Recently in Fly Fishing Videos Category

Master tournament caster Steve Rajeff demonstrates the three common styles of spey casting, including traditional greased-line, Scandanavian, and Skagit.

Excerpt: "Over a hundred and fifty years ago in Scotland, there was a style developed just called traditional 'spey casting.' It's where we use a fixed line -- perhaps 80, 90 or 100 feet long -- and you lock it down and maintain that distance. You pick up the line, making a tremendous D loop behind, and cast out, changing direction."

Little-visited but with enough water to fill a few fishing lifetimes, Tasmania was the debarkation point for European trout that were later distributed to New Zealand, Australia and other fisheries of the region. A new clip from the brand new DVD "The Source: Tasmania offers an intriguing glimpse of fishing "way down under" with a look at trout fishing on the island's western lakes.

"RISE," the highly anticipated follow-up to last year's DVD "Drift," began shipping just this week. MidCurrent visitors get a sneak peek at one of the more powerful segments of the movie: Rene Harrop talking about his close connection with Idaho's Henry's Fork.

As Harrop says of his experience of becoming inseparable from the river, "I think I was destined to be here and to make my life right here. And that's the way it's been. 55 years later I still feel the same excitement, the same surge of energy and the sense of something very special about this place. The truest sense of happiness, of joy, is when we're where we want to be, and we're doing what we want to do."

Watch the video on MidCurrent.

RA Beattie's new DVD "Nervous Water" is a compilation of all the best work from the filmmaker's five years of shooting fly fishing adventures. With over two-and-a-half hours of video -- several longer pieces along with a dozen or so short segments -- the DVD is filled with examples of Beattie's ability to frame a fishing scene so that it can't possibly be forgotten. This week on MidCurrent we show you a segment RA calls "the Redfish Cut" -- a narrative on sightcasting for waking and tailing redfish along the south Texas coastline.

Buy "Nervous Water" on MidCurrent

According to New Zealand's 3News.co.nz, the film two kiwi fishing partners made about the phenomenon of a "mouse hatch" that occurs once every 5-10 years is the surprise hit of 2009. "Once in a Blue Moon" by Carl McNeil and Earl Kingi, which first became available this summer in the U.S., is already in the top ten of some outdoors DVDs sales lists. And it all had a fairly innocent start, says McNeil: "'The idea for "Once in a Blue Moon" - I spent years and years with my mate Earl and we sat by a river and seeing all the glorious stuff every day and we thought we should probably make a film on this,' says McNeil. 'And we said this every fishing trip for about 10 or 15 years and we had seen a lot of fishing films and really felt that they had never done fly fishing any justice."

Watch a segment from "Once In a Blue Moon" on MidCurrent.

"Once In a Blue Moon," a beautifully shot film that tells the story of catching large New Zealand trout during a "mouse year," won the The Drake magazine's Fly Fishing Video Award competition during the Denver FFR show. You can see a segment of the film here on MidCurrent, and watch the award-winning clip here.

Buy the DVD here.

Director Jamie Howard's multi-year project to capture the excitement of trophy bass fishing on film has finally been completed, and "Bass: The Movie" will premiere at the Pacific Design Center in Hollywood, California on October 17th, 2009. The movie "pits fly rod fisherman and conventional rod fisherman on the same boat to share approaches and cultures side by side." (Two excellent trailers can be found on the Howard Films Web site.)

The movie will be released to public on 2-disc DVD set October 31, 2009.

Read the full press release in the extended entry.

Field & Stream's Kirk Deeter demonstrates how a short upstream cast sets the stage for an easy cross-stream presentation -- a great way to avoid bushes and trees at your back.

Some of us are not natural entomologists. We couldn't find reason to pay attention in biology class, and we have a hard time with minutiae in general. But fly fishing draws us closer to insects and demands at least occasional attention to the details of insect life cycles.

Fortunately, there are folks like Ralph and Lisa Cutter who are both fly fishing school instructors and well-known cinematographers. This week we're happy to help along the bug-challenged in our crowd by highlighting the Cutters' video "The Mayfly," which shows in great detail how burrowers differ from clingers and swimmers from crawlers.

On the release of "The River Runs Through It" in Blu-ray HD format, MTV interviews Tom Skerritt and asks what the movie means to the actor more than fifteen years after its original release. "'It turned out every way I hoped it would,' recalls Skerritt. 'And that would mean it would be a classic film. These films hold up forever. You can look at them again and they'll always touch you on a different level.'"

CBS2.com got hold of the video of Jeff Patterson's great white shark catch and put it on Yahoo. (Thanks to David Dalu for this link.)

You might also check out Sean Fallon's entry and comments on the story at Gizmodo.

There's some extraordinary footage on the PBS Web site from marine biologist and award-winning filmmaker Rick Rosenthal, who just completed documenting his two-year exploration of giant billfish in "Superfish." This particular segment shows Rosenthal coming across a juvenile sailfish while watching an adult sailfish feeding at night. (Thanks to David Dalu for this link.)

Writer John DeVore offers a somewhat different take on "The River Runs Through It," which after 17 years will re-emerge in Blu-Ray format on July 28. "Those scenes are strangely lulling, never boring and like the river of the title, the drama bubbles underneath. It is during these sequences that you can see why this flick was picked for the Blu-Ray treatment, as the crisp, burbling water seems to splash off the screen." On Premiere.com.

The Fly Fishing Film Tour has entered into a new marketing and content delivery relationship with the Outdoor Channel. From yesterday's press release: "Under the partnership, Outdoor Channel and FFFT will deliver popular fly fishing content to enthusiasts while partnering with each other for cross-promotional opportunities on air, on tour, through video-on-demand (VOD) and online to give Outdoor Channel's viewers and affiliates access to an expanded, best-in-class variety of fly fishing content that includes the widest range of fly fishing activities."

When we first heard of "Once In A Blue Moon" last fall, we thought it was going to be just another pretty fishing video. Well, in fact it is a pretty fishing video, but with some obvious extras: clever scripting, a unique story, and some of the most gorgeous camera work we've seen in a fly fishing DVD.

"Once In A Blue Moon" follows an attempt by some New Zealand fly fishers to track down what can be loosely called a "mouse hatch." The idea of hitting the timing just right -- when an explosion in the rodent population puts the biggest trout on the feed -- leads to landing some very nice fish on big mouse patterns in stunningly beautiful surroundings. As a bit of early-summer escapism, we're happy to show you a lengthy clip from the DVD, which is just now available for sale in the U.S.

Two fly fishing magazines -- one Canadian and one U.S. -- have combined resources in a new streaming video site that describes itself as "the web's first and only streaming HD 1080i fly fishing video portal." Fly Max Films HD Theater already has an impressive set of large-format videos: segments on fly fishing in Stuart, Florida, Alaska fly fishing with April Vokey, and fly fishing for gar, among the 13 clips on the site. The project is co-produced by Hatches magazine and The Canadian Fly Fisher, whose Nick Pujic said in a press release yesterday, "'Not only are we more than tripling the resolution of other web videos typically found on you-tube or other such sites, but we are also offering this new technology to our clients, so they can host and stream their own HD video on their own websites."

Kirk Deeter shows how lifting a pile of fly line with the rod tip can help improve your timing on the stream. On FieldandStream.com.

50 to 90% of a trout's diet consists of subsurface food, depending on the species of fish and availability of hatches. And as any converted dry fly purist can tell you, nymph fishing demands at least as much study as drifting dries, if only because fishing beneath the surface offers so few clues from both the fly and the fish. In this week's MidCurrent video, John Smeraglio demonstrates a particularly effective to fish subsurface: using a single nymph with a strike indicator on a hinged leader. The video comes from Smeraglio and Hafele's new "Advanced Nymph Fishing" DVD, which contains almost 3 hours of detailed instruction on everything from setting up single and multi-nymph systems to modifying mending techniques for better results.

Buy "Advanced Nymph Fishing" on DVD.

On July 28, Sony Pictures will release "The River Runs Through It," which won the Academy Award in 1992 for Best Cinematography, on Blu-ray Disc. The re-mastered version will include several extras, like a Beginner's Guide to Fly Fishing by Brandon Boedecker (Paul Roos Outfitters), Robert Redford talking about the making of the movie, and a "featurette" documenting the film's contribution to the restoration of the Blackfoot River. There will even be "on-river" hi-definition looping screensavers for those who can't get enough. Sony's charging $38.96 for the set, which is packaged with "a 32-page book with photos, talent files and three pages of the Oscar-nominated screenplay."

