Friday, November 20, 2009

Some new fly fishing films...

I've basically become a fly fishing film junkie here recently as I buy just about any "adventure based" film I can find and there is a lot of them out there and more to be released! When you can't fish, a good flick can really pass the time especially with all this crap weather we've been getting lately here in the Ozark area. I've got my hands on 2 new movies in the past month or so with both of them being absolutely amazing...

The 1st of the two films is "Nervous Waters" by Beattie Outdoor Productions. This film is actually a collection of 4 full-length films and several short films that R.A. Beattie has filmed/produced over the past few years. The feature film is the titled one, "Nervous Water", which showcases several different locations ranging from Colorado to New Zealand to Louisiana. Its a good film but I actually prefer 2 of the other films to it. One of those two is "First Decent" which chronicles Beattie's journey down a un-named tributary in Alaska as they are the 1st ones to ever float this river. Its awesome seeing what they went through to get down this river plus all the fish they catch. Lake trout, big rainbows, salmon, and Arctic char are all caught on the fly.



This film also contains several short films that are absolutely fantastic...with a few of them being incredibly hilarious! Its very cool to see some creative style in fly fishing media today where for the longest time all you could get was the stupidly boring "How-To" vids that everyone just loves! This movie is definitely worth checking out. Just for the sake of a rating...it gets 2 thumbs up! (Sarcasm)

The next movie is "Rise" from Confluence Films. They released the highly popular movie, "Drift", last year and the company has done it again with their new film. "Rise" basically highlights several individuals with their respective locations and why they love fly fishing so much. It ranges from Florida to Patagonia to Idaho and is a cinematic masterpiece. It explores the "why" of fly fishing, with each individual expressing their deepest connections to the sport and the locations that they fish. My personal favorite is the Patagonia and Henry's Fork chapters of the movie.



In an industry where many films are trying to follow in the footsteps of the "Trout Bum Diaries"...Confluence Films breaks the mold and blazes a new path with their films. Their movies are on the top of my list...no doubt about it.

I highly recommend going out and buying these 2 movies, especially going into the winter time. When you can't fish, can't handle tying another size 20 Adams, and you're out of whiskey to wash away your sorrows....these movies will get you through the tough times. Trust me...

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The pursuit for more McCloud rainbows...

Sorry for the lack of posts the past several weeks. I've been very busy and lazy....well, mostly lazy but what does it matter? After my 1st trip to Crane Creek about a month ago, I was chomping at the bit to get back to that little creek. Well on sunday, the 9th, I got up early and hit the road for Crane, Missouri. The plan was to meet Joey at the lower access a little after 7:00 and see what we couldn't pull out of the lil' creek.

Took me right at 3 hours to get to Crane, not too bad of a drive actually. Can't beat having wild trout that close to your front door when you live in Oklahoma! Pulled into the parking lot to find Joey already geared up and waiting so I quickly geared up and we headed downstream. We decided to walk all the way downstream and then fish our way back upstream to see if our luck changes versus the last time out on the lower access. We put in just above a big deep hole where the creek widens out and you can't wade it safely.

The 1st hole produced a few small McClouds right off, so things were looking good. We each pulled out a couple trout out of the 1st couple holes/runs. Joey spooked a BIG fish that he said was easily 20+ inches. They're in there...but you have to be sneaky! We caught those 1st few fish early but hit a dry spell again the rest of the way up the river. I'm not sure what to think about this section of Crane, it has some awesome looking water. Its a bit wider and deeper than the upper section so you'd think it would fish good. We ran into another fisherman as we were approaching the last few holes so we skipped past some water to fish a run just below the bridge where we plucked out a few nice McClouds so it turned out OK.



We grabbed some grub at the local choke n' puke in town before we headed to the upper access. We scarfed down some sandwiches and rigged back up. This time we walked downstream since there was a couple vehicles in the parking lot and we were hoping they walked upstream since there is a hiking path right next to the creek. I must say, the downstream section of the upper access is pretty sweet. The creek was quite a bit lower than it was last time so the holes/runs were smaller but the water was crystal clear which was good and bad. It was good because the creek looked amazing but the bad part was that the fish were going to be REALLY skittish. We walked downstream a long ways, scouting out holes and runs along the way. It was kind of amusing because we'd come to a spot where we'd decide to stop...but I just had to see what was around the next bend. Around that next bend...more good looking water! So we kept on hiking downstream!

We finally put in between two nice bend pools where Joey went upstream and I went downstream. I got down and crawled up to the top of the run where I laid out a cast with the san juan worm. It didn't drift a foot before the indicator dove and it was fish on! It was a nice fish, probably 10-12", that put up an awesome fight!



We continued our trek back upstream, hitting various spots that we'd scouted earlier. The fishing was a little tougher this time out with the low clear water but still managed to pluck several McClounds out of the creek. I really enjoyed fishing the lower section...you could tell nobody had fished it in sometime as we didnt see any footprints and very little trash which is always a good thing. I even tried throwing a Stimulator for a bit to see if I can could get a fish to rise but didn't have any luck so it was back to the san juan worm.





All in all, the afternoon went well on the upper access. We found some new water to fish and caught plenty of wild trout without seeing another fisherman all afternoon, it was great!