caught on August 14 and the smaller was caught on September 17


Cheap Korean Clothes