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

"The memories and comments of the interviewees -- such as the artist and author Russell Chatham, Disney movie composer Mel Leven, or fisherman Tom Ungrin, who keeps his hands busy constantly making flies while being interviewed -- illustrate the story at least as well as the jazzed-up archival art." Christian Kallen reviews "Rivers of a Lost Coast," which will be released later this summer on DVD, in the Santa Rosa, California Press Democrat.

From pronouncing "Miami" like a true Florida cracker to showing how guides towed their underpowered skiffs into the backcountry and positioned themselves on the flats, the narrator of this old film segment -- revived by the IGFA -- gives as genuine a picture of 1950s Florida Keys bonefishing as you'll find anywhere. The clip features the legendary Captain Jimmie Albright and shows the "GAF Ashaway experimental nylon" fly line ("Jimmie examines this line with interest") and Albright's bucktail fly. The camera even captures the angler casting to and hooking a big tarpon in 2 feet of water.

Also interesting is that the leader Albright used would in today's terms might be considered a "stealth rig," tapering down to 6-pound tippet (tied to the fly with a clinch knot). Of course a 6-pound tippet in 1959 would have had a considerably larger diameter than today's materials -- a reminder of how technology has changed the sport.

This week on MidCurrent master one-handed and two-handed casting instructor Jeff Putnam takes us saltwater fly fishing on the boundary between shoreline and estuary. Putnam manages tricky currents and places his flies in the spots most likely to hold baitfish and predators, using the extra length of a switch rod to cast and control his line. Watch "Fly Fishing Shoreline Surf and Estuaries."

Kirk Deeter of Field & Stream says it's pretty simple to figure out the timing of your backcast: just imagine you have a cup of water and you're tossing it behind you. Another clever video from the crew who brought us the motorcycle reel tests.

London Telegraph travel writer Nick Trend -- who admits to being a novice fly fisher -- explores the brown trout fishery of Iceland in a new video and article on the paper's site. "The brown trout that lurk in Iceland's lakes and rivers are among the biggest you will find anywhere. They feed heartily in the deep, clear water, unmolested by predators except for the occasional angler. A typical fish, like this one, reaches five pounds; sometimes they weigh more than double that."

This week on MidCurrent we introduce a film segment from last year's very popular visual journey "Drift." The DVD, directed by Chris Patterson of Warren Miller films fame, put the lens to a variety of fly fishing destinations and to the unique characters that call them home. This particular clip includes a profile of John and Amy Hazel, whose lives revolve around steelhead fishing on Oregon's Deschutes River.

Excerpt: "The real draw is that steelhead are a fish of a thousand casts. So one's gotta become a pretty good caster if they're fishing for steelhead, because truly - if you average it all out - you get one steelhead to hand about every eight hours."

There are plenty of fly fishers who, like Charles Rangeley-Wilson, say of that if they could give up everything for a single fish, it would be bonefish. But there aren't many people who can communicate the excitement of bonefishing the way Rangeley-Wilson can. This week we add a clip from the writer and photographer's recent "Bonefish: A Fishing Odyssey."

Excerpt: "It is like a drug. I think that's what it is. What is it about bonefish? You know every fisherman asks themselves, 'If I could give up everything, for one fish, in one place, what would it be?' And the more I go, the more I'm sure it would be a big bonefish in the Caribbean."

If you've been in a Facebook fly fishing group, trolled a few steelhead forums, or seen her double-handed casting videos on YouTube, you probably know that April Vokey is something of a phenomenon: an attractive young woman who's grown up addicted to fly fishing. You might not know that she is also an ardent conservationist and completely unafraid to speak her mind on water quality and fish protection issues. Vokey, who runs FlyGal.ca when she's not covering water with a fly, was just interviewed by Zach Matthews on Itinerant Angler. It's worth the half an hour or so to hear what motivates this B.C. angler to stay on the river.

For many fly fishers, tying a backing knot is like programming a car radio clock -- it's simple enough when you follow the manual, but just about impossible to remember a few months later. But if you fly fish for species that make big runs -- "sawing" your connections in and out of a rod tip, or if you regularly change fly lines on a reel, being able to rig effective backing connections offers serious advantages.

This week George Anderson demonstrates how to tie one of the most elegant of connecting knots, the Blind Splice Loop, which adds a thin-profile loop to the end of your backing. The Blind Splice Loop intimidates most anglers because it looks quite complicated. But as George shows, a tool that costs only a couple of bucks, along with a little patience and dexterity, will have you tying them like a pro.

One thing modern technology has brought us in the past five years is remarkable access to media, and fortunately fly fishing isn't excluded from the mix. Now you can watch Robert Redford's adaption of Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" online -- full-length, no commercial interruptions, even full-screen if you like. First noted by Moldy Chum.

Whether or not you fish with bamboo or ever care to, there's no denying that split cane rods touch the heart of fly fishing. Aficionados declare that hand-crafted bamboo has "soul," that each rod's uniqueness can be felt. To hear an expert angler who occasionally fishes bamboo for its unique qualities tell why is even more interesting, especially if that person is Thomas McGuane.

This week we're happy to show Tom fishing and talking about bamboo rods and their role in the sport. It's a long excerpt from the DVD "Trout Grass," which also is one of the few films that captures legendary rod builder Glenn Brackett at work. "Trout Grass," which is narrated by David James Duncan, is one of our favorites.

Tom Bie explains the circuitous route by which the Fly Fishing Film Tour landed back in the hands of The Drake after two years of efforts by AEG to make a business of bringing Warren-Miller-style fly fishing films to various venues around the country. In the plans: giving filmmakers a share of profits. "And that is really the most important thing. Because the average flyfishing film tour attendee doesn't give a damn who owns the tour, he's just looking for an excuse to get out of the house on a cold weeknight in March."

Pocketwater is a puzzle to most fly fishers, both because of its zig-zagging currents and because wading and positioning is so often a challenge. In this latest addition to MidCurrent's video collection, LaFontaine gives tips on fly size and casting strokes, and offers excellent small-water advice, like false-casting to the side so that water coming off the fly doesn't spook the fish.

Excerpt: "You're making short casts. And your equipment has to be tailored to that casting style. You have a six- to seven-foot leader, tapered 3- or 4X, and generic flies: generic mayflies, generic caddisflies, generic attractors. So that's all sounds pretty easy. But there's a lesson here that everyone should know. Not only the beginner but maybe even the experienced angler should come and refresh his memory on a stream like this."

More fly fishing videos on MidCurrent.

On Fishing Jones, Pete McDonald interviews filmmakers Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor, whose upcoming "Rivers of the Lost Coast" promises to be a multi-layered account of the history of west coast U.S. steelheading. Though brief, the interview offers some interesting detail about the filmmakers's subject: "Most of the innovation in California came out of the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club in San Francisco. A lot of the stuff that we take for granted today was designed and refined back in the 40s and 50s by the GGACC, Winston, Powell, Sunset Line, Jimmy Green, Pete Schwab, Jim Pray, Myron Gregory, Buddy Tarantino, Phil Mirravelle." Don't miss the anecdote about Ted Lindner's hatred of Bill Schaadt, either.

Last month, just when it seemed like another winter of slowly rising temperatures would melt every icicle from Maine to Montana, the skies grabbed hold and buried many fly fishers in white stuff. The temptation is to grab a hot drink, sit by the fire and wait it out. But as R.A. Beattie's video short "Winter" shows, those who are scared off by a little frozen precipitation may miss some of the most extraordinary fishing of the year. Anyone who watches the heads and tails in this clip and doesn't get excited should be checked for a heartbeat.

Excerpt: "People who don't live in the mountains are usually surprised when they hear we fish in winter. While it may be cold, this is when some of the best fishing actually occurs. Most of the time you're nymphing deeper stretches, but when the water temperature rises above freezing, we see fantastic midge hatches."

Last night Moldy Chum reported that Thad Robison, Chris Owens, and Justin Crump have departed AEG, the group responsible for the Fly Fishing Film Tour and for many recent fly fishing DVDs.

