Brownie Troop F.S. brings the Weenster's watery
adventures to your PC; or, Mickey Melchiondo's
Gone Fishin'
By Jim Testa
Photos by Chris Gatley
Mickey Melchiondo is certainly no stranger
to Jersey Beat or our readers. In fact he
was writing his own column in our zine when
he was only 15 years old, years before an
army of rabid fans came to worship him as
a rock god under his nom de guerre, Dean Ween.
But beyond the post-psychedelic prog-weirdness
of Ween, Mickey has another passion –
fishing! It’s a side of this veteran
rocker that few have seen, but that’s
all about to change thanks to Brownie Troop
F.S., Mickey’s very own fishing show,
which you can watch online at www.brownietroopfs.com.
It’s fishing like you’ve never
quite seen on the Discovery Channel, peppered
with profanity and a gonzo sensibility that’ll
have you rolling on the floor with laughter
– and aching to bait your own hooks.
Q:. Tell us how the show came to
be. Whose idea was it? Was there any particular
episode idea that kickstarted the project?
Who handles the technical end – photography,
sound, editing, etc.?
I have been running ween.com since about
1995 and I always fill a good portion of the
site with my personal ramblings, recipes,
stories, opinions, whatever. I have been a
hardcore fisherman since I was a little kid
and one day I just posted some pictures from
a recent fishing trip. I started getting a
lot of emails from ween fans who were also
fishermen and eventually I just started a
new website dedicated to chronicling my fishing
adventures. This turned out to be a great
move because I started getting fishing invites
from Ween fans around the globe. The next
logical step was to begin filming the trips
and it just sort of took off from there. My
friend Marc Schmidt-Casdorff and I travel
as a team, he does all of the filming and
we edit together. I do all of the music for
the show. We’re up to episode 9 now.
Q: Usually I ask musicians about
the music scene in NJ. This time I’ll
ask about the fishing. I know you love Long
Beach Island. When I was a kid, my dad would
take me out in Barnegat Bay and we’d
catch tons of blowfish and fluke. What’s
the fishing out there like these days? Where’s
your favorite spot for fresh water fishing?
I primarily fish the Long Beach Island/Island
Beach Park/Seaside area but I have fished
pretty much every beach from Sandy Hook to
Cape May. I target whatever is in the water
based on what time of year it is, but Striped
Bass and Bluefish are my main species from
the surf. In the summertime I will target
Sharks, fluke, kingfish, Weakfish, whatever.
I can’t help myself. As far as freshwater,
I live on the Delaware River and spend a lot
of time hunting smallmouth bass in the summer
and walleye in the colder months on my boat.
Q: What kind of fishing do you prefer:
Fresh water, surf, or deep sea? And why, of
course.
Honestly I love it all. Surf Fishing is something
special though because I am usually alone.
I find it to be the most relaxing and rewarding
thing on earth, bordering on spiritual. Just
me and the shooting stars at night, and the
dog walkers at first light.
Q: Tell me a fish story and make
it a whopper. What’s the biggest fish
you ever caught?
I just had a really wild experience last
month fishing in Lavalette with my friend
Nick Honachefsky. We were fishing at sunset
and someone came along walking a puppy. We
got distracted and when I turned around my
rod and reel were gone, dragged into the sea
by a monster fish. Nick started casting out
his line hoping to snag my line or my rod
and 5 minutes later he got it. I went out
into the surf 30 yards and grabbed my rod
and landed a big Striper who was still hooked
on the other end. We released the fish on
principle. I honestly don’t know what
the heaviest fish I’ve ever caught is,
although I’m 99 percent sure it would
be some species of shark. I’ve caught
big Tuna and Billfish but you never bring
sharks into the boat or weigh them, they just
get released at the side.
Q: How did you come up with the name
of the show, and should I ask what “F.S.”
stands for?
I wrote the name on my mousepad one night,
I don’t remember why, it just sounded
funny, “Brownie Troop.” The FS
means “fishing show.”
Q: Would you like to see BrownieTroopFS
grow from an Internet show to something done
for local or even national television?
If the opportunity presented itself, yes
definitely. If I could get someone to fund
my fishing addiction that would be almost
as good as getting paid to play music, the
two things I love the most.
Q: In all honesty, are you a better
fisherman or musician? And which would you
rather do?
Ha, fortunately there’s room for both
things fortunately and there’s always
some other guy that makes you realize that
you don’t know shit about fishing or
guitar there… junior. I am going to
take the test for my Captain’s license
coming up and I’m hoping to run charters
someday.
Q: If we can get off topic for a
minute, Gene Ween is about to play some big
solo shows in the NJ/NYC area. What’s
up with that, and does it affect the future
of Ween the Band?
Our drummer Claude Coleman wants to take
a break from touring so right now we are on
sort of a forced hiatus. Aaron is doing some
solo gigs and then he and I are going to kick
it old school as a duo with our tape deck
in January. We have some gigs in the mid-west.
Q: What are you looking forward to
most in 2009?
A lot more fishing. I’m dreading the
winter months when the bite sort of shuts
down in this area.
Q: Tell the nice people reading this
how they can watch Brownie Troop F.S. and
what other merch you have for them.
You can watch all of the episodes at www.brownietroopfs.com
and the show also airs on Comcast out
in the San Francisco Bay area. The TV schedule
is on the website.
Thanks, and good fishin’!
