- [Don] Holy!

How can you even lift it?

Oh my God.

Whoa!

Holy!

Holy!

- Good job buddy!

- I can't believe this.

- [Narrator] This is a show about the men and women that served 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.

(motivational music) - Fishing Behind the Lines is brought to you by: (inspirational music) - Hi folks, I'm Don Meissner, and I want to welcome you to this week's fishing behind the lines.

I'm still trying to get my sea legs.

We're out in lake Ontario.

We've come out of Oswego, New York, and this is kind of the place where so many of the best charter captains keep their boats.

We're going to be fishing today for salmon and steelhead.

And I guess the salmon are down deeper.

The steelhead are up, but you never know what you're going to get.

So it makes it a lot more exciting.

My guest today is Lee Hinkleman, and Lee is going to have a lot to tell us, not only about his time in the service, but about the American Legion, which is a big part of his life.

We're pretty psyched right now.

The fishing's been good lately.

We got a west wind and I got two great captains that are taking us out today.

So we should catch some fish.

Stay with us.

- All yours, Lee.

He's on.

He's on.

- Okay.

- Come on, baby.

Come on.

- Oh, he's going the other way.

- Come on baby.

- You're gonna pump up, and then you're gonna reel down.

- Pump up, reel down.

- We're going to try to get out of Lee's way here.

I think this is his, I think this is his first salmon ever.

We're thinking it's a salmon.

It could be a steelhead, but this is an all new experience for him.

- [Aron] Reel, reel, reel on your way up.

- And the problem is not just fighting the fish, not learning how to pump it and reel, - [Aron] It's a big one but also having your sea legs, because the whole time you're trying to do this, your body's trying to fall.

- [Aron] You're good to reel it on your way down.

Don't tire yourself out too much.

Pump up.

And then reel, reel, reel as you go down.

- Okay, I'm with you.

- They're so big and strong, you can't gain unless you're giving yourself that little bit to gain on your way down, you know what I mean?

- So Aron, what do you think he's got?

You think it's a salmon?

- I think he's got a big king salmon on.

- Do you?

- Yep.

- How do you... What makes you think that?

What do you know based on all your time?

- Well, it was our deepest rig for one, and for two, it really took a lot of ground.

So I took about a hundred feet on him.

- Did it really?

- Yes, sir.

- Holy cow.

- Those are the ones we come out here for.

- You know, all the times I've been out here, I don't think I've ever caught a big king salmon, so this is a treat.

- Well, hopefully we can change that today.

- Well, no, this is a treat for me to see Lee battling this fish.

- Oh my God, my arm's about done.

Come on, baby.

Who's gonna wear out first, me or him?

- Back right up, Lee.

- I'm working on it.

(breaths heavily) - Got it?

- [Aron] In the net!

Great job!

- [Don] Boy, I'll tell you what.

- [Aron] That's a big one!

- That is a big salmon, Lee.

Holy cow.

That is a big salmon.

- That is awesome.

- They make your earn it, don't they?

- Tell me what you're feeling right now.

- Pumped, excited, thrilled, ecstatic, beat.

- Anyone that hasn't done this has no idea the physical exertion and energy it takes out of a person fighting it, let alone the salmon.

This is an even Steven battle to some degree, I'm telling you, it takes a lot of... - You know, it does.

It does.

I don't know, what's that thing weigh?

- I would say, my unskilled opinion here, 18.

- What would you say?

- Sounds about right.

- Wow!

That's a big one.

I don't think I've ever caught one this big.

- Oh my God.

- This is a beautiful fish.

- That is awesome.

- That is beautiful.

Now, you've got to pose with it, as beat as you are.

- You ready?

There you go!

Great job!

(laughs) (kisses) - There!

- It's on?

- Oh yeah.

- It's funny, normally I can think of all kinds of things to say, but this is a more intense battle than what most people are used to, and all your thoughts are in every turn of the handle.

- That's right.

- Every turn of the handle, you're thinking, okay, am I gaining?

What's he doing?

- He's not taking a nap, that's for sure.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - He's resistant.

- There you go, Lee!

- Oh, steelhead!

Or is it a salmon?

- [Aron] That's a steelhead, I think.

That's a big steelhead.

- Come on baby.

- Yeah, there you go.

Right there, Lee.

There you go.

- Should I move over?

- [Rich] I think you're okay.

Just stand in front of it right now.

You might have to do a little dancing.

- Come on, baby.

- Imagine this.

- He doesn't feel as big as the last one.

- No, it's not a salmon.

- [Rich] It's a steelhead.

- And Lee, you're saying, "thank you, thank you, thank you."

- Oh yeah.

(laughs) - Good.