You don't have to be a fanatical fly tier to appreciate the classic beauty of Spey patterns. There's something naturally artistic in their design, and much that is mysterious about their effectiveness. This week we offer a video from master steelheader and fly tier Dec Hogan that may help explain why anglers and tiers are drawn to Spey patterns. Watch Hogan explain the steps for tying "The Mahoney" to understand a little of the magic.

Excerpt: "Fly patterns that really get my juices flowing are Spey flies and derivatives of the Spey flies and Dee flies. Long flowing hackles. Simple elegance, if you will. They're just beautiful, beautiful flies. And a gentleman by the name of Syd Glasso several decades ago brought them to steelhead fishing in America."

The Trout Unlimited film crew travels to Arkansas so that Frank Smethurst can fish with expert guide John Wilson for big brown trout. Wilson spots an out-sized Little Red brown, Smethurst casts, fish eats. Film records 35-inch brown trout. "Great Guppy Hunter" smirks. Crew leaves muttering about all the time they've wasted video-taping 12-inch trout in other parts of the country.

"'Look there, see that monster ... 20 pounds, 25 pounds ... and there are some little ones beside them that are 25 inches!' Wilson said as he pointed them out. Dennis and I would look at each other and admit that often we didn't see them. To Wilson, it's an easy task. It would be like the rest of us noticing that there is a new couch in the living room." Clay Henry on HawgsIllustrated.com.

"Today, of course, most people consider nymphing a legitimate way to fish (although it's strictly a method of last resort for some anglers). But some folks who are perfectly comfortable dead-drifting a Pheasant Tail nymph through a deep run consider it 'practically bait fishing' (horrors!) to drift a Glo-Bug through the same spot." Morgan Lyle tries to decide whether producing fish after fish immediately marks a technique as cheating. In the Schenectady, New York Daily Gazette.

If glancing at a Glo-Bug doesn't give you a furrowed brow, you can watch Charles Meck tie one on MidCurrent.

Jamie Howard, the filmmaker behind "In Search of a Rising Tide," "Chasing Silver" and "Location X," has been hard at work on a new production that puts fly fishers and plug casters in a state of frenzy trying to catch big bass on top-water flies and lures. He just let us know that "Bass: The Move" will begin airing on ESPN2 as 3-minute mini-movies in the Saltwater Sundays programming beginning December 28 at 8:26 AM EST. (On Saturday January 17 there will be a showing at 9:30 AM as well.)

Howard described some of the results of many months of shooting: "One of the differences between us and the standard bass show -- including the presence of a fly rod -- is we target one big fish like in saltwater and we keep it visual hunting by going topwater or by fishing in clear water." More info at howardfilms.com.

If you're not a steelheader, you may not have noticed the lines blurring between traditional two-handed casting and single-handed rod techniques. At most you might have heard of switch rods, a strange and wondrous invention that gives big-river anglers the flexibility to cast using both single-handed and two-handed techniques. To offer a simple example, think of the added advantage that an 11-foot rod gives you when roll casting long distances and making big mends. The same rod can handle basic spey casts and perform single-handed distance casting with ease.

This week California fly casting instructor Jeff Putnam puts a switch rod through its paces, demonstrating a variety of ways in which to take advantage of the rod's unique abilities. While he focuses on the Snap-T cast, you'll pick up a lot of useful tips by watching him manage his line both before and after casting.

In my continuing search for video that rejects the whole notion of "fish porn," and suppressing my envy of those who have the luxury and talent to deliver gorgeous Web design, I watched the trailer for "Rivers of a Lost Coast" on their new site this morning. There is a treasury of stuff growing here -- all focused on the history and personalities of the northwest steelhead fishing culture -- and hopefully the producers will continue to add outtakes, clips and audio tracks that were unused in the film. For example, on the audio clips page, Russell Chatham, Frank Bertaina, Jim Adams and several others talk about the fishing lifestyle, interpersonal rivalries and the fish themselves. Also be sure to check out the segment on the origin of the "Thor" pattern, which helped prove that winter steelhead would eat flies.

There are more than two or three wonderful quotes from Holly Morris's 1997 essay on fly fishing literature in The New York Times, but this may be my favorite: "While baseball is among the sports (some might include golf here) that inspire a certain devotion, even fanaticism, fly-fishing leads its lovers into fundamental connections, inviting a slow dance with the whimsy of the natural world, a love affair with line and rhythm and simplicity. Angling delivers the wily spiritual satisfactions that come with giving yourself to something that offers only intangible payback." The next time someone asks you "Why fly fishing?," send them this link and suggest they buy a copy of the Jeffrey Pill/AMFF DVD. If those won't hook them, nothing will.

New on MidCurrent: George Anderson shares a video from his new knot-tying DVD "Terminal Tactics for Fly Fishing." He shows his preferred technique for tying the Bimini Twist, one of the more difficult knots to tie in fly fishing, but one of the very best at maintaining tippet strength. He also shows how to finish the resulting double line with a Surgeon's Loop -- an important feature for quick-change leaders in saltwater.

Excerpt: "I'm going to double over a loop in my hand and I'm going to make it about 18 inches long. I'm going to make 25 turns in this by just taking my fingers and rotating them around slowly. Now once I get the 25 turns in there, the tricky way to tie it is to put it over your knee. Now I'm going to grab the tag end, and the long end, and I'm going to pull on both of these and compress this so that the Y ends up down in here. But don't go too far, or you'll kink the leader."

This morning, Wall Street Journal writer Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg talks about the recently released DVD "Tarpon" in the paper's Weekend Journal section. Trachtenberg begins, "A recently restored film featuring a trio of writers fishing for tarpon in the early 1970s has started attracting attention in literary and fly fishing circles."

You can read the full article and watch an outtake here.

American Angler magazine spent the entire FFR show in Denver shooting interviews with top fly fishing manufacturers, and late last week they posted the results on their Web site. Here's K.C. Walsh talking about the new 360-degree lug Vibram sole that is part of Simms's aggressive move into felt-free soles for wading boots and shoes. From that link you can also see a variety of other videos covering the new product lines of Ross, Renzetti, Patagonia, Orvis, Flambeau, Sage, Winston, K-Pump, Mustad, G.Loomis, St. Croix, Hardy and Grey's and lots of others.

You'd be hard pressed to find a serious trout angler who doesn't have New Zealand on their life list. The brown trout there are legendary for their size and selectivity, and if sight-casting to big fish in complete solitude is your thing, there's hardly a better place.

This week we're showing a segment from theflyfishingDVD.com's new "Backcountry Trout," an example of the trend toward making downloads of high-quality fishing films available over the Web. Australian fly fishing expert Peter Morse, along with guide Nigel Birt, demonstrates how a careful approach, the correct fly choice, and observing fish reactions all make a difference on a bluebird day in the New Zealand lowlands.

In the Denver Post, Charlie Meyers talks about the "warm and fuzzy" reception given the new Patterson/Klug/Bie production "Drift," which was screened this last Tuesday at the Fly Fishing Retailer show. "'I wanted to take the Warren Miller formula of visiting familiar settings and showing the beautiful things about them,' [director Chris] Patterson said of a domestic selection that includes the Frying Pan, Bighorn, Green and Deschutes rivers. For a balance of the exotic, the movie visits Belize, Andros Island in the Bahamas and, as a fireworks finale, the rivers of the Kashmir sector of India. Patterson, a novice angler, came away surprised at the challenges."

You can watch the trailer for "Drift" on the Confluence Films Web site.

This week Joan Wulff demonstrates several advanced fly casting techniques, including changing directions, curve casts, and casts for weighted nymphs. While the techniques are described as "advanced," fly casters of all levels will appreciate her tips on dealing with the challenges of positioning and presentation on a trout stream.

Excerpt: "Right now I have deep water ahead of me, so a straight line cast would go over the rock, not in front of it. I'll do a curve cast, starting with a horizontal stroke to the target area. Then, as the line is unrolling I'll quickly move the rod sideward and pull it back in close to me in a curve, at the same time slipping line."

New on MidCurrent: Norm Crisp's video on "Collecting Stream Life for Better Nymph Fishing" is filled with tips for capturing subsurface bugs and improving your fly selections.

