- Oh, there's one.

- Yeah!

Aw!

- Ooh It's a beauty - Up here.

- Oh baby!

Oh my goodness!

- Oh there's two.

- We got doubles - Oh my gosh this is amazing.

- Mine's a smallmouth.

- Spectacular.

Wow!

- [Narrator] This is a show about the men and women that serve in our military.

It's a story about life as a soldier and now a civilian.

It's a story about honor, courage and sacrifice.

Join us as we make friends, catch fish, and give back to some of the bravest people there are.

These are their stories.

This is Fishing Behind The Lines.

(upbeat tune) - Fishing Behind The Lines is brought to you by (upbeat music) - Hi folks.

I'm Don Meissner, and I want to welcome you to this week's Fishing Behind The Lines.

Next to me is Alex Hammond, he's our guest today and Rust Eddy, a great friend you've seen on the show through the years, is going to be taking us to one of his favorite places in one of our rivers that runs through upstate New York.

Now I've never fished here before, but we're going to be fishing for smallmouth bass, maybe Northern pike, and I gotta tell you, anything that hits.

And Alex has got a really interesting story.

So, I hope you stay with us and I think you're going to have a good time.

- [Don] I gotta tell you through all my years, and I went to college in Potsdam, I've never fished here before.

And did we ever have a surprise.

This is not only beautiful, we didn't only see wonderful kinds of wildlife, but we had a fishing day that I'll never forget.

And I mean, I won't forget it because we even were interrupted in the highest current area of the river by Eric, our camera man, falling out of the boat.

That's a whole 'nother story but I gotta tell you, this was quite a day.

- [Alex] Oh baby.

What the- - [Don] You got it.

That's a nice one.

That's a nice one.

- [Alex] Look at him.

What's he doing?

It's a largemouth.

- [Don] Is it?

I see the stripe, I think.

Oh, I lied.

- It's a beauty though.

I thought I saw the stripe It's a beauty.

Bring him up towards me if you can.

- Ah.

Yeah, oh no, he didn't, He fell off nope.

He's not.

He's a good - I am a liar.

That's a nice bass.

Wow.

If you could bring them over this way.

- [Alex] Yep.

Just gonna let them kinda.

- [Don] Yeah, but when it comes time - [Alex] Tire 'em out.

- [Don] Don't, don't bring them in too close to you.

Ooh boy, this is so shallow.

And yet that's a nice bass.

That is really, That's a nice one.

- He really wants He wants to fight about it.

- [Don] It's a small mouth bass are just fantastic.

Let me see if I can turn this up.

I wanna keep you turned towards everybody else in America that is watching.

This is much nicer than I anticipated.

This is a really nice Molly.

Oh, what a beautiful.

Holy!

That's a beautiful small mouth - [Alex] It is.

- I shouldn't be holding them.

I'll get the hook out.

- Oh my goodness.

Oh, thank you, sir.

- Okay.

That, that is a beauty.

Oh my gosh.

- Woo!

That's a beautiful fish.

I wonder if that's the size?

Well, I guess we'll never know, but that's that's one of the bigger fish I've seen in this river.

That is really big.

- This is probably the biggest small mouth I've seen.

- [Don] Yes.

Aren't you surprised?

- Yeah he wanted to fight for that too.

Look how big his mouth is for small mouth.

I thought I saw the stripe down the side.

I thought it was a large mouth.

- [Don] Wow.

And this water is so shallow.

It's incredibly shallow.

And yet he was hanging right on the shore.

Wasn't he?

- Yup.

(country music) - Oh, oh, oh.

Oh.

That, yep, I saw that thing move out.

- [Don] I did too.

Holy cow - Coming right at ya - [Don] Yeah, I know.

And he's coming right at the log too I'm standing just so you know - Yup, I got you.

- Holy!

If I can keep this thing from twisting in these logs because that's what they know what to, to come on, over.

There you go!

(laughter) Oh, this is amazing.

No, I wasn't on.

Rust, You saw that fish come off the sh, - [Rust] I saw it move.

