INDIANAPOLIS — Fall Creek is a place familiar to many Hoosiers who walk, bike and drive along the over 50-mile-long waterway every day.
But to Joe King, it’s the place where he fell in love with fishing and the outdoors.
“Fall Creek took care of me. I felt I was obligated to give back," King told WRTV in an interview in 2014.
King says the long days catching crappies on the creek shaped him into the man he is today.
“It learned me patience. It taught me how to survive. And how to communicate with Mother Nature," King said.
A beloved outdoorsman, a mentor, a community leader. King is the founder of Dirty Dozen Hunting & Fishing Club, which was established in 1980.
Dirty Dozen laid the foundation for what is now the Outdoor Youth Exploration Academy (OYEA).
The 90-year-old has spent over four decades introducing thousands of inner-city children to hunting, fishing, archery and conservation.
“What we doing is exposing this inner city child to something different and something with more opportunity than throwing the basketball, throwing the football," he said.
Dirty Dozen is located in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood.
King estimates that 85% of the kids he works with are Black and says that often, his community is left out of the conversation when it comes to hunting and fishing.
“When I watch these hunting and fishing shows, I see all these white folks… and I says, ‘Why is it like that? Why I don’t see no Black folks out here? Black folks fish. Black folks hunt. How come I don’t see that?’”
It’s a question that piqued the interest of filmmaker Lindsey Haskin.
“I met him up in Michigan when he was salmon fishing with mentors from his club," Haskin said.
Haskin was working on his documentary The Fish Thief: A Great Lakes Mystery, a documentary that explores the ecological crisis in the Great Lakes caused by the invasive sea lamprey.
King is featured in the film.
“I admire what he’s doing with kids that don’t have that opportunity to get out and do, enjoy and learn about nature," Haskin said.
The Fish Thief will have a special screening at the Madam Walker Legacy Center on September 16, 2025, at 7 p.m.
