- This week on Wisconsin Foodie... [smooth music] We are in search of walleye.

We're probably gonna catch some fish.

- It looks like we got a good chance.

[people laughing] - Luke: Rock River's where it's at.

- Ben: We're trying to restore naturally reproducing wildlife populations, and a lot of these lakes have natural reproductive potential.

- I've got a special guest joining me today.

Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns and former Wisconsin Badger, the man himself, Joe Thomas.

- Joe Thomas: Yes, sounds good.

Fishing was actually my first love.

I was way into fishing before I was getting into sports.

- I got a bite.

Oh, there it is.

Did you see that?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, it's a pike!

- Luke: It's a nice Northern!

- Ben: Yeah!

- So we've got a mess of fish ready to go into the fryer.

- Yeah, let's go, man.

- Luke: If Joe gets too hungry, he might eat me.

It's fish fry time.

- Oh my gosh, look at that.

Fried fish, whether it be walleye, bass, Northern pike like this, just reminds me of those happy times out on the water with my dad.

- Luke: Oftentimes, the best foods: simple ingredients that are done well.

[smooth music] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: ♪ ♪ - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheer] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes, yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

[lively banjo music] - Announcer: Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin!

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- Twenty-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore.

Know your farmer; love your butcher.

- Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters... [contemplative music] Also, with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat, lively music] [butcher paper rustles] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.

[meat sizzles] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] [sharpening knife] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[smooth music] Luke: I find myself in the Rock River corridor today just west of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

I'm on my way to the Island Bar and Grill to meet with wildlife specialist, Bob Knapp, and wildlife biologist, Ben Heussner, where we are in search of walleye.

As if that wasn't cool enough, I've got a special guest joining me today.

Hall of Fame offensive linemen for the Cleveland Browns and former Wisconsin Badger, the man himself, Joe Thomas.

Hopefully, a little bit of Joe's Hall of Fame energy and luck rubs off on the walleye, and they get on our lines and into our frying pan.

What are we gonna do out here today?

- Bob Nack: Well, Luke, it's a beautiful day here in early November, and a lot of people are thinking about being on the tree stand.

We're gonna go slay some walleyes on the Rock River.

- Luke: Yeah, I like that swagger.

Why is the Rock River so important as a fishery in this state?

- Ben Heussner: Well, the local fishery provides year-round opportunities for a diversity of anglers, and it provides a diversity of fishing opportunities including catfish, white bass, Northern pike, walleyes.

There's a lot of different opportunities and it's year-round open season.

- Chances are we're probably gonna catch some fish.

Would you say, how you feeling?

Strong to quite strong?

- It looks like we got a good chance.

[men laughing] - Awesome.

All I really care about is catching either the first fish or the biggest fish, so I can put my guy Joe here in the Hall of Shame as opposed to the Hall of Fame.

- Well, good luck with it.

- Yeah, exactly, exactly.

I got my work cut out for me.

And Joe, you have had such a tradition of going out and fishing.

Isn't that part of your draft story?

- Yeah, everyone always asks, "Was it true?

Did you actually go fishing on draft day with your dad?"

And I'm like, "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

Like, there was no game to be played."

- Awesome.

Well, let's see if we can get that same action going on here on the Rock River, shall we?

- Joe: Sounds great.

- What's up?

I'm Luke.

- Brian Huser: Luke, nice to meet you.

I'm Brian.

- How you doing?

I'm Joe.

- Joe, nice to meet you.

- I'm Brian from the Bait Box.

- Nice to meet ya.

- Brian: All right, are we ready to roll, catch some fish?

- Joe: Yeah, let's catch some fish.

- Brian: All right.

[smooth music] - Luke: Gimme the, like, little backstory.

What was it like growing up being Joe Thomas?

- Yeah, fishing was actually my first love.

I was way into fishing before I was getting into sports, and didn't even really pick up, hunting until later in life, till middle school, high school.

But going out with my dad on Lake Michigan, that was every Saturday.

That was the ritual in the summer; that's what we did.

Because there's just something different about having the rod in your hand, and working the bait yourself, and then, having the reward of a fish on the end of the line, that you did the whole thing yourself.

And, of course, they taste pretty good when you throw 'em in the frying pan.

- Yeah.

