How difficult can it be to make a short fly fishing video…

Incredibly is the short answer. On paper, it sounded really rather simple, the storyboard consisted of some establishing drone clips, tying a fly, walking along the riverbank, various shots of said man fishing various spots and then a drone shot of him catching a trout and culminating in cooking that trout on the riverbank. We even decided to film when there was a good mayfly hatch to make the task that much simpler.

There was only one person I knew who was up for such a task, my lifelong friend Edward Barder. Edward also makes some of the finest fishing rods money can buy I should add.

Fortunately, Ed also knew of the perfect spot for filming, tucked away on a private estate on the river Kennet in Berkshire.

With all arrangements made and props gathered, we headed off to the river where it quickly became apparent that trying to film this on a blisteringly hot day whilst lovely for us made the trout somewhat reticent to feed, so what had seemed ample filming time was going to be reduced to a few hours later in the day when the trout had started to show signs of life. 

We busied ourselves with establishing shots and other material until it was time for the money shot - catching a trout. I had earlier decided this had to be a drone shot. I can still hear the disappointed tone in Ed’s voice on the multiple occasions he shouted from the river after catching and landing a fish “Did you get that” only for me to meekly reply no, the framing wasn’t right, I missed it or the drone batteries were flat!  Eventually, success beckoned and I got the shot with about 10% charge ignoring all the warning alarms that I had never realised a DJI Mavic Pro had, at which point I had mentally decided that a crashed drone was worth the shot.

The day finished with a fine supper of freshly caught trout and some beautifully chilled wine - it doesn’t get much better than that. I hope you enjoy the results of our hard-fought (in more ways than one) efforts.

Should you be interested you can find Ed’s work here www.barder-rod.co.uk