60 Seconds With Greg Heister, Seasons On The Fly

This is the second in a series of short interviews with people close to the fishing industry. Today the interview is with Greg Heister, host and producer of the NBCSN show, Seasons On The Fly. Anyone familiar with fishing shows will agree that Seasons On The Fly is one of the best produced shows.

Greg, when he is not producing Seasons On The Fly, is a sports broadcaster. He can be heard doing basketball for Gonzaga, as well as other games for ESPN, and the PAC-12 networks.
Enjoy the interview.

Q: How did a boy from upstate New York end up as the voice of Gonzaga basketball?


My idol growing up was Curt Gowdy, a Hall of Fame Sportscaster, and the host of the American Sportsman. So I went to college hoping to one day work on-air in television, wanting to be a play-by-play announcer and to work in the field of producing documentaries, specifically on the outdoors. I have worked in television for better than 25 years, and the opportunity to do play by play presented itself about 16 years ago while living in Spokane, WA. I was the Sports Director at the NBC station and they had just landed the broadcast rights to Gonzaga Basketball and I was in line to do the job. I am now an independent contractor. I still do GU games, but also do games each year for ESPN and PAC-12 Networks. Like everything else in this world it's been about developing relationships and when you can do that successfully doors open up.

When Greg's not fishing he can be seen broadcasting basketball games.

(Click on image for larger view.)
(Photos courtesy of Greg Heister) 

Q: Seasons On The Fly was one of the first fishing shows to use GoPro technology. How has that changed and enhanced the filming of the show?

I love this question! When GoPro's first came out I didn't use them. They were cool and ground breaking, but I didn't think the quality of the footage was good enough for a national program. Well, how things have changed! When SOF first started, I used to carry a mechanical underwater housing on my back, up and down rivers, sometimes for miles just to get those underwater shots. That housing with a camera in a backpack weighed in excess of 60 pounds! It was incredible, and in some of the early shows you can see me fishing with it on my back! It was incredibly hard work to carry that all day. Now the quality with a GoPro is so great I use them all the time. I always have one on my chest, and one hooked to an underwater pole. When possible, I have them clipped to something all the way around us, set up on their remote starter. It's fantastic. And of course they sponsor the show (have for 5 years) now, and they are committed to those of us working in the hook and bullet fields. They are a great company, and the camera just keeps getting better. I also lead a large scale production each year on The Iditarod Trail in the Arctic, and we use GoPro's everywhere there as well.

Greg on a river with a beautiful fish.

Q: As you develop an episode of Seasons On The Fly, is there always a plan B in case the fishing and/or the weather is bad? Have you had to move to plan B often?

Rarely do I have a plan B. Because of the nature of what we do and where we go to do it, plan B's are difficult. Often times we are remote, however if there is a chance to get to another watershed without great expense in the time we have then we will certainly do it. But we will never air a show if we don't catch fish, or if the experience isn't interesting, or a good representation of the operation we are working with. On many occasions we have had to make two trips somewhere to finish a show. I live by this one simple philosophy when producing these shows, if I wouldn't watch the show I don't waste someone else's time and make them watch a show that doesn't involve catching fish. It does cost us a more, but at the end of the day I want people enjoying what we produce, and that is why the show always opens after the standup with a hook set. I want to get their attention and keep it. I don't waste valuable time in the build-up, ie: plane, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, bikes etc. When I'm in Iceland I'm assuming people know that I travelled there, and I don't want the show to be about my trials en route.

Q: Conservation is very important for the long term survival of the fishing industry. In your travels, are you able to say if we are winning the battle to protect the resources?

This is a tough one. And you'll get all kinds of answers. I think in some cases yes, and in some cases it's too late to even try. I live near the Columbia River, and in the current years we are enjoying historical returns of king salmon and steelhead. While in Alaska there are biologists who believe the pacific salmon is going extinct, specifically the chinook salmon. We as sportsmen have a tendency to only care about the issues that are in our neighborhoods. We must all band together and find a way to affect global warming (if we can) and to slow down industries that cause harm to our environments, ie: commercial fishing, poor mining practices etc. There isn't enough wild protein in the world to feed all of us, we have to start showing communities how much more valuable a salmon or any other fish is to a local economy. We are allowing an industry to bring a population to extinction before they move on to the next fishery. This has been going on for hundreds of years. This is a question that runs so deep and is so layered and complicated.

Thanks Greg!


Go out and fool a fish!