From the January/February 2015 issue of Sporting Classics.
Jim Belushi has accomplished a lot in life, but he’s still waiting to bag his first elk.
In addition to his prolific work in movies, TV, improvisational comedy, and live music, Belushi recently decided to revive his long-latent love for the outdoors. I had the pleasure of being there—camera in tow—to capture Belushi on his quest while producing shows for my company, Orion Entertainment. I’ve learned that with Belushi around, there’s always plenty of action, even when the game doesn’t provide it.
I experienced this not long ago when he joined me for an elk hunt at Willow Creek Ranch in Montana during a shoot for Ram Outdoorsman,which appears on the Outdoor Channel. During the taping, we spent two days tracking elk and eventually came upon two huge bulls As the sun went down, we knew exactly where to find the beasts come daylight.
“And the next thing I know, I’m all tangled in line and the hook’s taking a piece out of me.”
As Belushi later recounted, the next morning he woke at 4:50 a.m. to relieve himself, but when he did, he felt an intense pain in his back. Undeterred and eager to bag an elk, he went to the kitchen to prepare for the hunt. Then all of a sudden, he fell to the floor in pain. We rushed him to the hospital to discover he had a kidney stone.
Belushi tells it like this: “The morphine they gave me felt like children’s aspirin. Then they kicked me up to Fentanyl, and at that point, I wanted to marry the nurse. She ended my suffering, and I was in love with her. I was the lion with a thorn in its paw, and she plucked it out.”
It’s no surprise that a man who can make kidney stones entertaining does the same for fly fishing. In the Bahamas taping episodes for Buccaneers & Bones, which also appears on the Outdoor Channel, Belushi fit right in with our all-star cast of anglers as he tried his hand at the sport.
At Bair’s Lodge on Andros Island, Belushi learned from the best—namely, Lefty Kreh. Within ten minutes of practicing on land, Kreh had him casting over bushes and into corners on a dime. Belushi was confident, admitting he was “pretty good.”
Later that day, on the water looking for bonefish, the guide told Belushi to cast at eleven o’clock.
“So I just go for it,” says Belushi. “And, the next thing I know, I’m all tangled in line and the hook’s taking a piece out of me. Turns out, I’m a great fly caster on land but out on the water is another story.”
Despite his learning curve, Belushi caught a lot of bonefish and accomplished one of his most dubious angling achievements when he ventured out with Jimmy Kimmel and Huey Lewis.
While on the boat, Lewis and Belushi sang old blues songs together, and he and Kimmel constructed jokes. They even did some fishing.
“Jimmy tried to teach me one thing,” says Belushi. “He brought his cellphone out in a plastic, waterproof bag. I thought that was overkill.”
Soon the guide pointed at the water, directing Belushi where to cast. When Belushi did, he actually hit a bonefish on the head, but it still slashed the fly. Then Belushi took a half step back, tried to set the hook, and without thinking, went right off the boat into the water.
“I surfaced like a sea monster, but I still had that bone hooked,” Belushi says. “So I reeled as I walked around the boat and pulled in the fish. It was just like that scene in A River Runs Through It, except I’m not Brad Pitt, and he didn’t have an iPhone in his pocket—without a Ziploc.”
In addition to our adventures in the field, Belushi and I collaborated on a DIY Network show that follows the actor-turned-angler as he builds his dream fishing lodge. On Oregon’s Rogue River, Belushi owns 13 acres, including 1,800 feet of shorefront. The property once operated as an Elks Club campground and still has an enormous barbecue pit, horseshoes, and 20 picnic tables to prove it. But no house.
Belushi and his wife are now building a beautiful, rustic lodge from reclaimed wood—the beams of longleaf pine date to 1867 and come from a Chicago factory not far from Wrigley Field.
“The property will have a small, comfortable two-bedroom house and an attached suite for me,” says Belushi. “Okay, well it’s really for my wife.”
Hunting Montana. Fishing the Bahamas. Building a lodge in Oregon. That would keep most people busy enough. But not Jim Belushi. Since wrapping his TV series According to Jim in 2009, he hasn’t stopped.
“I’ve had this low-level anger all year, and I trace it to missing out on that elk.”
He just finished shooting three movies: Change of Heart with Virginia Matson and directed by Kenny Ortega; Man on Carrion Road with Ian McShane and Patrick Wilson; and The Whole Truth with Renée Zellweger and Keanu Reeves. Soon Belushi will start production for a new HBO series called Show Me a Hero, directed by Paul Haggis and written by David Simon.
It’s no surprise that Belushi calls TV and film his “work work.” His “fun work” is performing with his Memphis-style blues band, The Sacred Hearts; raising roofs with Dan Akroyd as The Blues Brothers; and busting guts with his improvisational-comedy troop, The Board of Comedy.
Though success seems to follow Belushi, he’s got a burr under his saddle (or perhaps a stone in his urinary tract) about that bull elk that got away.
“Basically, I’m pissed off,” he jokes. “I’ve had this low-level anger all year, and I trace it to missing out on that elk.”
Something tells me he’ll get his hands on the trophy soon. When he does, you can bet I’ll have a crew there capturing every unpredictable moment. +++
Cover image, from left to right: Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Dorsey, and Jim Belushi.
Be sure to sign up for our daily newsletter to get the latest from Sporting Classics straight to your inbox.