REMEMBERING A LEGEND: AMERICAS ORIGINAL FISHING TV PIONEER!
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THERE ARE now thousands of outdoor-type shows on YouTube and television with every other boat having a Go Pro or other type of camera on board it's seemingly more important these days to make sure you catch all of the action than it is the fish. But before the incredible number of such programs hit the internet and airwaves, there were a few real pioneers in that type of entertainment.
Joe Krieger, who was one of those TV pioneers, who had one of the longest-running outdoor shows on American television.
Krieger was born in Arcadia, Kan., Aug. 21, 1918, and died on April 12, 1997. He had begun fishing at the age of four, and became a Tulsan in 1927 when his family moved here to open and run, for many years, the Krieger Bait Shop on North Lewis Avenue.
His emergence as a notable figure to thousands of anglers in this area began somewhat by accident, two of his daughters, Joanne and Jeanne, recalled. He was always an avid outdoorsman, both fishing and hunting, but his first appearances on local television screens came as a weather man. He was one of the first certified meteorologists to work at a local station, and after giving weather forecasts on KOTV-Channel 6, he would often end his segments by showing a couple of current fishing photos from a recent trip of his, or friends.
The outdoors show evolved from that, and the very first of the weekly "Joe Krieger Shows" began in May of 1952, on KOTV. Before his career ended, the program would appear on all Tulsa-based stations.
As Sam Powell of the Tulsa World recalls; Growing up as a kid in Muskogee in the 1950s, we had a tradition in our family. Bedtime was usually about 10 p.m. before a school day, but Sunday nights were different. My Dad and I would stay up for the Krieger show at 10:30 p.m. You didn't miss church, or that TV program, on our Sundays. And Dad and I would always marvel at how in the world that guy managed to catch so many fish, week after week after week!
Many turns of this old world later, I got the answer to that question. I didn't fish with Joe Krieger often, maybe four or five times at most. But all of those outings, as I recall, were memorable, and impressive. We absolutely loaded the boat with fish, every time.
One outing was especially memorable, for it was the first time I was invited to fish with the legendary angler. About 12 to 14 men, with maybe six or seven boats, journeyed to Grand Lake for a very early spring fishing trip. The weather turned brutal, and I vividly recall almost freezing to death. But man, did we catch the big bass!
Also in the boat that day was Clyde Bayer, founder of Bayer Marine here in Tulsa, who was Krieger's TV-show partner at that time. Krieger always had a "partner" who was his co-host of the show, appeared on the set with him, and helped narrate and comment on that week's film. What made that outing so special was the fact our threesome returned to the dock late that day with an awesome load of bass. Long before the days of catch-and-release, we cleaned a prodigious weight of fish that evening. And no one -- not one single other boat in our party -- had hardly caught a fish all that day. No kidding.
"The man could actually smell fish," commented one of his longtime friends. "I know it sounds crazy, but I was on enough trips with the man, over many years, to tell you that was actually a fact," said Carl Pierceall of Muskogee.
His daughters recalled how the show reached the TV airwaves, long before today's high- tech world of video cameras and all the rest. Krieger shot his show with a 16mm Bell and Howell camera. Immediately after shooting, film was shipped to Dallas for processing, with about a two to three-day leeway for return to Tulsa. "And there were many times someone would have to make a long drive down there, and back, to retrieve film so Dad could get another show on the air," Joanne remembered.
Krieger would then edit the film at home on an editing machine, and time the 30-minute show, to the minute, with a stopwatch. The program was usually taped on a Friday afternoon at a TV station, for Sunday's showing. His very last show aired on May 30, 1991. It ended 38 consecutive years of weekly programs.
And Krieger continued to fish, right up to the end. Daughter Joanne said her "most memorable" of countless such outings, occurred only a few months before his passing. She lives near Caddo Lake in northwest Texas, and she and Krieger "caught a basketful of big redears" (perch), which they cleaned and then enjoyed for a wondeful meal,
If, like this writer, you recall the many great years of Joe Krieger shows on your television, I bet there's many things about the man which you didn't know, or don't recall. Here's only a few:
Like most real veterans, he didn't talk about his war experiences. But he was a B17 bomber pilot with the Army Air Corps in World War II, and managed to survive those 25 deadly missions. He served with the 381st Bomb Group stationed in England, and flew into harm's way from late 1944 to 1945. He was highly decorated, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with oak leaf cluster. He later became a weather officer -- which led to his career as a TV weatherman -- also served in Alaska before the war ended, and left the service as a lieutenant colonel.
During the 1960s he ran a "Joe Krieger Fishing School," which was extremely popular and usually sold out. The school included personally escorted trips to local lakes, which usually meant Grand, since that was always among his favorite fishing spots. He also produced and sold special maps of lakes in this region, which included tips on how and when to fish them, and productive areas. Beginning in 1953 he manufactured and marketed a lure called the "Dragnetter", which many believe was the very first true spinnerbait on the American market.
Although he was not a tournament fisherman, he won one of the very first really large- scale events ever held in the U.S. The Freshwater World Series of Sport Fishing was held on Grand Lake in 1961, and it suited Krieger to a T, since it was a multi-species competition, not just for black bass. As any longtime viewer of his show would recall, he enjoyed catching all types of fish, not just bass.
He was truly an end to an era, in Oklahoma. Every one of the many, many TV outdoorsmen whom you can now watch on a cold winter's day, owes a little something to a man named Joe Krieger.
Original report by Sam Powell
