January is the middle of the road for winter and is also known as the coldest month of the year. If you are a lucky angler you might find a good trout stream that is slush free and fishable.
Maybe you are drilling through ice on a frozen lake like Spray Lake for a chance at a big laker. Some, on the other hand, might have hung up the fly rod for the winter to play hockey in a beer league or have headed west into the mountains for some skiing and snowboarding.
Any way you cut it, things slow down for a fly angler at this time.
There is some relief for the hearty when IF4 and the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Expo visit south Calgary.
The International Fly Fishing Film Festival, or just IF4, showed feature and short films from anglers around the globe. Some were entertaining and a couple were duds, but two films really stood out and you might want to check them out for yourself.
The first film I want to mention is Sheebang. It is produced by Cross Current Productions and follows three hardcore fly fishermen into the far north of Alaska. The fish they are after are inconnu and are also known as sheefish. They are the “tarpon of the north” because of their likeness and their acrobatic flips when they are hooked up. The action takes place on the Kobuk River and the “land of the midnight sun” is phenomenal to see.
The second feature is from Kokkaffe Media and is named Only The River Knows. I only got a glimpse of a 20 minute trailer of this but I believe it is the best show I have seen in years. The film takes place on the wild south island of New Zealand and the cinematography is unreal. What really got me on this film was the fantastic story behind it.
It starts off in the year 1988, when a young Lars Lenth spent three months exploring the country’s beautiful streams and the allure of the massive brown trout. Through his travels he comes across a cabin where he would write in a journal about his experiences.
The film then fast forwards 24 years later to another fly fishermen who loses his way in the same wilderness that Lars was in. The fisherman’s name is Rolf Nylinder and he stumbles across the same cabin and finds the journal.
This moment is captured by documentarist Peter Christensen and the following days are Nylinder’s obsession with the journal and his desire to catch a giant trout. The interesting thing is you are left wondering the whereabouts of Lenth and the legend he has left behind.
The Western Canadian Fly Fishing Expo at Spruce Meadows was another event to get the fly angler excited about the upcoming season.
The Expo resembles a fly angler’s dream of the best fly fishing shop in the world all under one roof. All the big company names were there like Sage, G.Loomis, Loop, Airflo, and Rio. Also, well known anglers were there as well. People like Gary Borger, Rick Hafele, writer Jim Mclennan, and master caster Chris Seipio.
All of them were doing presentations and clinics throughout the weekend. The man I was looking forward to hearing from was Chico Fernandez. Chico is a saltwater fly fishing pro and has been for 55 years. He is 73 and when he talks about catching snook in the Florida Everglades you can hear the passion in his voice. His clinic was about casting in saltwater but many things he mentioned can be directed to other waters as well.
It was cool to listen about how they used bamboo rods eons ago and then fiberglass rods in the 60s and 70s. Now, most are made from graphite and he stressed the importance of shorter rods for casting accuracy and more leverage for fighting fish.
Hearing old stories about him and his friend Flip Pallot were both educational and funny. I have a lot of admiration for someone who has been in the sport for such a long time and there is nothing fake about him.
