New Zealand. It brings the fly casters mind to thoughts of clear water and big, big trout. Over the years I’ve read alot about this far away land, both online and in fishing magazines. Today though, I received a special gift from the creator of an absolute gem of a DVD called The Dead Drift: An in depth analysis to fly fishing New Zealand.
The film is 65 minutes of some of the most beautiful – and most beautifully filmed – rivers and trout you’ve ever seen. Several times I put the video in reverse to take a second and even a third look at some of the great dry fly takes captured in close-up fashion. Filmed in The Wilderness Waters of Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand by Stealth Films, Ltd, the action is non-stop as professional guide Dean Bell talks you through each situation before the casting begins. Bell says that 80% of the game takes place before you cast, and as a freestone angler myself, I immediately realized the truth in that statement – as it’s the same “thinking man’s game” here in the freestone rivers of the Southeastern portion of the USA.
Watching Mr. Bell fish this water, however, something becomes immediately clear to me – and that is, the massive trout seem to be much harder to “spook” than the small fish here in Southern Appalachia. They seem to be much more like the trout I encountered last summer out West, who wouldn’t spook as easily – but also wouldn’t offer to take your fly, unless it was perfectly presented. Here in our freestone streams, the small trout are often far too eager to take a fly no matter how it’s presented and unless you are on one of the tailwater rivers the fishing is in some ways much less demanding. Not as much food equals a greater need to “get what you can” for our little mountain trout.
Also, I noticed that the size of the fish was astounding. The film showed shot after shot of these massive trout, most of which were around four pounds or so in weight. The guide, who has obviously caught his fair share of large trout, would often dismiss them as a ‘nice little fish” or some such – making me quiver a little with excitement at the thought of using the word little while holding a fish as long as my arm! Should I ever be able to fish there, I’d probably spend most of my time passed out on some stream-side rock from excitement, overwhelmed by the experience. It looks that good in this DVD. I can just imagine how amazing it would be in person. Can’t you just see…
Oh sorry. I was daydreaming there a bit.
As for the “feel” of this video, the guide is very “down to earth” in both his explanation of the methods and his general manner. Many scenes are filmed from an “over the shoulder” view and several times I thought about putting a friendly hand on his shoulder and telling him to either move forward and fish or get out of my way. Daydreaming again, naturally…but it felt as though I was right there with him the whole time.
Mr. Bell posses a sharp, low and powerful roll cast which he demonstrated several times. Obviously he’s very proficient with the long rod, but I couldn’t help noticing the absence of a “wiggle cast” in his arsenal. There were many times when the complexities of the varied currents would be the perfect situation for this type of cast – but he chose to use a reach or curve cast instead. This may be because of his fondness for a fly fishing truth he talked about in the film, which is: “the shorter the line, the more control.” Several times he mentions that you should always cast with control, and that even shooting a little line to gain more distance may put your cast off the mark. While this is true, as with most things in fly fishing – shooting line and the wiggle cast included – with practice you can become deadly accurate in situations where others might lose much or all of the control needed to place the fly on the fish. The wiggle cast is absolutely one of those casts that must be practiced again and again to get out the proper amount of line in the forward cast – because you’re going to “wiggle” away about 40% of that distance when you shake the rod tip, putting your fly’s position 40% shorter than the length of the total cast. But it can be done, and Mr. Bell could make good use of this technique – although perhaps as you can see in the film, he actually doesn’t need my help – or the wiggle cast – to catch plenty of nice fish! I just like the wiggle cast.
In short, if you like fly fishing videos you should add this one to your collection. Even if you never plan on fishing New Zealand ( or maybe especially if you never plan on fishing New Zealand! ) you should have this video to watch on a cold winter’s day. The close up shots of feeding trout alone are almost worth the price of admission. You can order the video straight from Stealth Films by visiting their website. The Dead Drift video is currently $32.02 in US Dollars and in my opinion it’s worth every penny and then some for the “hard core” angler. The casual angler might find the video to be a little too slow moving, but anyone who appreciates the finer aspects of fly fishing will absolutely love it. I actually watched it twice, back to back, before writing this review. I haven’t watched a film twice in a row since I was 12 years old and we sat though two showings of the timeless classic….Smokey and the Bandit – which is still one of my favorite films of all time. And now, I can add “The Dead Drift” to that list.
Those “nice little fish”……my oh my….
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*Two things I should note here:
1. I received nothing in return for this review other than a copy of the DVD from Stealth Films. Obviously, without that there could be no review. ha!
2. The photos I’ve captured here from the film DO NOT do it justice. I could have taken them to photoshop I suppose – but I was so eager to tell you about the video that I didn’t waste time doing that. Just know that the DVD is one of the most beautifully filmed trout videos I’ve ever seen. Enough said.
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