So, as a testament to all the young viewers watching out there, if you want to end up this size, eat your fish.

- That's right, that's right.

- You guys should get some footage of this place.

This is Lorine Niedecker's historical site.

She's a pretty famous poet.

Downtown Fort Atkinson, we have a large mural painted.

It's called "Fish, fowl, flood, lily pad mud."

And it's just a quote.

So, she was an author who grew up in that little cabin there.

- Yeah, Ben, so you know, I'm not familiar with the river system here.

This is the first time I've been out here.

But we're out here today, early November, trying to catch some walleye.

- I don't know about you, Bob, but I put on some winter weight, and every year, I put on that weight.

So do fish.

They put on a lot of weight before winter 'cause they need those nutrients to get through those cold months.

So, the fish are aggressively feeding right now.

Typically, you can capture a lot of walleye on this system.

So, we're just getting to the location here, guys.

Yeah, we're gonna start setting up, and see if we can get on some fish.

Oh, there we go.

Oh, yeah!

Well, it's not really fair.

Luke doesn't even have a rod in his hand yet.

- Luke: I know!

- Joe: I think it might be a river record here.

I don't know if that's 15.

Jumbo, yeah.

Yeah, baby, look at that.

All right, one in the boat.

Not in the frying pan yet.

- Luke: Not yet.

- Bob: Did you mention you were gonna be the one that catches the first legal walleye?

- Uh, yeah, that was the terminology I think I used.

- Bob: That's what I thought.

There was some fine print there I didn't read.

[smooth music] - Oh, there's a big one!

[Luke laughing] That was a little different than that other eight-incher I just caught.

We got a white bass episode here, guys.

Is there a size limit on these guys?

- There isn't, actually.

And there's no possession limit, either.

They are considered a rough fish, even though they are a native species to this area as well as many others.

So, there's no size limit, no bag or possession limit.

- We probably don't have anybody in the boat that would know how to cook something like this, huh?

- Bob: Not a chance.

- Yeah.

Probably should throw it back then, huh?

No, should we keep it?

I like eating everything, so I'm gonna be honest.

I'm gonna have a hard time throwing this back.

I love white bass.

- Ben: Oh, did he spit it?

- Luke: Yeah, I think he did.

- Luke: Oh, oh, but he came on this one.

- Ben: Did he let that one go now, too?

- Luke: Yep.

- Would you describe that as user error probably right there on that one?

[people laughing] Just let me know when you want to come fish over on this side of the boat.

I'm sure that's a big difference, too.

- Luke: Oh, my God, yeah.

- Joe: Oh, there we go.

- Brian: Okay, that's a netter.

- Oh, baby, yeah, there we go.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

Paparazzi, they heard Thomas is out here.

[helicopter whirring] - I'm okay if the B-Team doesn't catch any fish.

I really am.

I just wanna see the A-Team catch a couple fish for the show.

So, the Walleye Initiative started in 2013.

Prior to the Walleye Initiative, we averaged about 100,000 walleye stocked in the state of Wisconsin that were what are considered fall fingerlings that are seven inches long.

Since the Walleye Initiative started, we're up to around 800,000 a year annually stocked in the state of Wisconsin, and we're seeing some really good survival here in the south in some lakes.

Yeah, we're trying to restore naturally reproducing walleye populations, and a lot of these lakes have natural reproductive potential.

I mean, we have 15,000 lakes and 44,000 miles of rivers and streams in Wisconsin.

We are rich in aquatic resources, so opportunities are everywhere, and tourism is huge in Wisconsin.

It's huge part of our economy, and yeah, we're open for business.

- 19 and 3/4.

- Did you hear that, A Team?

19 3/4.

This might be the one, guys.

- Luke: Get the net.

Oh, it's a nice northern.

- Joe: Do you want me to net it for you?

- Ben: Yeah, get the net, JT.

- Joe: What's the size limit on Northern?

- Ben: 26.

- Oh wow, look at that.

We got the meal for the whole crew now, look at that stud.

- Ben: Oh, he's beautiful.

- Joe: Oh, man, that's about a 30?

- Ben: 31 and a half.

- Do you wanna bet?

- Ben: We could.

- 31 and a half.

- Brian: 31 and a half.

I'm going with just 30.

- That's hall of fame right there, oh, my gosh.