- I, I I saw it splash and it was 10 feet away.

- I saw the move to, I saw movement this, right.

Again, look, if you look over there, that's so shallow, it isn't funny.

And yet he came out of that shallow water and attacked this.

Boy.

Well, this is a, I'm going to do this better.

Hold on.

I'm going to pose with my beautiful small mouth bass.

These fish are so special.

I can't tell you.

They really are a wonderful species And so long.

(guitar strumming) - [Alex] Ah, You know what?

The sun is rising and it might be warming the water up a little bit and warming the air up a little bit.

And - [Don] yeah.

- [Alex] And uh, they're here.

I know they are and - [Don] Oh, we know they are.

We've had three here - [Alex] Oop, oop, here we've got another one on.

Set that hook.

There you go.

Easy.

- [Don] Oh, beauty.

- [Alex] Stay down.

Get a little excited there, come on.

- [Don] Well, I'll tell you what Alex, you are making me look like it's time for me to hang up the rod.

So tell me, what's your secret?

- My secret?

Cast right between there, cause that's the two that I've caught right in that little current, in the middle right there.

I just love how that water just like moves that way.

And you see like how there's little still spots?

I feel like that's where they're just hanging out.

I don't know.

I'm not an expert.

I don't know nothing, but.

- [Don] Well, you're an expert today.

- It's a little, 10 incher.

- [Don] Oh yeah.

That's nice.

That's what I hoped would be our good ones.

- [Alex] So slender.

Here, you want to put that back in so you can get a.

- Sure.

- [Alex] Get a good shot.

How about that?

- Beautiful (calm piano music) - [Alex] This is just a bass haven, man.

- [Don] Yes, it is.

- [Alex] Like, I'm looking at all these stumps down here.

And rocks - [Don] It is!

I'd be hanging out - [Don] I'm wondering if they're out in here Looking down in there.

See what I'm using.

- [Alex] Oh, I like that.

- [Don] Well, - [Alex] Oh, I just got one!

I just got one.

- [Rust] Oh, nice one!

Snip right here.

Right here.

- [Alex] All I did was put it in the water And let it troll - You were trolling - Yup.

- [Don] Holy cow, It's a nice one now rather than bring him in all the way.

- [Alex] Yep.

- [Don] But keep the tip, you know, up in the air bring him over my way.

You know, what's really crazy about this is that I'm giving directions to somebody that is literally beating me so badly.

All right.

Now bring him over to me.

- Stay on there boy - There!

- Hooked them a little bit wrong, but - no, he's good.

He's perfect.

- [Alex] So you know what I've always kind of saw about bass?

- What's that?

- It seems like the deeper they are the more color they have, like darker colors they have, like you see how we caught those other ones kinda more shallow.

See how dark that guy looks?

- Yeah.

- I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.

- No, well, the color of fish is determined by their environment, what they're in.

- Okay.

- So you'll notice that if ah, and this is a nice bass.

This is a, now if I cradle them like this, a lot of times if you hold them like this, they won't struggle.

And just to get an idea.

Yeah.

He's 11, at least 11 inches long, maybe 12.

Fabulous.

- [Alex] and of he goes!

- You were trolling for that one.

- Trolling!

- Oh, that tells us they're out.

- Deeper water.

- I don't know.

No matter where I take you, you're catching them.

So it doesn't matter.

- Geez.

I'm having a blast, man.

This is great.

(upbeat guitar) - You know, I always like to find what makes the guests that we have, do what they do.

What makes somebody like you, Alex want to go in the service.

Now I actually ran into you a few times when you were a kid along the water.

And we talked and little did I, little did I know that one day we'd be doing a show together but at what age did you decide you wanted to go into the military?

- I honestly do not remember.

My dad was in the reserves and we had a long line in our, our family history of service.

And my dad was in the army reserves right in Canton for eight years.

And so I kind of grew up seeing his uniforms in the closet you know, playing army in the backyard, always kind of wanted to do something with the military.

