It was a tough 3 days fishing in Key West. Day 3 of the March Merkin yielded 0 fish on the board resulting in a wire to wire victory for Will and Mike with a total of 2 fish and 197 points.
Congrats
On another note, the Madfin Shark tournament is about to get going, and look who showed up…the Holemans. Both of them. Travis was waiting in the driveway at Rathole Studios with this shiny new Lake and Bay that looks like it just came out of the mold. He going on and on about chum, wire leaders, bloodbath, and all that other googan fishing shit.
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It looks like I’m going meat fishing for a few days…I’m not too proud.
It is officially a go. We will be hosting the Fly Fishing Film Tour at the Tropic Cinema (416 Eaton St. Key West) on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. It should be a perfect way to kick off your St. Patricks Day. The doors open at 6:30 PM and the show starts at 7:00. Tickets are available at the door only, for $15.00, on a first come, first serve basis. I believe there are 200 seats. Afterwards, the Saltwater Angler will be hosting an after party. There will be like 15 headline dj’s from around the planet, all the big names, free alcohol, strippers, P-Diddy’s yacht, everything you could ever want on spring break. Actually, I am not sure what is going to happen at this “after party”, but there will be a bunch of us hanging out shootin the shit.
We are very excited to be showing a piece of our newest film, Drum, to a home audience for the first time. The full version is still very in the works, but the preview on the tour has been getting some decent reviews.
Let us introduce Drum:
We’ve spent 12 weeks over the last 2 winters chasing big redfish on fly in Louisiana, and we’ve been lucky to have caught a pile of them. In doing so, we realized that these big hungry redfish would chase down ridiculously huge bright flies and gobble them up right next to the boat. This gave us an idea… strategically position 4 HD cams around the boat, and tease these fish into the “zone” and give them the fly on camera. What we ended up with is some of the sickest most visual eats of big fish in clear water (other than tarpon) that we have ever captured. 1.2 terabytes of it!
We really want (need) to produce something that we can attempt to bring in some income with. In order to do so, we need to make sure that the final product is truly worthy of peoples’ money.
As it stands, Drum is in my opinion our best work to date. We tried to include something for everyone. Fish Porn, some short storytelling, some actors (the fish), some friends, and a plot with some twists and turns, will accompany a handful of the rawest fly fishing scenes we have ever seen. We even took a guy who has been fishing that area his whole life with conventional gear, and gave him some beers and a fly rod. Needless to say he told us it was the best day fishing he ever had.
We are excited to put an end to the editing (4-6 months) and release Drum to the masses. In the meantime, check out the preview on the Fly Fishing Film Tour (which will be posted on the web sometime in late April or May), or watch this sneak peak that we made to promote the tour stop here in Key West:
The original Rathole Studios has reopened for business, not that we make any money doing this. After resurrecting a dead Mac, I threw everything in my car and headed to Key West (Sugarloaf). On the way down, I met up with my friend Jeremy Cameron, whom I haven’t fished with in close to 3 years. There is a reason for the fact that we haven’t fished in a while. I can’t keep up with the dude. He knows his options, there are many, and he always wants to have the best odds, even if that means jumping in the car at noon to make a 4 hour drive somewhere to fish the last hour of light for gar. This guy loves his fishing as much as anyone, and when something is actually caught, he truly understands and appreciates it. It is tough down here. Especially in the winter.
Jeremy and I spent a week bombing up and down the Keys searching for the best options. The weather was anywhere from 40-80 degrees and dictated what we tried to target. The warmer days were spent permit fishing, the cooler days were spent bonefishing, and the coldest days were spent cuda, jack, and shark fishing. There was a lot of pressure to catch “a fish”. We caught nothing, although the line came tight a couple times for both of us.
I needed some redemption. After coming off of a couple months in Louisiana I was very used to catching fish, a lot of fish, and I needed a fix. I got an offer to go fishing with a guy from Islamorada. The guy seemed as if he had been fishing there for like 200 years, and knew everything there is to know about bonefishing. It also sounded like he loves to teach his style of bonefishing, so I jumped aboard his skiff, it was 50 degrees outside, I was shivering.
Capt. George Wood is a salty motherfucker. He is 61 years old and poles a boat around like he is 20. He won’t lie to you, he was taught by the best. I’m not going to go on and on about how much this guy knows about bonefish. Just go to Islamorada and ask around. You’ll get the same answer from everyone. Needless to say, I got my fix, on a tough day.
Now, back in Sugarloaf I sit, working on the full version of Drum, and promotional materials for its release, awaiting some warmer weather and a few permit. We’ll be in studio a lot, so if you are coming down the keys in the next couple months, let us know, stop by and check out the show.
It was a tough 3 days fishing in Key West. Day 3 of the March Merkin yielded 0 fish on the board resulting in a wire to wire victory for Will and Mike with a total of 2 fish and 197 points.