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What happened to fly-fishing films?
I’ve been an angler my whole life, and I’ve consumed fishing media since my earliest days. I have fond memories of spending my Saturday mornings perched in front of the TV watching Larry Dahlberg, Tred Barta and other legends catch the fish of a lifetime. Those guys were my heroes and teachers.
When the fishing YouTube craze began in my early high school days, I was tuned into the culture, but it always felt different from my youth. There was less storytelling and more ego. Less talk about the fish and why we chase them, and more talk about what we’re doing right now. It was the beginning of vlogging, easily my least favorite trend of the modern era.
As I aged, I watched less and less fishing content. In the past five or so years, I’ve almost entirely tuned out of the fly-fishing film world. Sure, I’ve seen the big ones, but by no means do I spend my free time soaking up fly-fishing media.
I’m not alone here. When I asked Ryan Peterson, one of the anglers behind Eastern Rises (the gold standard of fly-fishing films–documenting the early entries to Kamchatka), what he thought of the current media landscape, his answer was a bit surprising.
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