Welcome to Week LXXX of 'Fishing Parkland Shorelines'. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I'll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don't have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
It's the time of year with the days of fall past, the full force of winter too new to thicken the ice to safe levels for even a thought of ice fishing, so what are we fishermen to do?
If you love fishing it never seems too hard to find an activity related to the passion, such as sitting down to watch a good flick where fishing is an integral part of the film.
One such production is 'Only the River Knows'.
Only the River Knows is an 84-minute fly fishing film shot in New Zealand, Australia, Norway and Sweden. A mix of fiction and documentary, the film reflects man's tendency to mistake dreams for reality, noted the film's website.
"The story unfolds by the legendary Lethe River on New Zealand's wild and wondrous South Island. Back in 1988, one of the most iconic fly fishers of our time, Lars Lenth, spent three months exploring the fabled river and fishing for its abnormally large trout. At night, he would sit down in a remote cabin and write down his experiences in a journal.
"Nearly 25 years later, the young trout bum, Rolf Nylinder looses his way in the wilderness near Lethe. He finds the long-lost journal, full of insights about the very soul of fly fishing.
"The old book becomes a moral compass for Rolf, who gradually becomes more and more obsessed by the poetic adventures Lenth wrote down in a dreamy past. Destiny forces the two fly fishers together, but what will happen when their worlds collide?"
Director Peter Christensen talks about how the film came to be.
"The main character of the film, Rolf Nylinder, and I met on New Year's Eve, 2011," he said. "We quickly became like brothers and decided to escape the dreadful Danish winter to go to New Zealand - every fly fishers dream destination. Two weeks later we were on the plane, much to the annoyance of girlfriends and my bank advisor, embarking on a three-month trout fishing pilgrimage.
"In the beginning of the trip we were not very successful in our fishing. Actually, we spent weeks without catching a single trout.
"Then we decided to bet it all, and walk into this remote wilderness river. On our way there, we got lost in the forest and by complete chance stumbled upon an abandoned cabin deep in the woods. In the cabin, we found a long-lost diary of a fly fishing god called Lars Lenth and from there, the adventure really began. Gradually, both Rolf and I became more and more obsessed with the diary and Mr. Lenth's poetic descriptions of large trout, and that obsession is the driving force in the film."
The strength of 'Only the River Knows' lies in its documentary aspects and stylings.
The first two-thirds of the film are as good a minutes on celluloid as you are likely to find, in particular if you have an appreciation for fishing.
The idea that Lars Lenth, who portrays himself in part of the film, has left a diary in an old cabin near a deeply secluded river in New Zealand is tantalizing.
"To a lot of Scandinavians, Lars Lenth is an icon - the greatest fly fisher that ever lived," said Christensen. "He made a number of TV shows with his best friend Baard back in the 90s, which in turn became some of the most popular TV-shows ever in Scandinavia. The end of Only the River Knows is a quirky homage to those old films Lars and Baard did. The fishing was always secondary - it was the humor and madness that took the most attention. Their show was like A River Runs Through It directed by Monty Python."
Rolf Nylinder, again playing himself in the flick, comes upon the cabin, finds the books and becomes mesmerized by the prose of it.
The narrative read from the book, as footage you assume is documentary-in style with someone portraying Lenth, is amazing. The supposed diary contains amazing writing, full of colour, of love for seclusion, the river, and the trout.
As the film progresses through the diary, Nylinder becomes more and more infatuated with Lenth, and his vision of fishing. He evolves ever closer to being Lenth in his mind, which is psychlogically interesting as well.
But there is fantasy afoot in the film too.
"It took a couple of days, but we improvised a lot," Christensen said of writing the script. "(But perhaps it is more fun for potential viewers to be unaware that it is a fiction film, through and through.
"Since Rolf and Lars are unable to differ between truth and fiction, it is cool if this inability is mirrored in the viewer, at least until the film goes crazy and it becomes obvious that all the characters are more or less madmen."
As the film moves away from the river, it becomes a story of Nylinder's pilgrimage to return the journal to Lars Lenth.
It is here the film takes on a different 'feel' one which requires a specific taste to appreciate, especially as it it decidely different from the first part of Only the River Knows.
"Everybody loved the first hour, but we have had mixed reactions to the ending," admitted Chistensen.
"Without revealing too much, I can say that some illusions are broken towards the ending, and things become quite absurd.
"But also, viewers have to realize that most fly fishing films are made on pure passion with minimal budgets. We took a chance to make something that was pretty original and different in the genre of fly fishing, so with no money but big ambitions, it is hard to pull off a great film through and through."
Still reaction has been more good than bad, and deservedly so.
"Generally, we had so many wonderful reactions. Many people have written to us with kind words, we've had very good reviews and actually we won two Drake Awards - the fly fishing film equivalent of the Oscar - in Las Vegas in July," said Christensen.
I myself might have opted for a different ending, but I can appreciate the effort even if the justaposition of the two film elements is pretty wide.
That said, Christensen himself looked to the first part of the film for his own favourite scene.
"We filmed 11 days for three sequences recreating Lars Lenth's diary, and after 8 days we were missing the most important part: his leviathan trout! Even finding such big trout as Lenth describes in his diary can be almost impossible, not to mention catching them or not to mention catching and filming them," he said. "Fishing is always difficult to film beautifully because you can't direct a fish. Everything has to come together just at the right moment, and it never does. But then, every great once in a while, light, fish, fisherman, camera team and divine powers seem to converge, and it is a great feeling when they do. In the last three days of our shoot we managed to get those sequences and we're very proud of them."
Certainly the scenes where we see Lenth working the river are breathtaking in terms of footage and brought into sharper focus by the 'journal narrative'.
It is such scenes which speak to the filmmakers own obvious love and respect for fishing.
"I've been fishing since I was four years old," said Christensen.
"When I caught my first fish - a 3 oz. perch - it was a miracle. I had baited a hook made out of a paper clip with a worm, and for the bobber I used a wine cork. When the cork started to dip under the surface and I pulled the crude hazel rod, this magnificent creature emerged. In the eyes of a four-year-old, a small perch is like a mythological creature - dragon-like with its spiky fins and fiery colours.
"From then on, I've been drawn to water.
"For me it is a source of inspiration, a promise of childhood, innocence and wonder, and as an adult, also my office."
And so interestingly Canada has become a favoured fishing spot for Christensen.
"One of my favourite places is actually the Canadian Arctic, chasing huge arctic char in icy rivers," he said.
Only the River Knows is available through online streaming and download for 10$. Go to www.reelhouse.org/kokkaffe/onlyriverknows to watch the trailer and the full film. You can also get it on DVD from Cabela's, either in stores or through their website www.cabelas.com.
