I have known Jim Lindner for years, back when he was filming for the In Fisherman television show. I did a number of shows with his uncle Al with Jim behind the camera both for In Fisherman and my show The Complete Angler. I caught up with Jim recently when he was the Mid Canada Marine Dealer’s Boat Show doing seminars.
Hooked: When was your first fishing experience?
Jim Lindner: It came about when we visited our grandmother’s place in northern Illinois. We would fish off the docks and wander the shoreline collecting turtles and frogs, just learning the love for the outdoors. We would spend the summer there, just great times!
When did you get in the sport fishing industry fulltime?
I had just finished my fourth year of college and In Fisherman was expanding. I had spent the last four summers guiding at a lodge in Canada and then this opportunity came up. I started as the curator of the slide library and then expanded on that, including articles on species I had for fished for in Canada. I took over the television production and continued with that for fifteen years. This included the production of video tapes and education material. Then when Ron (Jims’s dad) and Al sold the show, Dan Lindner and I formed our own production company, Lindner Media Productions. Eventually Al and Ron joined our company. We got a contract from Rapala to do a big video catalogue of their product. This launched the company, and it was a lot of product! At that point in time we also started to work with “Wired to Fish” group. Then I got in lure design with Mark Fisher and Rapala. We work in research and development with a lot of our sponsors including Humminbird and Minnkota as well as Lund Boats. We were also instrumental in helping design the X Rap and the new Shadow Rap.
What does the future hold?
Boy, it’s a lot of work, it’s one of those things when you have the drive you really enjoy the industry, the growth is changing in the way we do things. New media, like You Tube has changed things. It is really tough to plan two years in advance, never mind the five years in advance when we worked with In Fisherman. I am currently working on a couple of new pilot television series to go along with the four shows we already produce, including the Angling Edge. We have a large building with five editing suites and a big studio in Brainerd Minnesota. Now a day though costs of the editing systems have dropped substantially and most anybody can have a good editing system for $25,000 along with camera equipment, which also means more competition. We also still plow ahead on the education front and make our living on the quality of what we do!
Has it been a good life?
Oh, it has been fantastic, the funny thing is my youngest daughter just left the house, and I have three kids, two girls and a boy and my wife asked me what I planned doing now all the kids were out of the house? I looked at her and said, while I am still healthy I would like to go out and fish some bass tournaments. I really love doing that. My son just started fishing tournaments as a member of the team from University of North Dakota. You learn so much by fishing tournaments against the best anglers on new waters you have never been to before with a variety of different techniques. All of this provides new content for the television show. It’s never ending and you always have to be willing to stay on top of what is new, and that’s what drives you. Up here, it is really fun because this is a hot bed of very astute anglers like Alex Kezler, Jeff Gustafson and others. I lot of people don’t realize this but the knowledge base up here is special!