EXCERPT: "When you pull up that rock, if there is any current at all, as you pick it up and turn it over and move it around, suddenly those insects that were crawling around are going to be subject to far more current than they see in the stream and they're going to float away. You're not going to see what's really out there. So what we always like to do is to take a little kick net, put it down in the stream, reach upstream ahead of it, move the rocks around as much as you can, and let everything wash down into the screen."

Catch Magazine (www.catchmagazine.net) is a new online publication run by Brian O'keefe and Todd Moen. According to the magazine site, they are "searching the world for the best fly fishing photography, film and video." There's quite a collection of great photography here, plus some interesting hi-def video by Todd Moen covering Oregon steelhead and "world" fly fishing, and the new trailer from Confluence Films's Chris Patterson.

New on MidCurrent, Gary LaFontaine talks about strategies for fishing big freestone rivers, reminding us that it's not always obvious where the fish or how to catch them. "The middle of the river will hold fish, but you should never ignore the current flows along the edges and the associated pocket water. The side channels, with slower flows, sometimes provide fish with easier meals and a place to rest. They're always worth at least a quick exploration. There are times when large fish actually congregate in places like this, so always be ready."

What techniques contribute to better timing and higher line speed? As Joan Wulff shows us this week in "Distance Casting," modifying shoulder and elbow position, shooting line on the backcast, and adding single hauls can easily help further your reach. At the end of the video she also demonstrates a handy trick for creating loops that will not tangle when shooting line while wading.

Excerpt: "There are two stances that will solve all of the problems you encounter between distance and accuracy. Accuracy is a little bit like throwing a dart. It doesn't matter how you stand, but your shoulders are square to the target, the rod is vertical, and your hand comes in close to your face. As that line lengthens, drop back your right foot and shift your weight, and that makes your stroke a little bit longer. And as we get more line, it gets to be more like a baseball throw: we change our stance from square to the target to sideways to the target by rotating at the hips, opening the shoulders backward, and angling the rod off vertical to about 1:30."

The publisher of Fly Fisherman, Guns and Ammo, Shooting Times, Florida Sportsman, and Game & Fish magazines and parent company of The Sportsman Channel announced yesterday that it had acquired video content producer Barrett Productions, which was started by John Barrett in 1989. "'After 18 years of building up an attractive niche in the outdoors television marketplace, the opportunity to join forces with a powerful and professional company like InterMedia Outdoors is a dream come true for us. Our combined video library and production and content creation skills will be unrivaled in the outdoors arena,' said John Barrett, President of Barrett Productions."

Ryan Peterson, who works in the travel department at California's The Fly Shop, posted a long and decidedly low-tech blog entry on a recent trip to Kamchatka. In tow were the crew from Felt Soul Media and Frank Smethurst, who spent some time false-casting in Red Square. Via Moldy Chum.

For most expert casters, a single haul comes naturally: they do it almost unconsciously, sometimes very subtly, adding it as one more motion that increases their feel for the line. The double haul, of course, contributes greatly to line speed and is commonly used to counter the effects of wind and to shoot line. But its use extends to even short casts and windless days.

This week Joan Wulff demonstrates an easy method for learning the Double Haul, using an overhead camera to show when and how fast to move the line hand during the casting stroke.

As Gary LaFontaine says, "most of the problem in fishing high mountain lakes is finding the fish. Once you've found the fish, then you've got a few basic food forms." LaFontaine's video on how to fish a "Small Mountain Lake" shows where to find trout in high mountain lakes and how to feed them.

Excerpt: "A fairly steep shoreline is always good. Shorelines naturally gather food blown by the wind. You can fish lakes from the shoreline alone, but a float-tube or boat is more versatile. Bays too are a great place to find fish, as are the shelves and drop-offs associated with bays. Other good places are submerged trees, large rocks, or weed beds in deep water."

This week on MidCurrent Joan Wulff demonstrates the "Reach Cast." It's one of a trout angler's most useful techniques, providing longer drag-free drifts. A few key pointers on timing and technique also make it one of the easiest casts to perfect.

Excerpt: "A dry fly fisherman has to be aware of what we call 'drag.' Drag is that motion that makes the fly look as if it is a water-skier instead of a free-floating insect, and it's caused by the currents that work on the line and leader. So we need affect that by doing what we call a 'Reach Cast,' which will put the arm and the upper part of the rod upstream of the fly, so that the fly drifts down first."

As we noted back in June, Jamie Howard's new project involves pitting fly fishers against hardware guys in a challenge to catch big bass somewhere in the western U.S. Well it turns out that that place is the California delta, which, as Howard says, "is one weird and remote place and there are some true monsters that lie in there if you can find your way around." You can watch the new trailer here.

The roll cast puts all of the basic fly casting principles to use, and so learning it is one of the first steps in becoming a competent fly fisher. It's also one of the most useful casts, giving you options when your back is against high bushes or trees, and helping you quickly lift line off of the water before a new cast.

This week Joan Wulff, in her typically clear teaching style, demonstrates the mechanics of roll casting, breaking it down into steps and showing just where the hand and arm need to be during each stage. She also shows how a small shift in arm position allows fly fishers to deal with wind coming over the casting shoulder.

According to movie site Cinematical.com, William Hurt and Amber Heard will star in the adaptation of David James Duncan's philosophical novel "The River Why." Production, under the direction of Matt Leutwyler, will begin in Oregon early next month. "A coming-of-age fishing tale, the film will focus on 'a young man named Gus Orviston (Gilford) and his quest for an elusive rainbow trout, which is a metaphor for the man's internal search for self-knowledge.' Heard plays the object of his affection, 'a tomboy fly-fisher,' and Hurt plays his dad."

New on MidCurrent, watch R. A. Beattie's artful clip on fly fishing for small- and largemouth bass from the arid shoreline of Lake Powell.

This week on MidCurrent, Gary LaFontaine shows us how to best position ourselves for fishing attractor dry flies on a freestone stream. It's another segment from the DVD "Successful Fly Fishing Strategies" (Jeffrey Pill, producer), in which LaFontaine and former major league outfielder Dick Sharon demonstrate a wide range of situational strategies. LaFontaine tells why he favors the across-and-down presentation with attractors, and he even shows how to hold a trout without having it jump out of your hand.

"The videography is sensational. The landscape is dramatic. It's not often we get a look at such an exotic locale, nor the culture that resides in such vast and remote lands. But the Fish Bums might have done more -- and better. If the film suffers a significant shortfall, it is the absence of clarity about who is talking when, and to whom." Howard Meyerson on MLive.com.

It's been a long time coming -- thirty-four and a half years, to be exact -- but UYA Films has finally released the commercial version of the film "Tarpon." The re-mastered and color-corrected film is out on DVD, and having watched a bootleg copy of the original about 100 times, I was surprised by the quality of the new digitized version. Sure, there are a few "newsreel" scratches in the opening frames, but the scenes that matter most to me -- the young Tom McGuane talking with Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison sitting in a hammock "coming to terms" with the fish, and especially the magnificent tarpon jumps -- are even more mesmerizing.

Some quick backstory for those who've never heard of the film: "Tarpon" was filmed by Christian Odasso and Guy de la Valdene in Key West in 1974. They were inspired by the top guides of the era -- Woody Sexton, Gil Drake, Steve Huff and others -- to make a statement about what fly fishing for tarpon was really like and at the same time illustrate what threatened the fish and their habitat. The result was what Carl Hiaasen calls "a work of art."

But the best way to get a sense of what the film is all about is to watch the trailer, which we're happy to be able to show for the first time this week.

Trophy lake bass act like their saltwater cousins, busting bait and smashing plugs and flies, in the new HowardFilms project that follows the efforts of a fly fisher and a conventional angler to outfish one another. HowardFilms just put up a new trailer for "Bass: The Movie", and Jamie Howard himself sent me this comment after finishing the most recent shoot: "The interesting news is that the fly guys kinda won round 1...May have been right place, right time...but wow...it was a sight. They worked the shad conditions very well. The conventional guy did fairly well but could not compete with the depth control of the fly guys (T9...11...etc) Quite a thing to watch."

