By Spencer Grant, Special to the Independent
Laguna’s Michael Fowlkes – filmmaker, U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain, environmentalist, and lifelong sport fisherman – has just released a four-year labor of love: his 12-part streaming video, “The History of Sportfishing.”
Chapters include “the Bite,” “From Survival to Sport,” “In Search of Giants,” “The Competitive Edge,” and, finally, “Conservation and the Future of the Sport.”
“I did the cinematography, editing, narration, and I co-wrote it,” he explained. “We’ve covered everything from the 38th parallel in Canada, all the way down to Australia – everything from a 6-pound freshwater bass to a 600-pound marlin.”
A niche project? Maybe not. According to “The Bite,” the first entry in the series, 50 million Americans – 260 million worldwide – are licensed fishermen. But even if fishing isn’t your thing, there’s a lot to like in Fowlkes’ project.
Most important for fishermen and non-fishermen alike is the series’ theme of environmental responsibility. “Sportfishing is under attack in California,” said Fowlkes. “Bottom line, the sport is under threat by some well-intentioned and very well-funded extreme environmentalists who don’t know the difference between sportfishing and the unsustainable wholesale commercial harvesting techniques that are raping our oceans. They spread their nets for 30 miles, and anything that swims gets caught. It’s wholesale slaughter. For every fish that’s marketable, they kill 90 others.
Sportfishing anglers have led conservation efforts since the late 1890s. The message we try to convey throughout the entire series is that fishing is a part of America’s soul, and you simply cannot hurt a fishery with a rod, a reel and a piece of string.”
He cautioned, “There’s always been the attitude that there’s an unlimited amount of fish out there, but in 1985, the world reached its pinnacle of sustainability. Meantime, the population has gone from 3 billion to 8 billion. People need protein, but it needs to be done in a way that’s sustainable.”
The series delves deep into the history of the sport, starting with the ancient world before moving on to fishing in the Far East, Egypt, and eventually America.
“One of the most fascinating facts is that our country’s founding forefathers were all fly fishermen. They formed a club in 1732 called the Schuylkill Fishing Club. These were the men who actually wrote the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.”
Chapter 7 of the series documents organizations using fly fishing for worthy causes like Casting for Recovery, which offers breast cancer sufferers “inspiration, discovery, renewed energy for life and connections with other women,” all at no charge. Project Healing Waters offers similar services to the Wounded Warriors Project, making fishing positive healing therapy.
In the course of the project, Fowlkes acquired a great body of archival photos and film, much of which wound up in the series. “I’d meet people at trade shows who’d say, ‘My dad has a lot of movies of him fishing as a kid. Would you be interested in them?’ I said sure, and now I’ve got a massive collection of movies, including the original 35mm film of [famous author] Zane Grey in 1925 catching the first 1,000-pound fish caught on rod and reel. Everyone who’d heard about the project said, ‘What can we do to help?’ One organization after the other opened up their film and library vaults. The project took on a life of its own and grew organically.
“The film is a tribute to what the sport’s all about and what it means to people as individuals. To me, the sport is camaraderie, communion of myself with my spirit, if you will. Out on the water, it doesn’t matter if there’s no one with me or if I’m on a crowded boat. It’s really about the essence of the bite of the fish. My biggest marlin was 250 pounds, and I released it.
“I came up with a catchphrase for the series: ‘We all share one planet, one ocean and one catch, so let’s practice CPR – Catch, Photograph and Release. Take what you need, eat what you take and release the rest.’”
To access the program, go to thehistoryofsportfishing.com – $49.99 for all 12 chapters.