Is it a king?

Holy cow!

Wow, that was awesome.

That was awesome.

Wow.

- [Rich] Good job, Lee!

- All right.

- [Rich] Pretty, pretty salmon.

Wow.

- [Rich] That looks like a two-year-old salmon.

- That's beautiful.

It's a rainbow.

- [Rich] It's absolutely beautiful.

- Yeah, it is.

Not bad for an air force guy.

No, you were Navy!

- I was Navy.

- Not bad for a Navy guy.

Oh, you should know this stuff.

- There you go Lee!

- [Fisherman] What're you up against?

- Oh boy.

Good madness.

This is unbelievable.

I take it this doesn't happen every trip?

- [Aron] No, definitely not every trip.

- Where's my line?

Upward?

Over, under?

- You're under.

Go under Lee.

Darn.

Go over the top.

You guys got to switch sides, here.

- Yep, keep in front.

There you go.

- Great job!

- Stand it down.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Don't tell us we got another one.

(banjo music) - He's ready.

Come on baby!

I've got two to your one.

I think he used to be a little bigger.

All right.

- I got you, you're in!

- We'll get out of the way.

- Well that was a good triple, fellows.

- Wow.

Oh!

- Look at all the salmon!

- Oh my gosh.

- Holy cow!

- Boy, I got to tell you, three fish, it was almost tripled, no sooner did Lee get his net, and I'm still out there struggling with this big boy, and he gets another strike.

And so poor Lee has had to battle two, while I'm struggling with my one.

Three salmon, all within that period of time.

This is absolutely incredible.

I got to tell you folks something, if you've never done this, I promise you, I promise you, you've never quite had an angling experience like this.

It's worth it.

Even if you've got... (laughs) This becomes your dream trip.

And I got to tell you another thing, I've worked with a lot of people, and they aren't saying much, but these guys are fantastic.

It's because of these guys that we're catching the fish.

All we're doing is reeling them in.

They're switching rods, putting baits out, watching the grass.

There's a lot of work to this, but Lee and I are the ones that reap the reward, and now we've each got a story to tell for the rest of our lives.

- You want one or two, eh?

- I'll take two.

- I like it.

- Where do I hold them?

- Just like my fingers are in there, yep.

- Just don't let your fingers get on those teeth.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - [Aron] Be careful, the floor will be slick, fellas.

- Well, we've just been to war.

- That was amazing.

- You know, we had it stacked for us, but even with it stacked, with two of the best captions I've ever fished with, and with all this equipment, we still had a battle.

- I'll tell you, it was a lot of fun, Don, and I so appreciate you asking me to come along today.

(laughs) I had no idea.

- No, you didn't.

And I don't think I did either.

You know, I've got to tell you, I've come out on this lake many times, and everybody's always been wonderful to me, but this is the most incredible salmon action in a short period of time, that I've ever experienced.

And what I want, while they're setting all the rods back up, I want to ask you a little bit more about your life.

Now, tell us, you were in the military when you were younger, tell us about your military, sort of, experience.

- I actually wanted to go in the military really bad, and I was afraid Vietnam was going to end, so aged 17 I had my braces removed prematurely, and got my dad and mom to sign off, and went in the army.

Well I ended up in Germany instead of Vietnam, when I was first placed in the battalion.

Spent some time there while they tried to figure out what the heck to do with us, just because there was thousands that Nixon was drawing for Vietnam at the time.

So, ended up in England for a while, had to supply that boat.

They realized I shouldn't be there, because I was sitting there for two months without a job, so went to Borne, Germany, ended up two tours in Europe.

Spent 24 years in the military total.

Last to the assignment before coming here, and this makes me think of it, all the water, was on the island of Guam.

- [Don] Really?

- [Lee] I was assigned to a small unit over there, a small MP unit, and it was just a tremendous opportunity.

Went fishing there, went marlin fishing.

Which, Don- - That's something I've never done.

- They are huge.

(Don laughs) You're talking 130 pounds of edible meat when you're done.

And a funny story about it, we're out there fishing, and we've been on the island about a month, and we caught three of these huge marlin, so we're like, what do we do with all this fish?

So we gave one to the crew, and we gave a tip and all that, and they were really ecstatic about the fish that we gave them.

But what I realized the next day, was they were selling it for four bucks a pound at the local restaurants.

- No wonder they were ecstatic.

You were making them rich.

- We gave them a $400 fish!

(laughs) - That's a heck of a tip.

(peaceful instrumental music) - [Fisherman] Look at the size of that one!

- [Don] Holy!

Holy!

That's the biggest thing I've... Tell me what- Oh my God, that's awesome!

(crew talking excitedly) - It's tight.

