Pioneer Public Television’s program ‘Prairie Sportsman‘ recently broadcast a half-hour show about the St. Croix River. Host Bret Amundson fishes the lower river with Steve McLean and his son Jake.

In addition to practical tips about catching sturgeon, catfish, and other species, and the fun of fishing a big river, the show also covers Jake’s experience surviving childhood leukemia.

A second segment features a “tour” of the lower river from Taylors Falls to Hastings, with footage from the water and from the sky highlighting the river and the communities along it.

According to Pioneer Public Television: “Prairie Sportsman celebrates our love of the outdoors to hunt, fish and recreate amid Minnesota’s vast resources of lakes, rivers, trails and grasslands. The weekly half-hour show, hosted by Bret Amundson, takes viewers around the state: rock climbing in southwest Minnesota’s Blue Mounds State Park, snowmobiling to the Northwest Angle, steelhead trout fishing on North Shore streams and tracking majestic Golden Eagles in southeast Minnesota.

“To enjoy the outdoors, we need to protect wildlife habitats, water quality and our soils. Prairie Sportsman explores ways individuals and organizations can help protect and restore natural resources, from creating backyard Monarch waystations to planting native forbs and grasses in massive solar arrays where beekeepers produce honey.

“In 2016, a Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund grant enabled Pioneer Public Television to bring Prairie Sportsman out of a five-year hiatus and produce new episodes of the popular series. The Emmy-nominated show has gained statewide appeal and is now aired on all Minnesota Public Television stations.”