A long time ago, more years than I care to remember, Robert Redford took the Norman Maclean book a A River Runs Through It, went to find the aging author and begged him to let Redford turn it into a film. 
Maclean had, over the years, rebuffed all such requests but on this occasion he relented. Redford cast an unknown hunky blonde called Brad Pitt, went to Montana and made a truly great film.
Fortunately for me the film, made a couple of years after I started Fishing Breaks, caught the zeitgeist and the ensuing publicity did me no harm whatsoever. Now whether Hollywood's latest offering Fishing Naked will be so revered in 20 years time I tend to doubt, but anything that puts fly fishing foursquare into the minds of the late teens and early twenty year olds gets my vote.
The plot is mildly reminiscent of a Scooby Doo cartoon but hey, it looks harmless fun and the fishing locations are beautiful. I haven't seen the film in full but essentially the story goes that two young guys find an amazing trout river that they want to keep secret. To do this they re-create the Bigfoot legend, rope two attractive girls into the scheming and as the film unfolds it all goes awry. Here is the PR spiel:
A comedy for the post-Twilight generation, Fishing Naked is a modern legend of pranks, romantic entanglements, and outrageous comedy. When a series of Bigfoot hoaxes get out of hand, hormones and hilarity ensue. Two fly fisherman buddies, David and Rodney (Twilight's Bronson Pelletier and TV pinup Evan Williams), simply want to drive tourists away from their idyllic fly fishing river paradise. But they stumble upon two gorgeous trust-fund chicks (Elyse Levesque from Stargate Universe and Twilight's Tinsel Korey), and the foursome takes the gags to the next level. From Sasquatch suits and YouTube pranks to a giant fake spaceship, their hoaxes start to backfire: attracting attention rather than scaring off tourists. As TV crews, the FBI, and even an extraterrestrial visitor descend upon their pristine mountain community, these four pranksters are quick to respond ... they get baked and go fishing. Flirtatious sparks ignite even as the mayhem explodes around them. Fishing Naked provides an irreverent but endearing portrayal of rural mountain communities, the plague of tourism, and the allure of native lore.
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| Fishing Naked Movie Trailer (#FishingNaked) |
I am sorry to say I have been unable to find a UK release date, but I am sure somewhere out there on the internet via Love Films, Sky on Demand, NetFlix and so on it is out there to be found. Here is the trailer.
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GRAYLING TIME
The last of our trout beats closed on Sunday, so it is now officially grayling time. On the beats that have a high proportion of wild trout I have a short season so the river is left alone in good time for spawning. Bullington Manor on the Upper Test is a good case in point where we go for just six weeks, closing on 30th November.
In the past three years I have gradually expanded our range of options for grayling, now with eight beats on seven rivers across five counties. Prices start at £37 with beats suitable for single rods all the way up to parties of six. There is a dedicated grayling page on the Fishing Breaks web site. Here is the link.
COTTON'S FISHING TEMPLE
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| Andy at prayer |
If you ever get a chance a trip to Charles Cotton's Fishing Temple on the River Dove is a heart-stopping moment for anyone with a sense of fishing history. You are, quite literally, walking on the very stones on which Cotton and Izaak Walton trod, sitting in the very room, beside the very same open hearth which they compiled the second edition of The Compleat Angler.
My friend Andy Buckley who works in Farlow's of Pall Mall recently visited and wrote a lovely piece for the shop blog which really captures the essence of Beresford Dale. If you are in Farlow's do pick Andy's brain; he is a mine of chalkstream knowledge and has fished a good few of the Fishing Breaks beats.
There is the link to the blog.
