In order to secure a position in your holiday season web browsing schedule we have decided to give out our full version of “Tarpon Season”. Some of this footage has been seen, but this is the first time we have given away the full edit. -Merry Christmas
Want a full resolution copy that you can put on a DVD? Contact us and we will send you a link to the file.
Another awesome season for the books.
Matt Jones is a traveling guide/photographer who just came back from guiding in Alaska for the summer. As he put away the fly rods for the fall and began to upload the next batch of fishing photos to his website http://www.mcjphotography.com/pixelpost , he sat down and contributed this report about his experiences this summer.
The fishing and weather this summer up in Unalakleet, Alaska was sweet. The Unalakleet River is located 400 miles NW of Anchorage and drains into the Norton Sound. Our river hosts King Salmon, Silver Salmon, Chum Salmon, Pink Salmon, Dolly Varden, and Arctic Grayling. Our largest runs are Pinks at 5 million strong, and Silvers at 500,000 strong. As most of you know, the salmon are not feeding once they hit freshwater so they hit flies out of aggression. Pink is always a popular color along with any other brightly colored fly. The majority of our Dollies were caught on various colored beads or glow bugs, and they would occasionally take a salmon fly. Arctic Grayling aren’t picky and pretty much attacked anything thrown in front of them, from beads to dry flies. With all of the rainless sunny days we had, the river continued to get lower and lower. In certain parts of the river we were running our boats through less than 6″ of water! Using jet engines of course! The lower water not only forced the fish to hold in different spots, but allowed for some really exciting sight fishing! The most exciting catch of this summer was by guide, Lee Dooley with a Dolly at 26″x14″ which we estimated to be around 8lbs and set a new lodge record. Most of the time the weather was nice allowing me to keep the photography gear out all day, and I ended up with some pretty cool shots. All in all, the summer was great as I look back at yet another ideal time getting paid to do what I love…Fly fishing and photography.
Will and I have just put the wraps on our latest video creation, “Connected”, for the Drake Magazine Video Awards this September in Denver. This short video starts by punching you in the face and ends with a kick to the grundle highlighting some of this season’s tarpon fishing followed up by some of the sickest permit footage imaginable. Captured and edited in 1080p HD, we have assembled some stunning footage from on, above, and underwater in an effort to introduce permit fly fishing to the masses without watering it down. No how-to’s, time lapse shots of clouds, or boring interviews, just raw fish porn. We hope you enjoy.
We will be releasing it on the web following the awards. If you would like to come out and see our footage, as well as the other 9 videos in the Drake’s competition, come out to:
Cervantes Ballroom
Sept. 14, 2008 8:00PM
Denver, CO
A lot of people have been asking for a copy of our movie, but we are currently working out some music copyright issues, as well as polishing up a few edits. DVD release is set for late 2008 or early 2009, and we promise that it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer that we had on the Fly Fishing Film Tour this year.
Big snook are as spooky as fish come. They live in areas that see no boat traffic, and stay out of the wind even with a hard blow. Pole into a muddy cove or up one of the Everglades many creek systems and make a super stealthy approach, as snook in these areas will blow out from the tiniest boat wake, loud talking, blind casting (both from the disturbance in the water, and the unnecessary movement made while casting at nothing), and just about anything else that moves or makes noise.
In March and April, the waters warm up, and the prevailing wind blows east-northeast. This wind blows a lot of the water out of the creek systems that big fish winter in. This movement of water forces snook to come out of their hiding spots, just long enough for us to get at them. Carefully present a fly in front of these fish, and let them swim to it. Once the fish is really close to the fly, strip it a couple of times short and fast. If you did everything correct, you’ll be in for one of the greatest eats you’ll ever see.