- [Don] He in?

Holy!

How can you even lift it?

Oh my God.

Oh!

Holy!

Holy!

Oh my God.

- Good job, buddy.

- I can't believe this.

Rich kept telling me from the moment I hooked it.

And I got to tell you the whole story here.

I said, we've already caught some wonderful fish, and I said, "Eric, who had worked so hard all this year, filming shows never got a chance to catch a fish."

I said, "Eric, we've got enough.

We can show what we have.

You catch a fish."

So the next fish, Eric, is going to be yours.

The rod goes off and Eric is fighting the fish.

This rod goes off, and what do I do?

But I hook onto the biggest fish in my life.

And (laughs) it's amazing!

- [Fisherman] What do you think, Don?

- I think this is the fish of my lifetime.

- [Aron] I think that needs to go on your wall.

- The biggest fish ever on this boat, and I'm running out of steam.

(crew laughs) I got to tell you, that's the biggest fish ever caught on this boat, maybe the biggest fish I've ever caught in my lifetime.

I've caught longer fish, but never a fish of that power, of that weight.

It's a memory forever.

I can't believe it.

I got to tell you, it's phenomenal.

Words have lost me.

What made it great is Eric, who's on the other side of that camera now, recovering from his battle with copper line, with 400 feet of line out there that he's reeling in, reeling in, and I'm watching him thinking, boy, you picked a good one to start with, and then my rod goes, and the battle is on.

And Eric is, he doesn't have a camera.

He's battling this fish, and I'm thinking, of all the times in my whole life not to have a camera filming what I'm doing, but in the end, Eric got his fish, and we got to see me bring my fish in to the net.

It's a story of a lifetime for me.

It's incredible.

No other words.

Is there a better word than incredible?

I don't know.

(laughs) Is there a better salmon than that one?

I don't know.

This is wonderful.

(peaceful instrumental music) Well, Lee, you're still not finished with the military, because you've been involved with the American Legion for some time, and I know it's a big part of your life.

- [Lee] You know, yeah Don, the American Legion does so much.

The American Legion advocates upholding and defending the United States constitution.

Equal justice and discrimination against no one.

We also have advocate for youth education, responsible citizenship.

We do that through our boy's state program, where we send kids that are between their high school junior and their high school senior year, to learn about Americanism, to learn about why we honor our flag, and why we respect our country and love our country so much.

And why we're all willing, as you did, as well, to defend your country no matter what.

We also honor military service by participating in Memorial events, anything that we can.

And at the local level, like my local American Legion.

During the COVID, when the COVID hit, and everybody was shut down for two months, there was a lot of truckers that couldn't get food.

They couldn't pull in anywhere.

It was a nightmare.

So we set up a portable field kitchen, and we gave them hamburgers, and hot dogs, and stuff like that.

And we didn't charge them a nickel.

We wouldn't even accept a donation.

We went to our local hospital, fed all the employees, and did that for two months.

And it was just very rewarding.

And that's something that legions do in their communities.

Our legion actually, in Lavo, won an award from the chamber for the work that we do in the community, with the coveted awards.

So it's, the legion's rewarding, and it allows me to continue my military experience.

(peaceful instrumental music) - I got to tell you what goes through your mind, what goes through Lee's mind, my mind, if you've battled one for 20 minutes, and your arms are throbbing, and you've used every muscle, and all of a sudden people say, "It's your turn."

And Lee goes, "Oh!"

And he's into another battle.

But this is pretty neat.

Easy for me to say now.

I'm all rekindled and ready to go again.

Does it feel as big as the other monsters?

- [Lee] No.

He's big.

No, he's not little.

- Seems like these fish are really hitting.

Rich just let the copper line one out.

Now that copper line sinks 20 feet per a sec...

I don't know what it does.

It sinks.

And so it's a line that they use to fish really deep for those fish that might be deep, and they let out over 400 feet of that line.

Well, if you get a fish on that, you've really got a battle, and you've got a long battle to bring it in.

But he no sooner got it out a second ago and something viciously hit it, almost pulled the rod in, and somehow it didn't get hooked.

So right now the fish seem to be getting active again, and we probably will be into another fisher shortly.

But Lee is battling one right now.

- I'll tell you a lot.

Not as big as the last one, but I haven't got much arm left.

This has been a fun day.

She's squirming a lot.

She's diving back down.

- You're getting him close.

- Oh yeah.

- 'Cause I looked at the counter before, I didn't know about the counter.

Come on, honey.

(upbeat music) - Oh, she's got to be close.

- [Don] What'd you say, Lee?

- She's got to be... Oh there she is.

Oh my God.

We've got Moby Dick.

