With the new abundance of good quality HD video cameras and the sports who are taking full advantage of the swag that can come with even the most modest of self-produced videos…I thought I would try my hand at this new, video…thing.  I had shot and edited some low end (read that as “low end” like the fly fishing skills of the girlfriend that comes along on the guide trip) and they were a ton of fun to do.  It was clearly time for me to take the next step and try my hand at a “promo” video.  I didn’t want to shoot straight up to the top, you know, Sage, Simms, Ross, Westwater Products and the like…I needed to shoot for something more attainable because I knew I sucked.  I shot Zach an email that went something like “Hey man, I have shot a couple of videos and was wondering if you would be interested in a smallmouth video with some Idylwilde flies.  Honestly, a video by RA Beattie would be a shit-pile better, but I am a cheap date.  Shoot me some flies and consider it done.”  I figured starting with Idylwilde would be good, and maybe some of that Marinade would leak into my stuff.

Full box of free loaded flies

A couple of days later I received a stellar box of warmwater flies, Mississippi Mudflaps, Warmwater Whammies, Bellydancers, Yeager’s Neversink Hoppers and Cicadas, craws of various forms, even some Chubby Chernobyls for good measure….all in a plastic compartment box (more on that later.)  Super-stoked I run to the river and start “filming” in cool light and all that junk–but honestly, more fishing the cool free swag, R&D or Field Testing than “getting footage” you might say.  Absolutely SPANKED the smallies on the Bellydancer and even grabbed a couple off the surface with a Whammy, but I was floating the next day and was feeling everything out.

The first float with cool new flies is as close to the feeling of going to prom with a stripper as I can remember.  I had a rod rigged with a Bellydancer and one rigged with a Warmwater Whammy.  Naturally, I stop at the first good tail-out and start with the white Bellydancer and fishing was immediately stupid!  Nothing of any size, but an upstream cast Belldancer jigging her way downstream was well more than these smallmouths could handle.  Now is about the time that evening took a turn for the worse.  I guide out of a low-pro Clacka.  In the hurry to “get footage” with the new flies I left the plastic compartment box open and sitting on my rower’s bench.  Turns out if you have one of those plastic compartment fly boxes open and at the proper  angle you can actually watch a box full of Awesomeness fly into the river before your eyes.  It was actually quite beautiful, all the cool flies….in slow motion….sprinkled across the water.  I admired them for the brief second before yelling “SHIT!!!!!”  Some sank immediately, most floated away never to be seen again.  But I had that white Bellydancer, and the Whammy.  The Whammy fell victim to a downed tree not long afterwards….pissed, I rowed out– and realized for the first time that the prom night stripper was really a fat guy.

Gone Johnson

The show must go on was all I could think….I had a video to make, and I WAS going to make that video.  I shot Zach another email explaining the situation and offering to buy some more flies (but really seeing if I could sell him on the “flies fell into the river story” or “my dog ate my homework” angle ) to finish the video.  Turns out I think he got a kick out of my “situation” and the fact that I told him a little about the video that was already shot, including but not limited to my wife’s cleavage making an appearance.  So I sit here waiting on another plastic compartment box of flies.

Brian Wise

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized and the tags Advice Flies Funny Photo reports Signature Tier Technique Trout Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.