- [Don] That's a Muskie.

- Is it?

- [Don] Yes!

- No, it's a sucker.

- Oh, oh my God!

Did you get that?

- [Don] What?

- I had a sucker on, and then a muskie just came and took it.

- [Don] I told you that muskie was here, and it's a big one.

- [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.

(folk instrumental music) - [Narrator] Fishing Behind the Lines is brought to you by: (triumphant music) (triumphant music continues) - Hi folks.

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

My guest today is Mike Rist.

I've known Mike for at least 10 years, and he loves to fish, but his history in the service and with dealing with Healing Waters is really fascinating.

But today we're on the Grass River.

The water is so low, it's astoundingly low.

But I know there's muskies out here in the river.

And so our, our plan today is to be able to wade and catch a big fish.

Now, will that happen, I don't know.

But I'll guarantee you we're going to have a good time.

- You know folks, wading like this along a river like the Grass River is my favorite way to fish, but a lot of people can't do this.

Either it's too dangerous slipping on the rocks, or they they just don't want to do it, but I'll tell you all the types of fishing, this is the most serene, the most inviting to me.

And I was really happy to be able to share this day with Mike.

It's not going to hit again.

I think it was a bass though.

I don't think it was a muskie.

Holy cripe.

- [Mike] Fish!

- [Don] You got one?

- [Mike] Yep.

- [Don] A big one?

- [Mike] No, it's a bass.

- [Don] Yeah, but that's great.

- [Mike] It is a good bass.

- [Don] Keep turning him this way if you can.

Wow.

On that chatter?

- No, I switched out and put a paddle tail on.

- Did you?

- Yeah.

- That looks like a decent bass, is it?

- Yeah.

It's like a-- - Well wow, Mike.

I'm right in the way too.

I don't even know if I can make it over to shore.

Oh, that's a beauty.

- That is a good one.

- Holy cow.

I didn't expect a small mouth that big.

- Yeah.

I hit pretty hard.

- That's a pretty fish.

And I want you to see something on this fish too.

- Oh, look at this.

- You see that?

- Yep.

- It's on the tail attached right there.

What is that?

- Okay.

Let's show everybody that, so they know what you're looking at.

I got to tell you, all the time people are asking me, okay what is this stuff we see on the fish?

And there's two types of parasites that get into the fish's flesh.

One is, it'll be seen as a little black spot, and those are parasites.

They don't hurt the edibility.

And it's easy for me to say, because I'm not eating them right now.

But it's not like they make you sick or anything.

But then there's these bigger grubs that actually crawl on the outside of the fish.

They attach almost like a, a leach would, or a tick would, or something like that.

And you can see their body wiggling on the outside of the fish.

Again, biologists say it's protein.

It's good protein, eat up and enjoy.

But, they don't seem to kill the fish.

Now, surprisingly this year was the first time in years that I haven't seen a lot of grub on these fish, and the waters lower, so it doesn't make sense to me.

But fish seem pretty healthy in here.

Well, Mike's got a good start.

He caught that fish, and I didn't.

And so, so now we're going to see if we can get another one.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) - [Don] She was at one time, but they're all here.

- [Mike] Oh, okay.

The one married a guy from Serbia who was in -- I saw that strike!

Your drag is awful loose, - Yep.

Thank you.

- [Don] But keep the pressure on him, because that's a big one.

That might be a muskie.

Is it?

- It might be.

Oh my God.

Oh, yep.

It is.

- [Don] Is it a Muskie?

- No.

Wait, I think it's a walleye.

- [Don] Holy cow.

I'm coming down to you.

- It's coming up.

Here, oh!

- [Don] It's a muskie.

- He went through my leg.

- [Don] That's a muskie.

- Is it?

- [Don] Yes!

- No, it's a sucker.

Oh, oh my God!

Did you get that?

- [Don] What?

- I had a sucker on, and then a muskie just came and took it.

- [Don] I told you that muskie was here, and it's a big one.

Holy cow.

If we could get shots -- - It's right there, it's right there!

I hooked -- - [Don] He's not hooked, he's just holding on.

There, he let go of it.

He let go of the sucker.

He's coming back.

Don't, don't you move too much.

Is he, is the muskie still on?

It must be the way that's bending.

- Yup.

- [Don] Holy cow, look at it!

It's a monster, isn't it?

- Yes it is.

Oh my God.

There's two of them.

There's two of them!

- [Don] Two muskies?

- One behind me, one behind.

There's two muskie.

One that just broke off that way.

And the other one came in here.

