The Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) had it’s second stop on their nationwide tour in Bozeman last night. As always, it generated quite the stir in the fly fishing community, and the shops in town quickly sold out of tickets a day before the show. (Seriously people, get your tickets beforehand. I bet I answered 40 phone calls yesterday asking if we had any left.) It’s always a good show, and a great way to get psyched about the coming fishing season.
We had our annual party at the shop to kick things off tonight and welcomed a good crowd of people through the doors. A mini driftboat full of free beer usually does draw a crowd. Everyone was excited and having a good time and that’s always fun.
The show itself was packed. The attendance figure I heard was around 700, which is a lot of people to be in the same room watching fishing movies. The films themselves were a very interesting mix. There was the usual blend of salt and freshwater, places close to home and those far away. There were a couple of films that really stood out to me. The first one in the line up, Out of Touch, had a very simple message and some crazy redfish eats. Since I’ve had salt on the mind for most of the past month, I really enjoyed it. Good, classic, get stoked on fishing fish porn kind of stuff. Very well done.
Bucknasty Browns from Montana Wild was a huge draw for the crowd in Bozeman and it did not disappoint. Carp Land was one of my favorites of the show and a good one to end the tour on. How cool is it that carp are getting this kind of recognition? I kind of hate to see it in a way, as that means there might be more people out fishing for them, but I was still really pretty excited about it. The Lost Boys of Yantari fell into this same vane. Just pure entertainment, and some interesting characters to boot.
Some of this year’s films seemed quite “preachy”. Cold Waters definitely led the charge there, and everyone I talked to after the show singled that one out as not a very entertaining or informative choice. There’s always got to be one… While conservation played a strong role in several films this year, Russ Schnitzer’s Wild Fish Works showed a very balanced viewpoint. It didn’t just focus on how conserving wild fish, rivers and the habitat in general only benefits the anglers, but people from all walks of life and industries. It was good to see a film talking about everyone working together, not just fishermen telling everyone else what to do.
The other films were fun to watch and pretty entertaining, and overall I would say it is absolutely worth going to see. It’ll get you psyched about this coming season and it is a great chance to just hang around with a big group of others who love fishing as much as you do. Check out the tour schedule here, and find out when you can go see it.