- Brian: Okay, maybe it's like 32.

[people laughing] - Joe: Closest to not going over.

- So the fishing has been good.

Better than the conversation, which is not surprising.

Everybody feels like they're winning, which I know is a new feeling for Joe.

Ten years in the NFL.

- Ouch, the hits keep coming even after retirement.

- Exactly.

No, but we're having a blast.

We pulled in some white bass.

We pulled in some walleye.

That Northern, breaking that thing down, there's a lot of good meat on a Northern, and like Joe was saying earlier, Northern is actually super delicious.

- It's absolutely, one of my top five really, I think.

- Yeah, it's good fish.

The walleye, you know, we haven't been in heat for some catchable or keepable walleye, but the white bass-- Ooh, I got a bite.

There it is, did you see that?

Did you see that?

Yeah, that was another little guy.

Oh, this is great.

Go be a big fish, thank you.

Plenty of food, plenty of fishing opportunity for everybody out here.

Rock River's where it's at.

[smooth music] So, we've decided to call it a day on our multi-species exploration of the Rock River.

I can say that I've had a blast.

It's always fun getting to hang out with good people, and being on a river, and watching all these birds form the murmuration, getting ready to migrate makes me think that we should migrate back to the restaurant and get some food on.

Everybody's gotta eat.

[smooth music] - There was actually a Northern pike over here.

- Well, my man, we are in the kitchen at the Island Bar and Grill, and graciously, they've opened up the deep fryers for us.

You ready to eat some fish?

- Joe: Oh, let's go, baby.

- Yeah.

So what I have here is I have some potato starch that's been lightly seasoned, and then I've got some eggs that are delicious Wisconsin farm-raised eggs.

And then, finally, I've got potato flakes that I've seasoned with just a little bit of salt, black pepper, and then dill.

So first and foremost, I'm gonna dredge this in this potato starch, and make sure that I get a nice even coating.

Once we've got that kind of all cleaned up like that, already it's looking like it's ready for the frying pan.

But no, we're not done yet.

- Joe: Not yet.

- Luke: Not yet.

- But wait, there's more.

- We're gonna get this in this egg, so you don't end up crusting up all your potato flakes.

Yeah, get that in there.

Get a good amount on there, a goodly amount.

- Joe: Oh yeah, that's looking good right there.

- Luke: I know, right?

- Joe: She's ready for the fryer.

- Sweet.

Oh man, now we've got this Northern.

Look at this thing.

He's gonna eat like a meal.

[Joe laughing] All right, I'll let you handle that one.

Are you getting hungry yet?

- Joe: I'm starving.

- Luke: I know.

The excitement, like after being cold.

- Joe: I know.

- Luke: Coming in here, it smells good in this kitchen.

- Fantastic.

- Luke: It's got good energy in here, I'm feeling the vibe.

You're getting those potato flakes on the outside, little bit of that dill, little bit of salt and black pepper.

Super simple, but oftentimes the best foods, simple ingredients that are done well.

But I like it because it adds almost like a potato chip crunch to the outside.

Consistency sometimes with the fish fry is king.

- Joe: Absolutely.

- You want that outside exterior set, and you want that interior to be pillowy and delicious and moist.

- To me, that's really what makes the fish fry, right?

It's the crispy outside.

- Yep.

- And it's like that buttery soft, firm, delicious inside that really just plays so well in your palate, and it goes so well with tartar sauce.

Which, anything I can eat with tartar sauce, I can get on board with.

It was so cool that we were able to catch so many different species, all of them great table fare, but it just keeps you going.

Like in case the walleye's not biting, you can get Northern, you can get into some of the white bass.

You can have a great time.

- Yeah.

- Which we did.

- Yeah, exactly, it was a party.

Sometimes at your expense.

- That's okay.

I'm good being the butt of jokes.

- Last but not least, I've got the crown jewels.

The two walleye cheeks.

And even when you feel these, there's so much difference in consistency.

You can tell that this is a really worked muscle.

These have the same quality and consistency as scallops.

So when you bite into these, it is, it's a completely different texture than the rest of the fish.

And I think that's gonna be a fun little treat.

Awesome.

So we've got a mess of fish ready to go into the fryer.

- Yeah, let's go, man.

I can't wait any longer.

- You can't?

Stop talking, let's eat.

