City Paper has an article this week about Dean Ween‘s “Brownie Troop Fishing Show” which is growing in popularity at least in part because it cuts the pretense and production values of many of the existing shows out there:

“Our show is not some dude in a leather motorcycle outfit covered in patches on a bass boat trying to win a $3 million tournament on Lake Ossamwaga somewhere. I love bass fishing; I do a ton of it, but it’s the NASCAR of fishing. Why don’t you just watch Formula One, where the cars are faster and they’re better engineered, rather than watching Jimmy Dale Jackson going around in an oval for 10 million laps? When we fish, we’re getting completely fucking drunk — we catch as much fish as anybody, we actually know what we’re doing, but we’re totally just having a good time.”

The “we” in question is whoever is along for the trip on a day that warrants both fishing and filming. In most cases, that just means Melchiondo and his buddies out on a boat on the Delaware, or surfcasting off a Jersey Shore beach. That may also mean a drunken excursion with Butthole Surfers Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus, who tagged along on the Manasquan River during an off day while touring.

You can see videos of some of their outings and check out a ton of photos here.  They appear to be mostly catch-and-release.

Hooked: Philly’s Urban Anglers, part of season 6 of MindTV’s Philadelphia Stories series, will air in early December.  The full listing of films in season 6 is here, but only the first round is scheduled to air on December 6th.  We’ll post the air date for Hooked as soon as we know for sure.

There’s also rumored to be a premiere event scheduled, but the date for that also has not yet been announced.

And the call for entries for Season 7 of Philadelphia Stories ends October 28th.  Download the pdf here.

Welcome to the official blog/website for the short documentary Hooked: Philly’s Urban Anglers.

The first screening of the film in public was Wednesday, September 10th, part of the First Person Salon at the Gershman Y.  More than 50 people were in attendance, among them several of the subjects of the film: Louis Cook and Matt Coll of the Philadelphia Anglers’ Club and Tony Huang and his nephew Yahu.  Keep an eye on this space for updates on where Hooked will screen next!

In the left-hand column, you’ll find general information about the film and filmmakers–Mike Attie, Shannon Kane-Meddock, and Andrew Schwalm–as well as the music composer–Mathieu Gendreau of Plastic Operator–and a trailer.  In addition, if you’d like to find out more information about getting started fishing in and around Philadelphia or connecting with the urban fishing community, check out the Resources link.  Feel free to comment if you know of resources we haven’t added.

Finally, we have not made provisions for selling a DVD of Hooked, but we may do so if there’s sufficient interest.  Send us a note if you’d like to own a copy.