And then it kind of kind kinda came to a forefront when I was looking at colleges and my dad was very adamant that you know, if I wanted to join the military, he wanted me to go to college and get a college education and go the officer route and that's ended up what I ended up doing.

- So what's your plans now as you go forward?

- Yeah.

I mean, I've been in the national guard now for the last six years.

I'm down in an infantry unit in Utica the second 108, the infantry unit.

I'm about to make captain this fall.

- [Don] Were you?

- [Alex] Yeah.

And I, and I - That's great!

hope to stay in for 20 years.

- Really?

I do hope to do my 20 years and, you know get a few deployments under my belt and be able to go across the pond and serve as well.

You know, I just, I just got done with a three-month deployment here in our own state because of COVID-19 in the pandemic.

And that kind of really opened my eyes and I gained a lot of experience from that, from that entire experience.

(calm music) - [Don] Did you see that strike?

- [Rust] Oop, there's one - [Don] He's on.

- [Alex] Come on, baby.

Yeah - [Don] Oh, it's a good one!

- [Alex] Came out of the water.

- [Don] It's a good one.

Well, he was laying right under that bush.

He's over here now.

That's a nice bass.

Ooh.

This is a beauty.

We got our two boats.

Don't grab the line yet Rust.

- [Rust] Alrighty.

- [Don] We got our two boats together here because this bass isn't near ready.

Wow.

I'm impressed with his strike with the I think I can bring them over here.

There we go.

Alex, look at this fish.

It's a nice one - [Alex] Beautiful.

- Boy these bass.

There's nothing like a small mouth.

Now, what I said before I don't know if this is going to hold true.

If you put your hand under him as opposed to try to put it, listen to me.

I'll tell you what.

I'm just gonna lift you into the boat.

That's a nice bass.

- That's the one, probably the biggest one today.

- Well, it's a nice one.

The first one you caught was about this size.

I think.

Now I want to explain the techniques that we're doing now that I finally, I have lost four fish.

Three of them broke my line.

So I put a wire leader on thinking that maybe I could protect my line.

I'm going to put this bass back in the water but you can see, these are beautiful small mouth.

I want to show you what we're using because it it's taken me a while this morning to really get my bearings.

I've lost four fish and they broke off and they shouldn't break off.

Cause they're not that huge.

But anyway, we're using a paddle tail on a swimming sort of worm, a little fishy looking lure.

So what I do is you run it through and you got to have it Texas rigged, run it through the beginning of the lure, run it down your hook.

I've shown you this many times, but it's so critical.

And then I bring the hook back through but you have to have a little bit of the hook out so that you can set the hook.

And so that's what I'm trying to do now.

Now I really don't have the best type of hook on because you, you want a wider gap hook but that's the lure that I'm using.

And when I threw this lure out there's a little branch out there in the water.

And I saw that branch sticking up and I thought, you know it might be a fish there.

He came out of the water and jumped and hit it almost mid air.

So it was pretty exciting, but this is what we're fishing.

The water isn't really deep here.

There's a current running through three days ago or a week ago, Rust was fishing over here and he was fishing this bank and he could see the wakes of the fish coming out to hit it.

Today they don't seem to be along the banks cause it got really cold last night and it must have pushed the fish out.

Let's hope we can sort of come up with a formula to catch some more.

(peaceful guitar music) - [Don] There's one!

- [Alex]} Oh, Baby!

- [Don] That's a good one.

Oh my God.

Oh, this is huge.

I don't know what it is.

It's a big fish.

- [Alex] Oh, baby.

- [Don] Came out from those.

- [Alex] Yup.

- [Alex] He didn't jump - [Rust] Oh, Look at that rise - [Alex] He just, flopped.

- [Rust] right doubled over - [Alex] He just flopped he didn't.

- [Don] Yeah he just, I don't know what this is.

It's a big fish - [Alex] It looks like a big bass.

- [Don] Holy cow.

This is a big one.

Oh my gosh.

- [Alex] It's a large mouth.