Those who have been lucky enough to see a bootleg copy of the movie "Tarpon," filmed in Key West in 1974, have seen a glimpse of what fly fishing for tarpon was like in the early days. The film never made it to market in the U.S. and the original footage sat in a barn in the French countryside for 35 years. Recently, Guy de la Valdene and UYA Films went back to the original footage and produced a re-mastered DVD of the original. Starting today, you can purchase "Tarpon" (UYA Films, 53 minutes, $34.95 plus shipping) from The Book Mailer in Helena, Montana: order online, call 1-800-874-4171, or email orders@thebookmailer.

Besides including some of the only footage of Richard Brautigan, the cult 60s poet and novelist, "Tarpon" also features commentary by legendary guides Woody Sexton, Steve Huff, and Gil Drake, as well as Page Brown, an ardent Keys conservationist. Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison are also featured in the film, and Jimmy Buffet composed the music. Many consider this film to be the first of the modern fishing films.

Tom Brokaw recently said of the film: "'Tarpon' is a timeless and beautifully executed film about life, sport and culture. You'll be moved, amused, outraged and, most of all, entertained." The film's message about the importance of releasing fish was far ahead of its time and prescient in highlighting the increasing pressure on fish by sportsmen, tourists and boaters.

We're very glad the producers thought the film worthy of the effort and expense it took to color-correct, clean and digitize the film, and we hope you'll support their decision to distribute the DVD. "Tarpon" is a slice of time and a piece of art, but it's also a message that concerned anglers can make a difference in protecting our resources. After more than three decades tarpon fishing continues to be a fantastic experience for fly fishing experts and novices, in part because the artists and anglers of the day recognized the growing threats to the fish and their habitat.

"The Lost World of Mr. Hardy" (TrufflePig Films, DVD, 97 minutes), by Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier, documents the remarkable history of the people and inspiration behind the hand-made rods and reels that established Hardy's as the first high-end fly tackle manufacturer in the world. As founder J.J. Hardy said at the end of the 19th century, "Only the best is good enough for fishermen." You can watch several out-takes and the trailer on MidCurrent.

Gary LaFontaine gained wide notoriety for his sparkle pupa series of fly patterns and for his classic book Caddisflies. But to the people who were lucky enough to know him, he was more than just another very knowledgeable fly fisher. He was, as one friend told me, "the kind of guy you could sit down and have a beer with, and come away with some bit of knowledge you'd never considered before." The fly fishing world lost one of its great mentors when LaFontaine died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2002.

This week we're happy to begin a series of showings from the DVD "Successful Fly Fishing Strategies," in which LaFontaine and former major league outfielder Dick Sharon demonstrate a wide range of situational strategies. Besides being another example of Jeffrey Pill's truly fine filmwork, the DVD is packed with tips on how to handle everything from small stream pocketwater to undercut banks. This first segment covers "Deep Water Nymphing" and shows how indicators and weight are effectively employed in high water.

As we noted last month, "Red Gold," a film about the controversy surrounding the building of a mine in the middle of a critically important Alaska watershed, was to hold its premiere at the prestigious Telluride MountainFilm festival. Now the votes are counted, and Travis Rummel's and Ben Knight's work came away with both the Festival Director's Award and the Audience Award, which, as the MountainFilm site notes, is considered by some distributors to be "a much better harbinger of success for a film than a juried award."

Watch the trailer for "Red Gold" on MidCurrent.

This week on MidCurrent, guide and filmmaker R.A. Beattie shares his terrific short film on the relationship between Alaskan guide Mark Rutherford and his daughter Kate, who is also a guide. Not only does the film showcase the young filmmaker's talent, it's a teaser for a larger story, which Beattie introduces here:

"In July of 2006 Mark Rutherford, of Wild River Guides, and I were dropped at the headwaters of an un-run tributary of the Upper Nushigak River in Bristol Bay Alaska. We were strangers. We had only spent the last 20 hours together before this point, but had created enough trust during a winter of phone conversations to attempt a dangerous endeavor: a first descent of a virtually unknown river. Our trip was a monumental success, but did not come easy. We struggled through a twelve-hour portage from our landing pond to the headwaters, fought hypothermia during viscous storms, sustained almost entirely on salmon (which were sometimes difficult to find), and managed to capture some astounding footage."

It's been a long time in the making, but Felt Soul Media's documentary on Alaska's Pebble Mine controversy is finally going to be unveiled at Telluride's Mountainfilm, the outdoor adventure film festival that this year runs from May 23 to 26. Felt Soul hopes to have Red Gold on DVD in late June, and a limited edition Blu-Ray DVD later in the summer. Both should be available at www.feltsoulmedia.com.

Apparently it is still not to late to support the "Red Gold" project. As Travis Rummel noted, "We are wrapping up the credit list in the next week and we could still use any support you can contribute to the effort. All donations are tax deductible and if you donate over $500 your name will appear in the credits of Red Gold, but please hurry as we are almost all wrapped up."

If you haven't yet seen the Red Gold trailer, you can watch it on MidCurrent.

The Hare's Ear nymph is one of those patterns that belongs in any trout fisher's fly box, in almost any season. The folks at The Hollywood Casting Couch demonstrate -- in a decidedly un-classic atmosphere -- the key steps in tying and finishing this useful pattern. This tying clip is from "Fly Tying: The Beginning" (The Hollywood Casting Couch, 2007, 2 hours and 35 minutes), a two-DVD set that teaches several classic patterns, including the Black-Nose Dace, Hare's Ear Nymph, Hendrickson, Caddis, and the Black Leech. As Fly Tyer editor David Klausmeyer said in his review of this DVD set: "If I were giving away awards for the best fly-tying DVDs, then 'Fly Tying: The Beginning' would walk away with the trophy for Learn While You Laugh...."

No one really expects a specialty museum in a town like Manchester, Vermont to get into the film business, much less invest a lot of time, money and effort into producing something unique. But that's just what the American Museum of Fly Fishing did when they hired Jeffrey Pill to produce "Why Fly Fishing," which in the short time it has been out has become the sleeper hit of the season.

Not only were Pill and the Museum able to convince key folks to participate, they got the story, delivery and production just right. The result is a half-hour film that actually inspires, rather than simply excites. This week we are glad to begin a series of showings of segments from "Why Fly Fishing," starting with the film's introduction, which features Flip Pallot, Joan Wulff, Diana Rudolph, John Gierach and others.

The WWW (Woven Wire Weevil) is an extension of the Jeremy Davies "Evil Weevil" pattern from Alberta Canada. With the addition of tungsten and a woven wire body, the pattern takes on a whole new look. Substituting yellow/black wire produces a convincing bee/wasp imitation, and by using a chartreuse/olive combination the fly becomes a capable caddis attractor.

Since the pattern will ride hook-up in the water, it's a super-durable bottom-bouncing fly -- perfect for any Czech nymphing and tight-line arsenal.

New on MidCurrent.

There are two reasons why "Joan Wulff's Dynamics of Fly Casting" has outsold almost every other fly fishing DVD that's been made to date: Joan Wulff and Jeffrey Pill.

Joan Wulff hardly needs an introduction. She dominated international casting competitions at a time when only men were winning medals, and she became a pre-eminent teacher of fly casting techniques. Director and producer Jeffrey Pill, on the other hand, should be a household name. His work in developing Joan's instructional video, his earlier production of "Successful Fly Fishing Strategies" (with Gary LaFontaine), and then the later "The Art of Spey Casting" set standards that few fly fishing filmmakers have approached. I suppose we should expect as much from someone who is a former senior producer of "20/20" and series producer of "In Search Of" with Leonard Nimoy. You won't find many glory shots in Jeff Pill's videos, but you know after watching them that they will be just as valuable in 50 or 100 years as they are today.

This week we're pleased to show you a biography of Wulff that Pill produced for "Dynamics." It's a cool bit of video about a remarkable woman. New on MidCurrent.

Dave Whitlock is the focus of a well-written biography in this morning's Billing's Gazette. Fortunately the writers also took time to film an interview with Whitlock and here the celebrated instructor and tier talks about fishing the Bighorn by canoe in the years before it was officially opened. The article itself is a good read too: "When he was a child, Whitlock contracted rheumatic fever and polio. The polio partially crippled him in one leg, and for a while he was confined to a wheelchair before graduating to leg braces. 'But I decided like Forrest Gump that I was going to break free of that,' he said in reference to the Tom Hanks movie about a brace-legged boy who one day runs free of the devices."