- That's why I brought boat snacks.

I was afraid.

Like, if Joe gets too hungry, he might eat me.

To the fryer.

Let's do the cheeks first, Paige.

I think there's only two.

- Okay.

- Joe: Oh, look at that.

- Luke: Yeah.

- Joe: That's a winning bite right there.

- Luke: You wanna give it a try?

- Joe: Yeah, I do.

- Chef's treat, cheers.

Thanks, Paige.

- It's got such a different texture than the walleye fillet 'cause it's a lot firmer.

Like a scallop.

- It's kinda got that OutKast thing going on.

It's "So fresh, and so clean."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right?

That beautiful canvas that walleye kind of presents.

You can literally, you know, adorn that with almost anything.

And, in this case, a little bit of potato goodness.

Let's drop this, Paige.

- All right, let's do it.

- You ready?

Cool.

[smooth music] Man, Paige, you've got an artisan's touch.

I like that.

What do you think, chef?

- Paige: I think that looks great.

- Yep.

Oh yeah, look at these.

- Joe: That's a hunk right there, holy smokes.

- Luke: That's a Joe Thomas-size piece of fish.

- Joe: Oh, baby.

- Luke: It almost looks like a fish.

Yeah, Paige.

- That's gonna take an artisan to get that baby in there.

Oh, my God, look at that.

Oh, baby.

- Oh, yeah.

♪ Potato crust skin ♪ It's a multi-species mukbang right here on the Rock River.

Oh, my gosh.

Kaboom, here, let me get a little salt on this.

It's fish fry time.

- Oh, my gosh, look at that.

- This is a fantastic collection of multi-species deliciousness right here at the Island Bar and Grill.

I mean, but so cool to let us come in here, let us put this together.

- Well, I'm kind of wondering what you're gonna eat, 'cause I got my plate right here, and I see your plate is empty, because I'm about to eat every little scrap that's on here right now.

I'm starving.

- Well, let me serve you first.

So we're gonna go walleye first.

So I brought a couple different sauces.

Obviously, the Island Bar and Grill was kind enough to supply us with some tartar sauce since you said that was your jam.

- Yeah.

- I was gonna go a little different direction today.

I've got the sweet ginger chili sauce 'cause I like that.

I like that push-pull, that sweet spicy.

So you know, no judgment.

All right, I've got some potatoes.

These are some Driftless Organics potatoes.

Chef Paige was cool enough to fry those up for us.

A little bit of salt and pepper on those.

I'm gonna hit it with just a little lemon here, and then a little bit of fresh dill.

- Joe: Man, what a plate right there.

- Yeah, and this is how we do it.

Now, are you gonna go tartar on yours?

- Well, I didn't say I only do tartar.

- Luke: Okay, okay.

- I was hoping I would get more than one filet so I could do both.

- How about I-- Can I dress your plate for ya?

- Yeah, please do, sir.

- Great, thanks.

- What a great honor.

- Oh man, the honor's been all mine.

Get that Southeast Asian funk, 'cause we're in southeastern Wisconsin.

I figured like, you know?

- It just makes sense.

- Luke: Right.

A little potato.

- Are you the Lemon Bae?

You almost had it there.

Bounced off the elbow.

- Exactly.

That's the good stuff.

All right, my man, bon appetite.

Let's eat.

Oh, man.

[smooth music] That texture of the walleye, you know, it's got nice meatiness to it.

It's not totally falling apart.

The potato crust on the outside lends itself to a little bit of crunch.

The potato, all the delicious, like herbaceous pieces with the dill, the chili.

But I go back to that walleye.

All I want is more.

- Mm.

- It's so easy to go fishing in a place like the Rock River.

Pull that out, get it on your plate and go- - Stop talking, I'm trying to eat.

- Yeah, exactly.

- I want my brain to think about one thing, and that's the flavor of my mouth.

Oh, my goodness.

Good call with the Asian flavor.

- Luke: Yeah.

It's fun, a little exotic.

- Joe: Oh, yeah.

- The walleye, one of the things I love about it is the texture.

It's firm, it's delicious, it's chewy.

You get all the substance of like something that has really spent its life in waters that are rich in life.

And I think that for me, this is one of my absolute favorite fresh water fish.

And the fact that we caught it, that's pretty rad too.