See that stripe down the side?

- [Don] Yeah.

- It's a large mouth.

- Oh, I'm amazed.

I'm amazed.

I never drempt.

I don't want him to get, okay, We're not moving are we?

- No.

- Holy (cheering) cow!

- Yeah baby!

Oh my goodness.

- That is amazing.

- This is amazing!

- [Alex] That's what I, That's what I thought would be in here as big, large, big, largemouth.

- I'd heard there were largemouth, but I wasn't sure when we started the show, I didn't know.

Do we have a pliers or probably someplace.

- [Alex] There's that five pounder you were talking about?

- Well, the good, I got it.

- Okay good - Got it - Good.

- Oh my gosh.

- [Alex] Look at that monster.

- What a fish.

This is incredible.

I was doing terrible today too.

I was thinking - [Alex] That is a meaty fish what in the world's matter with you you're really off your game, but wow.

I'll hand him to you.

You can hold him right up there.

- Got him.

- And you can put them back in the water.

- Oh my gosh.

That is a meaty fish right there.

He's been waiting and lurking for that, one.

Yep.

- Look at his tail.

His tales been bit.

- Wow.

- That is just heavy.

- Isn't that a heavy fish.

- Heavy.

- Let's let's let him live to be another 10 years.

All right - You ready?

He's just hanging out.

I was like, man, you had that.

- I, couldn't believe it I'm thinking, is that a big pike or something?

- Yeah!

It was so big.

And I got to tell you I got a wire leader on which you would never do with your finesse fishing for bass.

Cause they're going to see it.

But of course I'm being sarcastic because apparently it didn't matter.

And one of my worms and this is oh my gosh, I'm happy.

- [Alex] That is, that's the catch right there.

- Yes, That is the catch.

Probably the catch of the year - That is awesome.

- That is awesome.

(calm piano music) - [Alex] Oh, nice!

Hey, here we go!

Ah, maybe?

Yes!

Yes.

Yes.

Coming right at the boat.

- [Don] What is it?

- [Alex] No idea.

- Well, it's a smallie.

- Now he wants to fight.

- Was it right next to shore?

- Yep.

And I just got done saying that lure went quiet Ooh, stay on, stay on.

- There we go!

Aha!

- There we go!

Nice.

- Well, that's a nice bass.

- [Alex] Yep.

- Unfortunately we'll compare everything and anything with that (laughter) big 'ol behemoth that you're hooking 'em good too.

Every time you hook them, they're You know actually - [Alex] They're hooking themselves, I'm telling ya.

- Here I'll hand you your fish but that's, you know, they're beautiful little bass.

They really are.

That's a you wonder how old that bass would be in this water?

You don't know what the food is.

- I'm going to ask you something, I'm going to put you on the spot.

- [Don] Yes.

- Cause I've seen a lot of perch that have this blue stuff on it.

What is that?

- I didn't see the blue stuff.

- The little speckles and stuff.

I cut a few of those today that it had that on it - Like right there, like on his fins?

- Yup and towards his mouth.

- Okay.

Those are parasites.

- parasites.

- [Don] And I always heard that they came from king fishers or herons, - Okay - [Don] But they're actually little parasites.

You can eat the fish and that doesn't, as long as you're cooking it, the parasites aren't gonna hurt ya.

But yeah, it's very common.

- Okay Very, very common.

- Lot of perch I've seen - [Don] In purge perch get just covered in them.

Walleyes hardly ever get them on them.

Northern pike get them on them.

I've never seen them on a Muskie ever.

- Right.

It's different species.

And I don't think I've seen them on large mouth.

- I've never seen them on a bass.

- No, that's what they are.

- All right.

Well little guy, see you later.

(calm guitar music) - [Alex] I haven't caught any in the deep middle, but I suspect they're there.

I suspect that there's some big ones in the deep - [Don] You suspect it.

- [Alex] Oh, there's one.

- [Don] Ooh.

It's a beauty up here.

- Oh baby.

- [Rust] There's two!

