Friday Fly-Fishing Film Festival 02.16.18

Welcome to the latest edition of the Orvis News Friday Fly-Fishing Film Festival, in which we scour the Web for the best fly-fishing videos available. This week, the pickings were really quite slim, but I managed to find 10 compelling videos with a decidedly coldwater emphasis. From rainbows in Utah to brook trout in New Jersey, and from grayling in Slovenia to a grab bag of big fish in Alaska, there’s plenty for the eyes to feast on. But there’s also a really important conservation story about one of the West’s iconic rivers in trouble.

For best results, watch all videos at full-screen and in high definition. Remember, we surf so you don’t have to. But if you do stumble upon something great that you think is worthy of inclusion in a future F5, please post it in the comments below, and we’ll take a look.

And don’t forget to check out the awesome Orvis fly-fishing video theater: The Tug. As of today, there are exactly 1,435 great videos on the site!

We rarely kick off the F5 with a conservation video, but this story needs telling. My friend Rick Hafele, a wildlife biologist, explains why the Deschutes River fishery has been in decline and what needs to be done to fix it. This is not just a story about saving a river, though, because as goes the Deschutes, so goes the city of Maupin and the livelihoods of the people who live there. For a look at what the river was once like, click here.

The Iliamna region of southwestern Alaska features glorious landscapes and incredible fishing, both of which are on display here. It’s an ad, but you won’t care. The soundtrack however, may grate, so keep a hand on the volume button.

Here’s a great video that’s a paean to the North Branch Outing Club, on the banks of Michigan’s legendary Au Sable River. There’s a real sense of history and community on display that’s part of the Midwestern tradition.

This is just 41 seconds of B-roll from a project about Utah’s Green River. I could look at trout like that all day.

Slovenia’s Adriatic grayling grow very large and live in some absolutely stunning rivers in the Slovenian Alps.

Close your eyes and conjure an image of New Jersey. Then watch this video, which shows off some of the Garden State’s real beauty.

Captain Quinn is back, and he’s found a pool absolutely full of steelhead, and we get to watch as his buddy, Rob, attempts to hook one.

The Danica Dudes profile a young German angler as he pursues huchen or Danube salmon (Hucho hucho), the European relative of the Siberian taimen.

Here’s some cool film footage from 1965 about fly-fishing for American shad on California’s Yuba River. Gotta get me one of those Astrocruisers.

Just to add a little salt action, here’s a classic from our friend Peter Christensen, about a hectic morning’s fishing in Nicaragua. The dramatic entrance of the star of the show is one of my favorite moments ever in a fly-fishing video.