The Movie
I’ll say it right now, “the movie” was just a trailer.
I worked on the film as a set dresser. It was fun, a nice place to work and it was a good crew. I was impressed with Robert Redford or “Bob” as many know him. The DP (director of photography) Philippe Rousselot was an amazing little guy with enough energy and vision for a couple people. That deservedly netted him an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the picture. Brad Pitt was proving to be an adroit Redford knockoff, even then.
At the time I was more involved with a long distance romance than I was with fly fishing and I never picked up a fly rod till a few years later when I finally got my priorities straightened out. Right there I probably cut off about ten years of my fly fishing life. Hindsight can be a cruel mistress. I had no idea at the time what an influence, for better or worse, “the movie” would have on the future of Montana fly fishing. It’s probably just as well. I don’t have to lament on another segment of “back in the day” (just dream instead), a small consolation tempered by the fact that some of those doing the lamenting probably would consider me a member of the Montana fly fishing heretic by association.
To plea my case as an innocent bystander (no, not ignorant), I have to say I didn’t have a clue that I was inviting the whole damn world into my backyard, plugging up its rivers with wannabe fly fishing dudes fueling the world of fishing gear fanaticism with capricious ideas about what it takes to catch a fish. I was just making a few bucks working in a business that I liked, naive to the power that a film can have on it’s viewer. Boy, do I know better now. As much fun as working on the film was, it’s a delicate subject in some crowds but I’ll never deny that it was a great looking show.
Fast forward 20 years and fly fishing films are sprouting up like mushrooms out of a field of cow, er- like grass in a hay field. Not that they aren’t cool, fishing flying all over the place, slow motion top water takes, underwater mug shots; it’s all great stuff, but hey, “the movie” starts looking pretty tame after watching a few of these. And in a promotional sense, after watching the sponsor and fishing lodge location lists go by and everyone on camera festooned in the latest brand name gear; “the movie” actually comes across the way it was meant to, a time piece story about a family bound together by fly fishing.
So, when I hear that K.C. Walsh (Simms front man) is dinging River Runs Through It co-producer Patrick Markey to do another “movie” I cringe and think, why not? Maybe title it, “O fly fishing brother, Where art thou”?
Bull Trout vs Lake Trout
Me like streamers!
There’s a contentious brouhaha simmering around northwest Montana’s Flathead Lake over the future of the Bull Trout fishery, or the Lake Trout fishery depending on how you look at it. Lucky over at Button Valley Bugle recently sent me a copy of a DVD that he was involved with through the Flathead Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Historically, the Flathead drainage was the home of a robust native Bull trout and Westslope Cutthroat population. Today the native trout population, especially the Bull trout, is a shadow of what it was up until about 40 years ago.
The DVD titled, “Jewel of the Crown, Flathead River Bull Trout”, examines “the plight of native fish in the Flathead with a focus on current problems facing bull trout. Through conversations with the last generation of anglers who were able to legally fish for bull trout in our home waters and many historical photos as well as interviews with local fisheries biologists and managers, we examine the current situation and where we need to go now to preserve our native fish heritage.”
The documentary covers a lot of ground leading up to the Bull trouts current status. Dams, humans tinkering with the Flathead lake ecology and currently the effect of a ballooning Lake trout population that is taking over not only Flathead lake but the tributaries that feed it, all once the home of the native Bull trout and Westslope Cutthroat. The center of the current management controversy revolves around how fisheries managers are willing to address reducing the population of Lake trout to a level that’s not competitive with Bull trout while allowing a small charter boat industry to continue trophy fishing on Flathead lake. Yes, it’s a question.
A long awaited EA is expected sometime this spring and hopefully a favorable management decision by September.
