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Sierra Fly Fishing, vol. 1: The Lower Kern River
With Guy Jeans. Halflight Productions, 2006;
DVD, run time: 29 minutes.
 It pains me to admit this, but most fly-fishing videos leave me unimpressed and uninspired. I can tolerate only so much “Here I am again with yet another really big fish” before I start yawning uncontrollably and nod off to dream of more pleasant things — like root canals or barium enemas. It most cases, the typical fly-fishing DVD amounts to little more than watching someone else catch fish, which isn’t as much fun as catching them and is about as interesting to me as watching paint dry. Sierra Fly Fishing, vol. 1: The Lower Kern River, however, isn’t like that all. It succeeds handsomely in creating the illusion that you are a part of the action in real time, rather than the after-the-fact witness to it that you really are as a viewer.
The experience of fishing is found in other things aside from flowing water and large trout that take you deep into your backing. Clouds billowing over the high ridges, delicate blades of grass swaying in the breeze, and hummingbirds sucking the nectar from the wildflowers that grow along the banks of the river are all a part of the experience of fishing the lower Kern, and I know this is so because I’ve “been there and done that.” When fond memories take me back to that river or when I anticipate returning to it, images such as those add color and vibrancy to the vision. In this DVD, producer/director/cinematographer Tysun McMullan’s images are so much like those that I carry with me in my own mind that it almost seems as if he has somehow crawled into my head and lifted them from me, and I am left to assume — correctly, I think — that he sees this river as I do.
In this DVD, McMullan has done something that is easy to conceptualize, but very difficult actually to do, and that is to deliver the essence of what fishing a particular body of water is all about. As I noted, the cinematography credit also goes to McMullan, and “exquisite” is a fitting adjective with which to describe much of the camera work this DVD contains. If McMullan doesn’t love that river deeply and know it thoroughly, he’s done a very convincing job in fooling me into believing that he does. He’s also done a very good job of making the viewer feel as though he or she is right there on the river.
I can’t give McMullan all of the credit, though his cinematography and direction certainly play a major role. The host deserves some credit for his part in pulling off this grand illusion, too.
The host role for this production is filled by Guy Jeans, a licensed guide and owner of the Kern River Troutfitters fly shop in Kernville. Given Jeans’s professional background, one would rightly assume that he has this portion of the Kern River pretty much figured out. Knowing how, though, is only part of the equation in being a good fishing guide. The other part is being able to teach someone else how. In this production, Jeans demonstrates that he is very good at explaining a problem, defining a solution, and explaining why he has elected to solve the problem in the manner that he has.
In one scene that springs immediately to mind, the problem is one of getting the fly to a fish that is lurking in the shadows of a tree growing over the river, where the arboreal canopy would make casting directly to the fish very difficult. The solution is to dead drift a nymph rig with a downstream presentation, delivering the cast well short of the fish, then feeding out line with a nifty little half roll-cast technique to maintain the drag-free drift of the flies into the feeding zone.
Admittedly, when I first viewed the scene described above, my initial thinking was that Jeans was going to a lot of trouble when a direct assault with a really tight loop would have the nymph rig immediately in the zone without all of this feeding out line jazz. “That wouldn’t stop me from casting right to the fish,” I said to the screen the first time I viewed the scene. It’s not that I am God’s gift to the art of fly casting, but I do have the luxury of being able to fish nearly every single day if I want to, and I’ve gotten really good at driving tight loops into places where they weren’t meant to go, such as under docks or gangways in the costal embayments that I fish. But what would I do if I couldn’t get my fly directly to the fish by throwing a really, really tight loop? I can throw a loop that would fit underneath all of that shrubbery, most of the time, with a simple, single-fly rig. Could I do it with a double-fly rig and a big, puffy indicator, though? Why would I even want to try and risk wasted time snagging brush when there is a workable alternative?
As a former licensed guide, I gained a lot of respect for Jeans’s skills when I visualized myself in that same situation with a client of average ability. In that scenario, it wouldn’t matter a single iota whether or not I could throw a tight loop right to the fish, but without a workable solution, it would matter a whole lot if the client couldn’t.
Having fished the lower Kern on numerous occasions, I can vouch for the fact that on certain stretches of it, this little gem of angling wisdom alone would be worth the price of the video for many. There are others, too, that I will leave for the viewer to discover for themselves. This is teaching without talking down, and I found myself learning a thing our two from all of the four sections of this DVD, each of which covers a different angling technique, without immediately catching on to the fact that I was being taught something. There is information transfer going on, but it is subtle and refreshingly informal.
Watching this DVD really is like being on the river with a good guide who provides the benefit of expertise without the ego that sometimes goes along with it. In this DVD, Jeans comes across a person who genuinely loves fly fishing and really wants viewers to share his passion. He comes across as one who loves the waters upon which he plies his trade and who wants viewers to love them as much as he does. In short, he comes across as the kind of guide I strove to be — a passionate teacher, rather than a cross between a court jester and a gondolier who keeps clients entertained as he ferries them about from place to place. In doing so, he leaves the impression of being the sort of fellow with whom any sane, normal human being would enjoy spending time on the water.
Having met the man in person, on the occasion of a presentation he gave at a fly-fishing club where I was once a member, I think I can safely say that the Guy Jeans you see on this video is who he is in reality, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. In making this DVD, McMullan not only managed to capture the essence of fly fishing, and of fly fishing on a particular river, but also the essence of one of the industry’s good guys.
The final element of this production that is worthy of mention is Gregg Orenstein’s backing score, which transcends the sort of quasi-musical backdrop one normally finds in fly-fishing videos. On my first viewing, I found myself wishing there was a soundtrack CD available, so I could listen to the music for its own sake, without having to view the video. McMullan must have crawled into my head after all, because the ability to do that is included in the “special features” section of this DVD. Taste is relative, but in addition to writing for a living, I also happen to make a chunk of my change as a professional musician who plays guitar, banjo, and dobro, so I tend to be more than a little passionate about music. Call me weird, but I do hear music when I fish, and Orenstein’s score is pretty close to what I hear when I am wading in a river, alone in the shadows of a canyon.
Sierra Fly Fishing, vol. 1: The Lower Kern River, then, is a rare gem among fly-fishing DVDs. From the cinematography done with the sensitivity of a true artist’s eye, to Guy Jeans’ role as the knowledgeable, amicable host and teacher, to the background score that could stand on its own just fine, this production has all the pieces needed to make it something special, and it leaves little to disappoint.
My wife’s comment upon seeing this DVD really sums it up nicely. “Wow! I feel like I’ve been there,” she said. That’s high praise, considering that she’s a fly fisher, but hasn’t yet fished the lower Kern, nor has she even seen it in the flesh.
~ Jerrold Paul Shelton
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