- [Don] Not a bad one.

Listen to me, like the old pro.

- [Lee] Come on baby.

- [Don] Nope.

- [Lee] Come on you.

- [Don] Oh man.

Oh, I hit.

You got it?

You son of a gun.

- Okay, let's get it tied up and tied back, and I'll keep that rod tip up.

(crew talking excitedly.)

- Oh my gosh.

Wow.

- [Don] Lee, it's a pretty good size one, huh?

- It is.

- Wow.

Wow.

How do you feel?

- Exhausted.

(laughs) - One of those happy problems, huh?

- [Don] Oh my gosh.

- Holy cow, that's all I can say.

- That's a nice fish.

- That's all I can say.

You know, I didn't realize it was that big.

Did you think it was that big when you first got it?

- No, not at all.

- You first were hooking it, I said, "Lee, does it feel big?"

"No, not too much," or whatever you said.

- Yeah, then it starts diving, and that's when she started feeling big.

- No kidding.

- [Lee] Oh my gosh.

- [Don] I'd say that, isn't that pushing 20?

- Oh yeah, that's a 20 pounder.

- [Don] Yeah, wow.

Wow.

(crew talking amongst themselves) - I'll tell you what, it doesn't get much better than this, does it?

Look at the size of her.

What is she?

25?

30, you figure?

That's a good size fish.

- It's a 25 pounder, I bet.

- Oh man.

- That's a great one.

- That's going back to Lavo American Legion for dinner.

(laughs) - Well, let me tell you what's happening right now.

We've moved a bit.

We've come back to where we were getting our fish, and I just got one on the copper.

So that means that fish is out there a long, long way.

So we're going to have a while getting this baby in.

I haven't done this enough where I can tell initially whether I've got a really big fish or not.

- [Aron] It's pretty big.

- Is it?

- [Aron] Yup.

- If Aron says it's a big one, it's a big one.

(upbeat music) Now we can see them on the surface.

- [Aron] He's a two-year-old.

A very fighty two-year-old.

- Boy, that was a very fighty, for lack of a better word.

- [Aron] Reel down another time.

Oh Rich, he's over that copper.

Over the copper, Rich.

Copper, copper.

Oh, now he's on a diver.

(upbeat music) One more reel, Don.

- Whoa!

- And that wasn't even that big compared to the monsters that we've been catching.

Wow.

That was the end of a battle with a fighty one.

That was a fighty one.

He's not near as big as some of the other ones we've caught, but you know, you use that as reference, and if you don't have that reference, if you'd been out here, we hadn't caught a fish, which, of course, we've caught lots.

But if you hadn't caught a fish and then caught that, you'd think, oh my gosh, I've gone to fish heaven.

This is incredible.

That's a big fish, but not as big as we've caught.

So am I any less happy?

Absolutely not.

This is a wonderful experience.

And for somebody, there's going to be some wonderful eating, too.

- [Crew] That looks like a tasty one to me.

(upbeat music) - Well, I got to tell you, Lee, I'm really happy that we could spend a day together today.

You know, for a couple of years, we've been trying to get together to go fishing, and do a show.

And I want to ask you now that we've been out here and you've done this, because you hadn't done this kind of fishing before, really, I mean.

- No.

- What'd this day mean to you?

- You know, it was just amazing.

You know, the feeling of the fish, not knowing the size.

They're telling me it's big.

What's big?

To me, five pounds is big, 10 pounds is big.

- Of course.

- Next thing I know, this 20 pounds monster comes out of the water.

It was awesome.

And I'll tell you another part of the enjoyment too, was watching Eric, your cameraman, who's never fished in his life.

and the experience for him.

That was rewarding, as well, and watching yourself, as well.

It was, you could just feel the emotion and the excitement, of what we were doing.

That it was just truly a tremendous opportunity.

And I thank you and WPBS for inviting me to come along and let me talk about the American Legion and my veteran's experience.

- Well, the American Legion is wonderful, and this show is about giving a special experience to veterans and people that have given us so much.

And after being out there on the water today, I think you can probably have a better sense of why taking one of these people fishing, and when I say one of these people, all the numbers of people that have given so much for our country, how it can have such an almost a healing effect on their life.

- [Lee] It was very relaxing.

- And you told me, it's about the most relaxed you've been in a long, long time.

- Absolutely.

- And that's one of the great powers.

Well, again, I want to thank you for sharing this day with us, and maybe someday we'll get to go out there again.

- Oh, I'm ready when you're ready.

- Okay.

(laughs) - [Announcer] Fishing Behind the Lines is brought to you by: (upbeat, motivational 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.

- [Announcer] If you would like a copy 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 music) (peaceful music)