- [Alex] Oh my goodness!

- [Rust] We got doubles - [Don] Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

Mine's a big one.

I don't know how yours is.

Alex.

- Ah, well, he's, he's deep.

Whoever, whatever it is, - he's gone deep?

- Wow.

Is this phenomenal?

- Mine's coming up - Oh, it's a good one.

This is truly, - mine's a small mouth - [Don] Spectacular.

Wow!

I'm going to try to get mine in.

- Yup.

Do your thing Don.

- [Don] And then it's a pretty good size one.

Wow.

This is a beauty that I got.

Yours is nice.

This is even bigger Alex.

Wait till you see this one.

- Look how the color on this thing.

- [Don] Yes.

Great job - Two fish landed.

Double baby.

- [Don] Oh.

- Oh, they're so dark.

See?

Cause they they.

The deeper water.

- [Don] The deeper water.

You're right.

That's what you were talking about.

- Okay buddy.

All right.

- I got to tell you, this is way beyond my expectation today.

I am so happy.

Rust told me but see Rust is the opposite to some fishermen.

Some fishermen they would have this and they'd say they got a five pounder.

Russ would have it and he'd be just the opposite.

So when he tells me he did good, I know he did good but that's a beautiful 16 inch bass.

I'll put him back.

How do I know at 16?

Cause I, cause I didn't measure it, but I that's what I think it is.

Wow, yours is bigger than I thought that's a nice one too.

I didn't realize it was that big.

Wow.

- [Rust] And they both came from that log.

You both over on that log - Yup and halfway back to the boat, both rods bent over.

- Yes.

You're right.

Were you reeling yours back?

- Yup - Were you, - I trying to get it out of your way.

- Really?

- And I got one.

(calm guitar music) - Finally, what would you say about today's fishing?

What did today mean to you?

- Today?

I mean, when we first talked about going out, you you told me, you know, what kind of fishing do you want to have?

And I said, I would love to do some type of, you know lure type fishing, you know, where we can see the fish attack.

You know, it's more about quantity than quality, but at the same time we were catching big quality fish too.

And it, it was just so fun to be able to, I don't think we went more than 10 or 15 minutes without getting a hit.

You know, it's just action after action.

And if you stick with it and you're doing the right thing and it was, it was great fishing today.

And I, you know, people should definitely come and check out this area because you know, I grew up on the Saint Lawrence river, fishing the Saint Lawrence and the opportunities that are here are felt some places on the tributaries of the Saint Lawrence.

But this is a very nice place to, to catch fish.

- Well, I want to thank you.

You're off to a great start.

- I appreciate it, Don.

- I also want to thank you for what you're doing for our country.

- Thank you.

And I, and I'd like to thank you for, you know having the show and being able to have people come on here and experience the river and recreational activities we have here in the north country and have that connection as well to their service.

So thank you.

- You're welcome.

Well, folks, this has been quite a day, you know I didn't know Alex much before we did the show today and he was such a pleasure to be with we caught some fabulous fish.

I didn't expect that.

I didn't think that there was small mouth bass in this river as big as what we have witnessed and what we've enjoyed, but more than anything we've been able to spend a day together to get to know how each other tics to get, to realize the special gifts that each of us have.

And I gotta tell you, it makes me realize why Fishing, Behind the Lines means so much to me.

I hope you've enjoyed the show.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Fishing Behind the lines is brought to you by (upbeat music) - You know folks, the fishing was really fantastic today but that's only the beginning of the attractions to see and do around here.

For more information about this go to our website, wpbstv.org.

- [Narrator] If you would like a copy of this episode of Fishing Behind the Lines for $15, including shipping and handling visit wpbstv.org and click on the shop WPBS button please ask for the episode number on your screen.

(upbeat guitar) (peaceful music) - Fishing Behind the Line with Don Meisner special guest Alex Hammond and expert guide, Rust.

What's your last name?

- [Rust] Eddie.

- Eddie, Rust Eddie.

All right.

We'll put them back.

(soft piano tune)