By the way, the Dave's Hopper is still a killer fly on the Bighorn in the windier, warmer days of summer.

We just got wind of a new HowardFilms project that is due to be completed this summer. We even saw a rough cut of what they are working on. "Bass: The Movie" is Jamie Howard's take on the sport (cult?) of U.S. bass fishing. From what we've seen, there are both flies and high-speed boats in the script -- an interesting assembly of images. I wonder if Howard isn't aiming to make the profane sacred again, at least from the fly fisher's point of view. These guys are known for capturing saltwater panoramas and big tarpon clamping down on little flies. Are they going to take the Mr. Bucketmouth concept back to its roots? Should be interesting, especially since fly fishing for bass is probably more popular than saltwater fly fishing, even if it is less talked about and filmed.

Want to critique the casting style of Nikki Taylor, Liam Neeson, or Les Claypool? Pick up the two-disc DVD set "Fly Fishing the World," which comes out today. You'll also go to the Bahamas with Huey Lewis, New Zealand with Henry Winkler, and Argentina with John Havlicek.

On Amazon.

In northern climes, those of us who have been trout fishing all winter are ready to say goodbye to the midge and hello to a nice, fat mayfly. But anyone who fishes spring creeks and tailwaters will remind you that midges make up an important part of the trout's diet throughout the year.

This week on MidCurrent we add a new video for anyone wanting to add midges to their fly box, Charles Meck tying the Zebra Midge. It's one of the simplest ties there is, but in the past decade or so the Zebra Midge has proven itself in all sorts of water, in all kinds of conditions.

Respected casting instructor Jeff Putnam delivers the goods when it comes to solid video instruction on Spey techniques. But who makes an automatic connection between Spey techniques and single-handed fly rod casting? In "Single-Handed Fly Rod Casting Using Spey Casting Techniques," Putnam shows how the roll cast, switch cast, snap-t cast, and snake roll cast all fit perfectly into single-handed fishing techniques.

We've long felt that the best way to demonstrate and teach many aspects of fly fishing -- knots, casting, fly tying, even presentation -- was with video. Now that coaxial cable runs into most urban and suburban households, plenty of clever and imaginative fly fishers are taking the medium and using it to showcase their talents. We've included many of those artists in our new Fly Fishing Videos section on MidCurrent.

For a complete list of all videos on the site, just go to our Videos index page. Or if you just want a sample of some of the ground being covered, check out "Fish Bum Volume I" ((Mongolia), "Red Gold" (Bristol Bay), or "Tying a Snowshoe Trico Spinner" (fly tying). We'll be adding many more videos in coming weeks and months, so be sure to check back often.

Late last week we were treated to a copy of the new film "Why Fly Fishing" -- funded by The American Museum of Fly Fishing and created and produced by Jeffrey Pill (the former senior producer of 20/20 and creator of "Successful Fly Fishing Strategies," "The Art of Speycasting" and "Joan Wulff's Dynamics of Flycasting") -- and were frankly blown away by the quality of the production and the care with which its content was assembled. The 31-minute DVD, introduced by former FFF president and Trout Unlimited director Gardner Grant (who was a generous contributor to the project), includes the first filmed interview with John Gierach, who talks from his office ("What I like about fly fishing is its insidious nature") and catches a few fish. Joan Wulff puts the sport in perspective by explaining its essentials and instructing a young girl on casting, while Flip Pallot, Keith Fulsher, Diana Rudolph, the Revel Brothers, and James Prosek offer personal insights on how fly fishing has shaped their lives. There's also a great segment with Nick Lyons noting the places of McGuane, Gierach and other authors in the literature.

If you are looking for something to inspire you to pick up a rod and get a jump start on a new season, this DVD is it. We'd also highly recommend it as a gift for anyone who might consider fly fishing, since it offers clear, succinct insight into why so many fly fishers become enraptured with the sport. $25 of the $30 purchase price is a tax-deductible donation to the Museum. You can buy "Why Fly Fishing" from The Bookmailer.

The Angling Exploration Group starts an expanded schedule of stops in major U.S. cities this year, beginning with their visit to Patagonia headquarters in Ventura, California tonight. This year's tour will screen at over 95 venues to over thousands and thousands of fly fishers and has grown to become the biggest fly fishing film event in the country. For the complete schedule and to find the nearest showing location, check out the AEG schedule page.

Starting last Saturday, Versus begin airing the several "Chasing Silver" segments that have only been shown once on regular programming. Now every Saturday through February 16th you can watch the series at 1:30PM EST.

The folks who brought you The Offbeat Angler (see our excerpt) continue their tradition of out-of-the-ordinary fishing exploits with this video, which takes a bored office worker to fish the magical mulberry hatch for inner-city carp.

After falling victim to some last-minute schedule adjustments by Versus this fall, Howard Films's latest installments of "Chasing Silver" will finally air two days before Christmas. The final two episodes will appear back-to-back, at 2:00 and 2:30 PM. From what Howard told us, these segments will be true "reality" pieces: "The program will feature the toughest conditions we ever had to face -- a season of cold fronts and prevailing winds and an early migration."

Tightline Productions has just released a new DVD set on building graphite rods that is one of the more interesting instructional videos of the year. In it, Russ Gooding, a recognized master of classic bamboo rod building, takes his cane rod aesthetic and applies it to the modern graphite blank. There is a ton of great instruction here -- 213 minutes total on two DVDs -- as Gooding takes viewers from A-Z, starting with the differences between approaches to classic vs. high-tech materials and taking aspiring builders step-by-step through the process of building a 7'6" 4-weight rod. Gooding is an engaging and intelligent instructor, and the video work is top notch. If you are looking for a way to spend a few very enjoyable hours over the holidays, or just want a little rod-building inspiration, "The Graphite Rod" is a great choice. You can buy it directly from Tightline Productions by calling 800-338-9052. We understand that it will also be available next week on Amazon.

The folks who brought us the Trout Bum Diaries I & II and the concept of a fly fishing film tour have launched a smartly designed new Web site to promote their stuff. AegMedia.com hosts three blogs and a handy index to the many podcasts AEG has produced recently.

We've got our hands on this new DVD and hope to review it soon, but we were impressed by the amount of expert information communicated in the short segment we've already watched. Janet Urquhart writes about the new film in The Aspen Times: "Seattle-based filmmaker Eric Rafoth has produced 'Fly Fishing 411,' capturing five fishing guides as they work sections of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan rivers in a 27-minute instructional DVD that is now available through amazon.com."

"Fly Fishing 411" on Amazon.

Think you've seen the worst? Jimmy Kimmel -- who must be a fly fisher to have scripted the subtleties here -- produced this skit lampooning fly shop service. If this reminds you of your last visit to your local rod and feather merchant, you might want to consider shopping in the next county over. (Warning: Adult humor here.)

If you are just getting into fly fishing now, you might think that we're all a bunch of handycam-toting, YouTube-surfing Emmy-award-winner wannabes. There's little doubt that digital media has moved the focus from away from still images -- just ask the folks who have been making a quasi-living selling fly fishing photos.

But it wasn't always that way. Twenty years ago you couldn't find a film that touched the subject of fly fishing for tarpon. Scientific Anglers tried to remedy that with their "Challenge of Giant Tarpon" series in the late 1980s. But to be honest, the techniques it portrayed seem dated now, and Billy Pate's fanaticism has spread to thousands of anglers, all with different opinions about how to best big tarpon. The sport has matured, and we look wistfully at ninth-generation copies of "Tarpon" -- the Key West film funded by Guy de la Valdene that never made it to market -- and wish someone could translate that magic into a modern setting. The best we have, for that purpose, is Jamie Howard, who is succeeding in finding new ways to capture the essence of the sport.

This week on MidCurrent, David Dalu, who won last spring's Don Hawley Tarpon Tournament in Islamorada, reviews Howard's new "Location X."

We see a fair number of fly fishing videos each month, and after a while we become a little numb to the endless repetition of cast-hook-shout-and-release segments that pass before our eyes. This month was different though, because we had a chance to see a master angler talk about fishing a river in a way that made you realize his is far from a momentary infatuation. In reality, Craig Mathews has been fishing the Madison — month in and month out — for far longer than many of us have been fly fishing. Perhaps that helps explain the notion I got as I listened to the narration that Mathews sounds a lot like the river, or at least like a person who has spent a long time in conversation with it.

