OLN show lands on Rainy Lake

If it wasn’t already an attractive option for anglers, Rainy Lake has officially been put on the fishing destination map with an upcoming appearance on a nationally televised fishing show.
Aaron Shirley and Barry Pringle of “Getting Hooked,” a show on the Outdoor Life Network, received an invite from tournament angler Harvey Cochrane to come to the area to fish.
“I called them and told them about Rainy Lake and what they can expect out on the water here,” Cochrane said.
The pair have already been filming on the lake, preparing episodes featuring local fishing, and have been impressed with the results. This year, their show will be airing on OLN for 36 weeks and the full half-hour episodes can be seen in their entirety on www.gettinghooked.net
“We’ve always loved fishing so much that you forget about educational things when you are on the water,” Pringle said. “We are better now in that we know we have to start slowing things down, because some things that we take for granted, the average person may need to have explained a bit more.”
Shirley echoed his fishing partner’s sentiments.
“We want the show to not only be an exciting show to watch but be educational so people can learn from it as well,” Shirley noted.
The pair have day jobs that usually keeps their fishing adventures in southwestern Ontario near where they live, but they’ve gone as far east as Halifax where they filmed an episode catching Atlantic blue sharks. They even collectively hauled in a 9’6” shark with a girth of 46 inches during filming, making for one big adrenaline rush.
“We want to do this as a full-time living one day, but right now we both have day jobs outside of fishing because we need to support our bad, expensive habit,” Pringle said with a laugh.
When asked if they’ve experienced any blooper-style moments while filming, the two recalled many—but most not fit for public consumption.
“Oh, there’s been lots,” Shirley recalled. “This is our fourth year now and it’s been an incredible ride. There was one time when there was an accidental word used during one of our muskie shows, someone was a little excited and yelled ‘beeping’ eh, ‘beeping’ eh, after a big catch.”
“We realized you can’t say beeping on TV,” Pringle added with a sly smile.
With the big bass tournament coming up July 20-26 here in Fort Frances, Pringle was asked what lure he would choose for bass if he was only allowed one in his tackle box.
“That’s a tough one to narrow it down, but it would have to be either a mister twister or a tube jig because you can still fish them on top or down deep and it gives you that depth option.”