Flying fish goes viral for Marion County fisherman

MARION COUNTY – Swimming in a Harvey County pond may be the most famous four-inch bluegill in history. Its online image has been seen by people in many countries and was featured on at least three television networks.

Its claim to fame? When it bit into what it thought was a worm on Aug. 31, within seconds it was flying into the air, and eventually hanging suspended near the smiling face of Derek Klingenberg, maker of the 91-second “I caught a fish with my drone” YouTube video.

“It’s at somewhere over 1 1/2 million hits already, and was over a million in five days,” Klingenberg said Thursday at his family’s farm in Marion County. “It was on the Today Show, CNN called right away. I have a friend in Bolivia and it came on their television news in Spanish. It’s wild what a small world it can be.”

But Klingenberg’s “small world” has had many millions of followers since he started uploading his Farmer Derek videos a few years ago on YouTube.

A full-time farmer and cattle producer with his brother, Grant, and father, Vernon, most of Kingenberg’s videos have carried an agricultural angle, mixed with comedy, music and often produced as a parody for a currently popular song.

His “Serenading the cattle with my trombone” has more than 9.4 million online views to see Klingenberg sit in the middle of a tall grass pasture and call a herd of black cattle to the sounds of his trombone.“What does a farmer say,” a parody on “The Fox,” a song by Ylvis has more than 6 million views.

Other videos on topics such as finding unfriendly bumble bees in fresh cut hay, an opossum in the barn and the joys of being a farm dog have scored well for Klingenberg, who gets royalties from those who advertise on his YouTube videos.

“I’ve always had a creative side and get these weird ideas all the time,” Klingenberg said of how he comes up with his ideas. He credits hours spent riding in tractors and combines with helping him have plenty of time to think.

A professional bluegrass musician, music video and commercial producer in the past, the 36-year-old does most of his own writing, singing, videoing and editing. His brother, Grant, helps in many videos. Some feature others in his family, like his three young daughters.

As for fishing with a drone?

“I just came up with the idea this spring, but it took me a while to get out there because we’ve been so busy farming,” he said. “It only took me 10 minutes to get the fish and the video. After that I raced up home and put it up.”

Klingenberg admits he’s not much of an angler, and that he forgot to take bait to his in-laws’ pond to get the video. His gear was a few feet of line below his drone, a bobber and a small piece of plastic worm he found in a tackle box on a hook. It took several tries before he was able to set the hook into a biting fish and lift the bluegill from the water with the small drone.

But what if it had been a bigger fish, like an eight-pound bass or even bigger channel cat that hit the lure?

“It could have really messed with it, I guess,” he said. “It could have made things interesting. I guess I’d hope the line would break (before the drone got pulled in to the water.) I was just doing it for fun. I’d never seriously fish with it.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Flying fish goes viral for Marion County fisherman."