Read the MidCurrent review of "Fly Fishing the Madison River with Craig Mathews."

Felt Soul Media's Travis Rummel and Ben Knight are keeping a journal on their newest project, a documentary about the proposed Pebble Mine project in southwest Alaska, near Lake Iliamna. Tons of excellent photography and fine writing here, as might be expected from the filmmakers who produced "The Hatch" and did the shooting (I think) for "Running Down the Man."

Introduced at ICAST in Las Vegas last week, Costa Del Mar's "Channel C" hosts a variety of outdoors films that cover everything from surfing in the Galapagos to Nile crocodiles to Rick Murphy tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys. Of course Costa wants the wider audience, so you'll find only nominal amount of fly fishing here, but I have to say the platform looks nice. Check out the Trout Unlimited video in the Conservation tab for a little inspiration. Also check out the 1946 footage of lift-pole tuna fishing off of the Galapagos, in the years before long-lining became the commercial fisherman's dream.

Pro snowboarder Mike Wier became a movie maker when he realized that fly fishing didn't have films that approached the quality and excitement that snowboarding movies did. Scott Thomas Anderson profiles Wier and notes that there is more to Wier's movitivation than simply trying to make cool videos. "'I only do catch-and-release fishing, both in my movies and as a tour guide. There's an incredible diversity of life in these remote places, which is being threatened now, and over-fishing in general is going to be a factor that affects the world in the coming decades.'" In the Amador, California Ledger-Dispatch.

18 cities through its national tour, the Fly Fishing Film Tour rolls into two Florida locations this coming week. The first is in Tampa, at Bill Jackson's Outdoors, 9501 19 North Pinellas Park on April 10 at 7:30 PM. Then the show to the IGFA in Dania Beach (300 Gulf Stream Way) at 7:30 on the 12th. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the door or from a local fly fishing retailer. Sponsors, including Patagonia, Costa Del Mar, Sage and Reel Pure, are giving away some cool stuff at the shows.

Films included in the show are Jamie Howard's "Chasing Silver," the rollicking "Run Down the Man" from Felt Sole Media, and the Angling Exploration Group's latest, "Trout Bum Diaries: Volume II." We've seen them all, and if you haven't had a taste of what "new media" is doing for fly fishing, this is worth a drive. More information can be found on the Tour's Web site.

If you missed the first airing of HowardFilms's "Location X," a film about fishing a red-hot secret tarpon spot, you can catch it again this Wednesday night at 9PM on Versus. Here's what the new press release says about the film:

"CHASING SILVER: LOCATION X on the Versus Network, March 21, 2007 at 9pm EST

How do you follow up the award-winning mini-series that's garnered popularity at home and abroad? Well, we weren't sure ourselves. So, we spent many months researching the world's fisheries for a sequel.
Chasing Silver: Location X (a one-hour film) is the culmination of that work. 'LX' as we've come to call it, was an angling expedition that involved some faith on the angler's part (Where am I going and why?) and some faith on our part (Where are we going and why?!) We selected three anglers from the southernmost, easternmost and westernmost points in North America and flew them to our tarpon grounds. And we all hoped this tarpon Shangri-la would really have tarpon that ate close and often. (They did!) And as always, when fly rod and tarpon meet -- it was pure mayhem."

By the way, you can now place an advance order for the "Location X" DVD, which is due to go on sale in June, over on the HowardFilms Web site.

As we mentioned back in December ("Angling Exploration Group Back with New Film Tour") the team who produced "Trout Bum Diaries: Vol. 1" is launching a Fly Fishing Film Tour that starts at the Patagonia world headquarters in Ventura, California on Friday (January 12). One thing these guys are not is boring, so if you are near any of the 25 cities where the tour lands and need an adrenaline boost, check out their screenings of some of the best new fly fishing cinematography going.

"A newly minted DVD by Colorado Springs angler Landon Mayer performs swimmingly on both counts. Titled 'Landing the Trout of Your Life,' the 70-minute production features Mayer and noted Boulder fly designer John Barr in spectacular fish-catching sequences." From the Denver Post.

The talented bunch who produced "Trout Bum Diaries: Vol. 1" are highlighting the presentation of their next film, "The Trout Bum Diaries, Kiwi Camo," with a U.S. winter tour that includes screenings of new films from most of the top fly fishing filmmakers. The Fly Fishing Film Tour will happen in 30 U.S. cities, beginning at the Patagonia world headquarters in Ventura, California on January 12 and ending in Anchorage, Alaska at the Performing Arts Center on March 23rd, 2007. They're giving away a ton of stuff to folks who appear at the screenings. You can read more about the tour at the tour Web site. (Read our review of "Trout Bum Diaries: Vol. 1" here.)

The Charlottesville Daily Progress hosts a video -- or actually a series of stills in a multimedia presentation -- about a recent Project Healing Waters visit by 8 wounded vets to the Rose River Farm in Madison, Virginia. Some very pretty water here, and a chance to hear from a vet about what learning to fly fish and tie flies means to someone going through physical therapy. You can read more about Rose River Farm on their Web site.

Sporting Fly Productions is coming out with a new high-definition Kenai River fly fishing video this week. Hosted by Dave Long, the video focuses on the Kenai's giant rainbows. The Kenai film will be followed by the second volume in the series, a DVD about the Fremont River in Utah, due to be released at the end of December. Both of these DVDs will be available online for $29.95 at www.sportingfly.com.

The U.K.'s Sunday Times excerpts another portion of Charles Rangeley-Wilson's dialogue from the new BBC series "The Accidental Angler,' this from Bhutan: "When trout were brought here from Kashmir, they were seeded into streams in the west of the country and only gradually taken east, finally as far as the Tang Chu, a remote and sacred river that is also the best trout stream in Bhutan."

Howard Films let us know yesterday that their new film on fly fishing for tarpon will air on Versus/OLN on December 1st at 7PM and 11PM EST (8PM Pacific), not November 16 as previously reported. Apparently the network is pretty excited about the film and wants more time to promote it.

On the heels of their announcement that "Location X" is coming to TV (November 16 at 7 PM on Versus), Howard Films has released "Chasing Silver" on DVD. "Chasing Silver" video segments were serialized and shown on OLN (now Versus) last spring and got a reception that surprised the ratings wonks, and the quality of Jamie Howard's cinematography is surely the reason. As Jim Bartschi, president of Scott Fishing Rods commented, "The bar has been officially raised for fishing entertainment."

Jamie Howard, the filmmaker behind "In Search of a Rising Tide" and "Chasing Silver," is finishing up work on his new film about fly fishing for tarpon. "Location X" airs on Versus (formerly OLN) on November 16 at 7 PM. All we know about the film so far is that it features a secret location where a couple of lucky anglers fish for a large population of aggressive tarpon. Should be worth putting this one on the calendar.

"I have seen quite a few fly fishing videos and DVD's in my time, but never something like this. The closest I have been are the Norwegian videos with Baard Tufte Johansen and Lars Lenth, who are sufficiently anarchistic (read: crazy) in their approach to get close to the Trout Bum Diaries. Close, but not quite there." Martin Joergensen of GlobalFlyfisher.com reviews the Angling Exploration Group's "The Trout Bum Diaries: Part I," released this past year.

MidCurrent's review of the DVD, which features exceptional fishing in Patagonia, can be seen here.

Pete McDonald of FishingJones.com finally posted a link to an excellent video of fly fishing for 10-15-pound bluefin tuna off of Rhode Island done by FliesandFins.com. Not only does it capture some of the excitement of chasing busting schools of tuna in a walkaround boat, but you get to see that in fact Tom Rosenbauer -- Orvis's director of marketing -- is as comfortable with big saltwater rods (in this case a Zero Gravity) as he is hunting browns on the Battenkill.

In between collective guffaws and projected sighs, popular music bent copyright laws and the eardrums of most of the crowd (sub-30, by the way) packed into a hot miniature theatre in Denver's Oxford hotel last night. It's the closest I've been to a college party in the past 25 years, and the most surprising thing was that nothing really appears to have changed.