- [Don] Really?

- Yup.

- [Don] Holy cow, Mike.

- Look at the battering he took.

Look at this!

- [Don] Well, let's see, we got to get him over here where we can see him.

Hold him so that they can see the side where his, his gut's been all bit into by those muskies.

They were just grabbing -- This fish, look how big this fish is.

Those muskies that hit it were five times this big.

I mean, this was, this was a little snack for them.

And their teeth completely lacerated it there.

Now imagine what their teeth would do to you.

If you bring one in, which by the way, I was hoping you would do, but we didn't.

- Me too.

- Well, he wasn't hooked.

The only way he would have been hooked is if this other hook -- - He got crossed in there.

- Yeah.

Let's see if I can work this out.

- Wonder how the other side looks, fares.

Oh he's got scale, oh awesome.

Look at that.

Look at the meat chunk out of there.

- Look at how big his, that muskie's mouth was to be able to -- - He had him broadside.

- How big, did you see the muskie?

You saw two of them, were they both big?

- The, the smaller one was not.

I would say it was in close to 30, but the one you talked about was -- - He's over 20 to 30 pounds.

That one I saw the other day.

- I, yeah, I, that is big.

- So this is their food size.

So here's what you gotta do.

You gotta go out and get a lure this size.

See, that sucker.

If that sucker lives, he's going to be a sucker of legends.

Around sucker-ville.

- He's a strong sucker.

- I wonder if that muskie would ever hit again.

- Yeah.

I got all nervous when he went between my legs, did you see that?

Did you get that?

- Yes, yes, yes.

- Oh my God.

- We got it.

We got it.

(peaceful music) (peaceful music continues) - [Don] I was looking for crayfish, but I want to show you something.

One of the best baits, but these things will bite you like you've never been bitten.

Now I want you to watch what happens.

Watch what happens when I let him be, there he comes.

See him?

- [Mike] What is that?

- [Don] A real hellgrammite.

- [Mike] Yeah, that's neat.

- I want to try to get one crayfish to go with my hellgrammite, which should be right in front of you, Eric.

I'm going to, any of these rocks though, I'll bet you there's so many crayfish that every one of these rocks would have one under it.

If the rock is loose.

- [Mike] There you go.

- Oh, you got one.

Great.

This is what soft plastic lures are, are built to try to look like.

In my one hand I've got a little crayfish, and this time of the year, the bass go for these like crazy.

This is a crayfish right here.

And then in the other hand, waiting to bite the heck out me, you can see the crayfish has bit onto me right now.

It's it's holding on.

And this is a hellgrammite.

Now if I, like I was saying before, as a kid, this is all I fished with.

And I loved it.

A little light rod with light line and cast one of these out and you just watch, and all of a sudden, your line starts to move.

You know, you've got a fish it's evolved since then.

And everybody, people don't, they, they look down on people that use bait.

But that's all they're doing is replicating the bait.

So I'm going to try.

I'm going to try this hellgrammite, because I really think we can catch a fish on it.

So we'll see.

Let me go put it on.

(light guitar music) (guitar music continues) There's one.

- [Mike] There we go.

- Well, I just wanted to show you that fish will, this isn't my glory fish.

The only thing this fish has got going for it is, it's musky bait.

But I will show you.

I put that hellgrammite on.

And that's a river chub.

That chub is over nine inches long.

And now the hellgrammite's grabbed onto it.

It ate the hellgrammite, and the hellgrammite's pinching it.

So it's a pretty interesting story of nature right now.

There's the hellgrammite still on my hook.

And here's the chub.

Now my hand spans nine inches and that's over it.

So about nine and a half inches, that chub is.

A lot of people, they catch fish like this that aren't supposed to be sport fish and they'll kill them.

They'll throw them on the bank.

And I don't get that just because we, as human beings decide that that isn't a glory fish doesn't mean it doesn't have real value.

So it's back in the water.

(funky music) There's one.

This is a smallie this time.

Much more fight.

Now, I don't know.

He might ruin my hellgrammite.

I might not get it back.

And he did.

The hellgrammite's gone now.

But, it just shows you another bait that most of you watching probably never thought of, never used, or never tried to find a lure that looked like it.

But to fish like this, this pretty nice little small mouth actually, it's about 10 inches.

That was candy.

You find where there's small mouth, and you put hellgrammites on, you're going to have action all day long.

One of the real beauties also of using a single hook with a plastic bait is most of the bass that you catch are not going to be hurt.

And you can release them back into the water.