- Like an hour ago.

- Mm-hmm.

That's where it's at.

- River to table, one hour.

- River to table, one hour.

- I think we could start something.

I think we got something there.

- All right, should we switch up species here?

- Joe: Yeah, why not?

- Cool.

This was that beautiful Northern pike.

Those things, I mean, they're fearsome.

It's like hooking up with an alligator or something ancient and primordial.

You know, this has a really, I think, rich texture to it.

And pike is quietly a delicious fish that not a lot of people get into.

- Secretly underrated.

People don't like 'em 'cause of the Y bones.

They don't know how to fillet 'em.

Brian cut it up, got those Y bones out for us.

I bet this might even be better than the walleye we just had.

- Well, there's only one way to find out, sir.

- Joe: Let's do it.

- Luke: You ready?

- Joe: Let's not wait any longer.

Ooh, look at that.

- Yeah.

Yeah, let's go, baby.

- Let's go.

[laughing] - Going again back to texture, right?

And I think that's kind of the thing with fish.

So many people have different experiences with the texture of fish, specifically wild-caught.

But because these were swimming and active hunters in that ecosystem, they have a really, really dense, meaty flavor that actually lends itself really nicely to the potato.

And then all the other flavors that kind of pull it in.

It's just straight-up delicious.

- Everybody talks about the foods they love as an adult are the ones that remind 'em of those memories as a child.

Right here, this is it for me.

- Yep.

- Fried fish, whether it be walleye, bass, Northern Pike like this, just reminds me of those happy times out on the water with my dad.

- Yeah, yeah.

- That's why I went fishing on draft day with him.

That's right.

So I could eat some fried Northern in here with you and enjoy it again.

- Fast forward, who woulda guessed?

And the awesome part about being down here in Fort Atkinson and Rock River, is Jim and Heather and the whole team here, fried fish is no stranger to them.

They are doing this every Friday, and in some cases even more so.

So, any time you need a taste of your childhood, they're right here.

- So now we're into that side area on the pike, and the flaky pieces that are coming off.

I don't know the right word for it, but they're a lot bigger.

- Luke: Yeah.

- Like the grains are a little bit larger, and I really like that because it's still really tender, but it's like a little meatier bite than the smaller grained walleye.

- Yeah.

- It's like, you know, eating a deer versus a beef cow.

- Yeah, this is definitely, this is like the elk of the fishery.

- I actually liked the pike the best, 'cause it had those thicker mild myomere, that thicker grain in between all the little tender pieces of flesh, and it reminded me of like a great sea bass.

And I think those hunky chunks are really what just was awesome on my palate.

And that's why it was so cool to be able to go out on the Rock River, and catch a bunch of different fish, put 'em in the fryer and throw 'em out on the table.

I enjoyed every single one of them.

- Yeah.

- But the different uniqueness of all of it, I think, really highlighted how great this fishery is.

- Seriously, from one hunky chunk to another, I really appreciated the day.

Thank you, man.

This has been great.

Oh, yeah.

- Thank you, man.

- Oh, God.

- Thanks for having me.

- Oh, dude, my pleasure.

- Any time.

- Thanks for coming out.

[smooth music] Well, that's great.

Good job, buddy.

It's like you're a pro or something.

- Yeah.

- Why is the Rock River so important as a fishery in this state?

- It brings a lot of local commerce to our local constituents.

Our, our, ah.

[Luke laughing] - I don't even share my food pictures with anybody.

I just like looking back on 'em, and remembering how happy I was when I was eating 'em.

- I'm so glad, I'm so glad.

- You said it with enough confidence that I believed it, whether you made that up or not.

- I was just so giddy.

- That we're not gonna-- - Yep.

- Maybe we'll just keep that there.

- Sounds good.

- We don't want to accidentally have that end up in, uh-- - I was gonna feed it to the crew.

- Yeah.

[Luke beatboxing] - Fishin'.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: ♪ ♪ - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheer] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes, yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

[lively banjo music] - Announcer: Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin!

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- Twenty-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore.

Know your farmer; love your butcher.

- Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters... [contemplative music] Also, with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Are you hungry for more?

Then go to our YouTube channel and subscribe and be in the loop every time we release new content, behind-the-scenes footage, and new episodes that you can preview before anyone else.

Check us out.