Fish Killer!

Television is a powerful medium. It has the capacity to reach large numbers of people, and in a manner that solicits a tangible response. We’ve discovered this for ourselves over the past two years of airing our TV show, The New Jersey Angler Video Magazine. One of the major differences between television and other mediums like print, is that it tends to reach a broader, but less predictable audience. While the New Jersey Angler Magazine is read pretty much entirely by people who fish regularly, the New Jersey Angler Video Magazine is watched by people from all walks of life, with levels of interest in angling ranging from absolutely none to plenty.

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that we get a fair amount of off-the-wall viewer feedback, especially compared to that which we receive from our print magazine. But to be honest, there isn’t anything that could have prepared me for the steady stream of criticism that has come from the non-fishing, or perhaps better said “anti-fishing” public. There isn’t a show that airs that doesn’t result in at least a few phone calls or emails from “accidental” viewers who are outwardly upset, appalled even, by the unbridled joy we exhibit when we’re engaged in battle with one of Mother Nature’s piscatorial denizens. At first, the response was shocking to me. Now that I’ve come to expect it, I am beginning to have fun with it.

Such was the case this past week. We aired “No Bones About It”, which was an episode filmed this past July at the Tolten Lump. The show is primarily about light tackle trolling for bonito, but ends on a surprising note with the landing of a 40-pound cobia that decided to commit suicide by eating a mini Green Machine pulled behind a Boone bird. For whatever reason, the show was especially offensive to the “fish huggers”, as they’ve come to be known around our office. Maybe it had to do with images of a blood-strewn deck, or a sloppy gaff shot that resulted in a nastier-than-usual struggle to get the cobia into the boat. Regardless, the first call came in even before the episode was over.

“I was wondering…,” said the female voice on the other end, “…if the gentlemen in the television show have any respect for the magnificent creatures they are mercilessly torturing.”

Every time I get such a call, which is pretty often these days, I find myself wondering how the legendary Ted Nugent would respond. Every so often, I attempt to go into a long “Nuge-style” soliloquy about our biological needs, our innate rights, our pre-programmed drive to hunt in order to sustain ourselves and provide for our families, but such a response never works for me; I’m just nowhere near as intelligent, quick witted, or well-spoken as the renowned sportsman. So, I usually try to be polite and end the call as quickly as possible, which is sometimes difficult given the tendency of the fish huggers to have an opinion on everything. In this particular instance, it was a call on another line that gave me an excuse to abruptly end the conversation.

I eagerly clicked over to the second caller. “New Jersey Angler Magazine…how can I help you?”

The response on the other end was so sudden and so loud that I nearly dropped the phone.

“Fish Killer…Fish Killer…Fish Killer!” Click.

It was several minutes before I stopped laughing and regained my composure enough to even consider what had just transpired. Was this some sort of joke, or is it actually possible that there are people out there who are so sheltered, so naïve, so misguided, that an image of a person killing a fish for food could solicit such an emotional response?

I could go into the whole “fishing defense” conversation, but that isn’t needed here; as a New Jersey Angler reader, you undoubtedly have the same basic understanding of the natural world that I do. Instead, I’d like to use this as an opportunity to draw attention to something that, as a community, we sometimes forget. It is the fact that society is full of misguided individuals who lack our level of understanding of the natural way of things. These people will never understand why we fish and why we hunt. They cannot comprehend how our “kind” possesses a respect for the creatures of this Earth that far surpasses theirs. Their perspective has been betrayed by their only real interface with the natural world – their television sets - and the associated liberal media that controls how this interface functions.

So, they will continue to support PETA and various Pew-sponsored organizations. They will continue to sue the Federal Government over its fisheries policies in an effort to get us off the water. They will continue to attempt to close large swaths of the ocean to fishing effort. They will continue to see us in only one way…as “Fish Killers”.

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