Whereas if you're using a treble, treble hooks, you got so much more chance.

First of all, the treble itself is smaller.

It'll go down in their throat, get in their gills.

And the kill of fish is much, much greater.

So if you don't want to hurt the fish, this is the best way to go.

Now I do have, at some point in my overcrowded vest, a, I'm going to show you this now.

Because this is interesting.

After you've seen the real thing.

I don't have my real hellgrammite anymore, but I've got this, this soft plastic replica of a hellgrammite.

You all saw the live hellgrammite.

So now this is what the fake one looks like.

We'll see if this one will work as well as the real one.

I'd love to think it would, but I don't know.

We'll see.

Right where I just caught that small mouth is at the end of this part of the pool.

And what happens at the end of a pool, the water starts picking up speed.

And you can't really see it, but if you look down about 75 yards below me, maybe a hundred yards, you can see the surface of the water breaking.

And that's where the water is starting to go over rocks.

It's picking up speed.

There's more oxygen there.

And so at the head of that pool where I just caught this, this last fish, or on the other side of it, bait will congregate.

There's more oxygen.

They'll congregate together.

And it's always a great place for you to throw your lure.

Well, this has been an interesting day, and you know we've been having so much fun, I haven't even taken a chance to talk to you about your military life.

- Yeah, sure.

- Because that's been your life.

I mean, tell us when you went in, and how long you served, and then I've got some other questions for you.

- Sure, absolutely.

Went in in '92, did 20 years.

- What'd you do?

What was your -- - I did maintenance, maintenance pretty much the whole time.

I was always attached to what's called a MST, or a maintenance support team.

So we generally weren't assigned to the main main company or the main battalion.

So we were always attached to transportation units.

So we were always forward, or out doing a lot of field exercises, bouncing around and working in less than desirable conditions.

So yeah, through time that's the bad back situation.

- But you were deployed too, weren't you?

- Yep.

Went to Iraq.

I did a tour in Kuwait for a little bit as well, yep.

- How do you feel the military has changed your life from what you would have been if you hadn't gone in?

And that's a very difficult question, because we don't know what it would be like if you didn't do something.

- Yeah, like most kids I was a knucklehead growing up.

I needed the structure, went to military school, did very well at that, and just, just needed to change.

You know, I just went to go ask the recruiter some questions you know, but I don't think I would change it.

I, you know, even my M.O.S.

my military occupational specialty had a blast.

- Did you?

- Ask my daughter, you know.

Recently, I say recently, within years, she's 22.

How she felt about growing up, bouncing around, in you know, the world.

Because we were in Europe, we were in Texas, and, and Louisiana for a while.

She, she appreciated it.

She understood, you know, you know, there's a lot of different places in the world and you know some are free, some aren't so free.

And you know, she got to see things that a lot of people wouldn't have.

So she's grateful for that.

(tranquil music) (tranquil music continues) - [Don] There it is, see him strike?

He's on.

- [Mike] Wow, Don!

- [Don] That was interesting.

He actually came up, he's not a bad one.

and we got a beautiful place to bring him in, land him so you can see him.

He's not, this isn't, this is typical river small mouth size.

But this isn't bad at all.

Another fish, this one's probably more than 10 inches.

This one's about 12.

And my hand span really is nine and a quarter inches.

So you can see there might be three inches below my handstand.

Handstand, my hand span.

And you see that that fish hit that hellgrammite, that fake hellgrammite that I'm using.

This is pretty exciting.

It's exciting, number one, because it's action.

Number two, because I'm kind of calling the shot here, knowing that those fish are going to be gathering where the water picks up speed.

We'll put him down.

You'll see.

As soon as he hits the water, he's going to take off.

So, and I rigged this, this hellgrammite, I rig it just like I would a Texas worm or I run it in, and then run the hook back through it.

Supposedly so it's pretty weedless.

Now my hook point is showing, so we'll see now if we can get another one, so let's, let's see if there's more.

What I'm thinking is those bass have gathered there because there might be some bait fish.

So let's see if I can get another strike.

(soft guitar music) (guitar music continues) The one thing that you became involved with, and you've been the leader of, for a number of years, is an organization called Healing Waters.

- Project Healing Waters.

- Explain what that is, and what the, how, how, why that means so much to you.

- Well, if you're in long enough, potentially your body's going to break down and, you know, took a while for the services to understand that you know, they, you know, as soldiers, we need to heal.

We need to get back to the fight.

And, you know, instead of trying to work through the pain and the, and the hurt, they allot you time.

And that's what PHW has done.