"The Drake" magazine and Cloudveil were hosting a one-and-a-half-hour screening of ten films (I think) in ten-minute segments (I think), for a select subset (it seemed) of the Fly Fishing Retailer show attendees, the general age of which probably trends more toward 50. I don't yet have perfect details on the names of the various producers represented -- hope to get those from Tom Bie of "The Drake" today -- but I can tell you that Frank Smethurst and his pals won the competition for best trailer with their segment on surf fishing for big roosterfish on what I assume was the Baja peninsula. It was funny, frantic, and well-timed. One of the other prizes went to the Angling Exploration Group's trailer of their upcoming New Zealand film, part II of the "Trout Bum Diaries." (See our review of Part I here.) Ryan, Mikey, Brian and Chris have really begun to refine their filmmaking, and it showed last night.

More details later if I can find anyone who attended awake before noon today.

From beginning to end "vodcast" correspondent Judy Muller manages not to make her account of fishing in the Merced River too precious. Instead, there is some nice, relaxing footage here, complete with the kind of drag on a hopper fly that is typical of my own fishing. Picked up by Moldy Chum.

Fish & Fly magazine has posted an excellent video interview with Tibor Reels founder and master craftsman Ted Juracsik on its new Web site. The video shows the making of a typical saltwater reel in detail -- from cutting the billet to shaping to polishing, anodizing and assembling. There's plenty of interested detail: how cork drags are instrinsically smooother than synthetic, for example, because of the ability of the individual cork granuals to begin moving before friction is created on the drag surface. Ted tells his own story of escaping the 1956 Hungarian revolution, learning English in a Brooklyn orphanage and finding his way as a machine worker in the U.S. -- worthy of a video by itself --in between segments.

We're pretty excited about seeing the next film from the Angling Exploration Group. After reviewing "The Trout Bum Diaries: Volume I, Patagonia," we learned from Ryan Davey that they had finished filming Volume II, which is set in New Zealand. Now we notice on the AEG site that they've posted a whole bunch of great still shots from that trip, taken by Mike Greener. Talking about the new film, Davey said, "It’ll be a much more in-depth look into the Life and Times of a trout bum and a lot more character development." We can't wait.

I received a copy of the new 2-DVD video "Practical Fly Patterns That Catch Trout" (109 minutes, $39.99) from Tightline Productions last week and have viewed only about half of the content, but what I've seen is impressive, especially the great close-up video of these two experts tying and talking about the various "must-have" patterns for eastern U.S. streams.

Most fly fishers know Charles Meck as a prolific and respected author on the subject of flies and fly fishing techniques (if you want a great introduction to the distribution of insect types in U.S. streams, his The Hatches Made Simple is the book for you). Eric Stroup is a highly respected central-Pennsylvania guide. My favorite takeaway from the video so far is seeing representatives of two generations of expert fly fishers discussing the whys and wherefores of fly choice while fishing Pennsylvania's classic trout streams.

Palm Beach, Florida guide Scott Hamilton posted a new video (Quicktime, 10MB) of fly fishing for spinner sharks on his site. Check out some the takes and spectacular misses towards then end.

One of the best things that has happened to fly fishing in the past couple of years is that folks are finally going out and doing cinematography that doesn't aspire to rank with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "The Godfather" yet manages to deliver something unique to anglers. Tom Bie's "Feeding Time" comes to mind, as does "In Search of a Rising Tide" and "The Hatch" by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel. The latest to join the group of new fly fishing films that are worth watching is The Angling Exploration Group's first full-length DVD, "The Trout Bum Diaries: Volume I, Patagonia." Read MidCurrent's review here.

The TatteredFly.com Weblog turned up an excellent 27-minute streaming video produced by the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. "Rising from the Shadows: The Return of the Cutthroat Trout" includes some wonderful underwater photography and plenty of footage of cutthroat trout in their native habitat. While you're at it, check out Tattered Fly, a well-designed blog with lots of stuff of interest to fly fishers, including a recent photo essay on Idaho's Salmon River.

"Released in 2005 it has received awards from no less than 5 movie festivals. The photography is amazing and features Hoagy Carmichael and Glen Brackett. If you don’t already own a bamboo rod, you will certainly want one by the time you finish watching Trout Grass." Dan Bachman lends his praise to the recently released documentary about U.S. bamboo rod craftsmen on his Tattered Fly Weblog.

Want to feel really small? Check out the video in this article on CBSNews.com showing Jeff Morrow catching a sailfish on a fly rod from his kayak — during a tournament, no less. There's some really remarkable, if slightly out of focus, footage here. "It was a very exciting form of fishing. I was frightened and so was the fish. My eyes would look right on the fish's eyes, he was so close to me. And I could feel his fright and he could probably feel my fright."

Ed Engle reviews A Fly Fisher's Guide to the South Platte River by Pat Dorsey, James Babb's Fly-Fishin' Fool and the new DVD "Trout Grass." "This is a beautifully filmed 48 minute DVD that traces the making of a split cane fly rod from the bamboo plantations of southern China to Glenn Bracketts rod making shop in Montana and finally to the river where Tom McGuane (author of The Longest Silence and Ninety-two in the Shade) and David James Duncan (author of fly fishing classic, The River Why) fish for trout." In the Boulder, Colorado Daily Camera.

Here's another video (Windows Streaming Video, 3 minutes) of fly fishing for blitzing false albacore by Brandon White. (Thanks to David Dalu for this link.)

New on MidCurrent: contributor David Dalu reviews Jamie Howard's "In Search of a Rising Tide," a film that, as he says, "capture[s] the sense of Bahamas skiff-based angling perfectly."

North Carolina captain Gordon Churchill just put up a short video of boiling and busting albies. As he says in his post over on OutdoorsForums.com, "They were busting out the end of the point and around where the West Slough Buoy used to be. All day. Literally we had breaking fish around us from 7 am this morning until we left at 4 pm and the fish were still busting at that time." More photos available in his post.

Zach Matthews does a nice job of demonstrating how to make braided loop-to-loop connections over on ItinerantAngler.com. (Note: this is a streaming file, but large - 9 minutes and 9MB).

This new film, written and narrated by author David James Duncan, will screen at the FFF conclave this week in Livingston. "The film illustrates the evolution of a bamboo fly rod, from the bamboo groves of southern China, to construction of the rods at Winston Rods in Twin Bridges, to the hands of writer/sportsman Thomas McGuane." Scott McMillion in the Bozeman (Montana) Daily Chronicle.

No, it's not a joke. Will Milne on the Waterside Mb Web site offers some keen insight into spey casting and why the techniques can and should be applied to chasing channel catfish on Manitoba's Red River. "If one thing can be said with certainty, it is , that Spey casting has recently seen a tremendous resurgence of interest and adaptation, that speaks to it,s versatility and relevance. From surf casters using two-handed rods with shooting heads or overhead casts for stripers off the beaches. Add in tackle manufacturers designing new lines and rods tailored to various approaches, the addition of the Snap-T/Perry Poke/Snake Roll and other casts to the repetoire, the advent of 5/6 wt Spey rods, the list goes on and undoubtably will continue to grow."

There's also a link here to some very good Japanese videos of various Spey casting techniques.

(Thanks to reader Phil Monahan for providing this link.)

Nice title for this new documentary about the start of the Federation of Fly Fishers, which was formed in Eugene in 1965 to promote fly fishing and to preserve game fish habitat. The film was produced and directed by Michael Montgomery Wilson and can be ordered here.

Attention Spey Casters and Spey-Casting Wannabe's:

There's a new book coming out by Simon Gawesworth entitled Spey Casting (Stackpole Books, August 2004) that looks to be a very good one; Thomas McGuane writes the introduction. Mr. Gawesworth is a legendary spey teacher and is the author of RIO's "Basic Spey and Two Handed Fly Rod Casting" pamphlet that is included with every spey line they sell. RIO Products also markets two videos: "Basic Spey and Two Handed Fly Rod Casting" with Jim Vincent, and "International Spey Casting" with Simon Gawesworth, Jim Vincent, and Leif Stavmo.

And Mel Kreiger has a good spey casting video out that you can buy bundled with his Essence of Fly Casting II for $29 on Amazon.com -- pretty good deal, I think.