Or I'm sorry, that the W2 has done, but by being there we, we got to see organizations that are there to help veterans to help get through the, you know the dark times, and through the pain and stuff like that.

And for me, being outdoors, this, this is, this is where I need to be.

And by adding, you know, fish to the, to the mix, it's just, it's all good.

Yeah.

- Every single person has different needs, different things that have affected their lives.

But I think this, being able to get out in nature and fish is kind of almost a universal fix, in some ways.

- I think they really did well by picking that name because Project Healing Waters, the waters are healing.

That's and I, I don't want to sound, you know, go off on a tangent and sound kooky, but when you're fly fishing predominantly, you know you're going for trout.

And if you're going for trout, I might've said this before.

The, you know, your trout don't live in dirty water.

You know, they have to have clean water and they have to have a clean environment.

And when you're out there fishing in that type of stuff, and you're seeing the beauty of the leaves changing, and the different invertebrates and, you know stuff like that, that that's -- - Hellgrammites.

- Hellgrammites, and the pterodactyl that ripped through here, that gray heron.

But yeah, this is, you know.

I don't know, it seems like the sign of the times.

Everybody's in a screen where, you know, this is, this is life right here.

This is the world.

- [Don] It sure is.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- Well, I want to thank you for making our world a little better today.

- Thank you.

- Thanks an awful lot for everything, Mike.

- Appreciate it.

Thank you, Don.

(river splashing quietly) - Oh!

Oh!

Well, wait until you feel the tug before you do that.

- There was one there wasn't there?

- Yeah.

that's what you get for being overzealous.

I'm just trying to get out of your way because I didn't want to -- - Oh, don't worry about me, ever.

- There it is!

- Is it on?

- There it is.

Oh, that's a good one.

- That's a good one.

- I saw that thing hit!

- Is he fair?

- Oh, he's fair.

- Okay.

- Okay?

But he hit right, right where it broke didn't he?

- Yeah.

- He hit right.

Turn this way, Mike.

- Yep.

Sorry.

So we can, so we can see you.

- All right before we, oh that's a nice bass.

- Oh, easy buddy.

Here we go.

- Well, I'll tell you what, I wanted you to end the show.

And you were being so kind to me, and here the show is about you, but I watched you.

You were letting me cast down there with my hellgrammite and so forth.

But that, that fish here, right.

- At the break, yeah.

- Right at the break.

I mean, right within inches.

I don't even know how it was holding itself there.

- I don't either.

- [Don] But that's a good way to end the day.

Yeah.

- Okay.

- So let me ask you something.

Did you ever expect, when we started out, that some of the things that have, okay, we'll start with less extreme and we'll work up to the biggie.

- Okay.

- Did you ever think that you'd discover that these hellgrammites existed, and that fish liked to eat these things?

- You know, I see these, you know, every once in a while and I know a lot of fly anglers like to use them and there's patterns for them.

- Is there?

For flies?

- But yeah, I have never actually seen one in person.

And the fact that you caught one, fished it, caught fish with it, lost the original hellgrammite, tied on these, and it just worked.

It just worked.

It's match in the hatch, more or less.

- Match in the hatch.

- Yeah, match in the hatch.

- Speaking of match in the hatch, what were you doing match in the hatch up there for that muskie with a five pound sucker?

Was that match in the hatch?

- No, that was just pure luck.

I mean, the fact that, you know I have no idea.

The muskie was hungry, that was an easy meal, that sucker, but I, that -- I just, I don't, I can't fathom it going after such a large fish.

- I know.

- Because, I don't think it would've eaten it to completion.

I mean.

- We don't know, we're not there looking under water and watching what they do with the rest of the day.

Whether they take their time and munch as they go along, I'm being facetious.

- Oh absolutely, yeah.

I was just curious.

- But that was amazing.

Amazing, amazing day.

- Great day.

- And even though we didn't catch, we didn't catch the monster.

We had him, everybody saw him.

We had him go through your legs and, and we didn't catch monster bass.

You had the biggest fish of the day, and you caught the biggest bass of the day.

So you did pretty good.

- I don't know.

- You did very good!

- It was a good day, it was a great day, yeah.

- I hope you've all enjoyed our show.

It's been different today.

We've learned some things, I've learned things as we've gone along.

And I hope you'll be here next time on another Fishing Behind the Lines.

- [Narrator] Fishing Behind the Lines is brought to you by: (triumphant music) (triumphant music continues) - 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.

(lively guitar music) (tranquil music) (tranquil music continues) (tranquil music continues)