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The Oscars: CFS' 2025 Fly Fishing Film Tour Awards

There are four questions a pretty good fly-fishing film has to answer in order to be considered truly great.

Nick Parish

Nick Parish

— 18 min read
The Oscars: CFS' 2025 Fly Fishing Film Tour Awards
What a beauty.

The Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) came to Portland last week, and I had the chance to go check out some fun films, and say hi to some friends. I wanted to give a few commendations for my favorites.

But first: The entire experience is a rip-snorter. There are merch giveaways, libations, and plenty of crowd participation. Sometimes local fly shops host pre- (and after-) parties, where fun is had and even more of that sweet, sweet merch is given way.

Most broadly, the Fly Fishing Film Tour is a great early-season energizer. It's something everyone who fly-fishes—whether you're a trout snob, a steelhead junkie, or salty dog—can get excited about.

Promotional stills from some of the F3T selection screened in Portland this year

Step inside:

What is this?

If you're a regular newsletter reader you know I love fly-fishing video. When done right, a great video can really raise the stoke.

It reminds me of the feelings I'd get watching skateboarding videos in my teens. We'd watch a VHS from Videojack (real name, they had all the Bones Bridgade videos to rent), then be ready to shred. It fired you up to go out on your own and try new things, and be creative.

Even when a fly-fishing film is not so great, it's at least new information for we voracious consumers of all things fly-fishing.

This is my attempt to offer some laurels to the films I loved from the 2025 Fly Fishing Film Festival (F3T) and invite you to share your thoughts, or send along your favorites.

What isn't this?

Whether I liked them or not, I'm not here to lump negativity on any of these films. This isn't a swoop-and-poop. All these films took time, energy, and love to make.

I'll include some common areas where I thought films might do better in general, but the model here at Current Flow State—around any creative work—is very much "praise or ignore".

If you made one of these films that screened as part of the Fly Fishing Film Tour, or even if you went so far as submitting a film that didn't become an official selection, thank you for bringing your creativity to the sport.

Why the Fly-fishing Oscars

The Current Flow State Fly-Fishing Oscars are named after "Oscar," my best friend's oscar chiclid (Astronotus ocellatus), who lived to a ripe age of three on a diet of feeder goldfish released into its tank in sadistic delight.

They, of course, bear no resemblance to any other filmic or fly-fishing awards, living or dead.

Why just the F3T?

There are other fly-fishing film festivals out there, both here in the United States and internationally.

Here are the two other active fly-fishing film festivals I know of:

The F3T is the biggest and most global, having absorbed the RISE film festival a couple years back and now co-operating in some regions. The main reason we're focusing on the F3T is it came to Portland. Hopefully next year I can check out some of the films at IF4.

As Current Flow State grows, I'm going to do my best watch the latest and greatest, festival screening or not, and continue to share them with you in the weekly newsletter and other yet-to-be-determined locales.

Got a film coming out you want to share? Please add me to your list of people to notify.

What do I know?

I've been watching and analyzing commercial creativity for the past twenty or so years, first as associate editor at Advertising Age's Creativity magazine and AdCritic.com, then as editorial director of Contagious magazine, and now as a group director at a global design studio.

As a writer, I've reported out deep-dive long-read case studies of brand and industry content creation efforts by the likes of Patagonia, YETI, Red Bull, and Nike.

And now I'm responsible for a team of writers and content strategists at a big digital product design firm, where we've designed and shipped experiences for the likes of PGA TOUR, YouTube, the Mellon Foundation, the Steve Jobs Archive, and more.

Most importantly, I LOVE to watch people fly-fish, both live, and as depicted on the big screen. When I lived in New York in the 2010's, far from reliable fishing, I'd host an annual bo ssam feast at my apartment where we'd over-imbibe and screen my bootleg copy of the classic, Tarpon in salutations to the Key West gang.

But wait, Nick, aren't all these just glorified ads?

Well, yeah. Most of them. All but one? Maybe?

Advertisements, ego trips, calls for attention and relevance in a modern world where nothing makes sense and everyone's upset about it. That's all true.

But, it's still fun to watch them. Whether or not you're hypnotized into buying something you don't really need at the end, there still might be some beauty and human connection in there. Open your heart.

The films

Here's what we saw. There's variability in how the F3T chooses what they show in each location, so not everyone gets the same films.

The F3T is very commercially-oriented, so I'd expect some of the bigger-budget / bigger-sponsor films are constant, and the smaller productions are swapped in and out.

After the festival you're able to stream them all, so I'll update my picks. I'll talk a little more about what I'm looking forward to from the rest later.

⚠️
Note:
I did my best to find everyone's info, but this is definitely incomplete. If you can help me credit the right folks and connect up the dots,
I'd appreciate you dropping a line and sharing a link.

The films we got in Portland

(In order of screening.)

Dan's Pain 2

Filmmaker: Ben Meadows

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

The Hard Way

Filmmaker: RA Beattie (Instagram)
Written by: Miles Nolte

Produced by / featuring

This is Captain Lacey Kelly

Filmmakers: RC Cone / Andrew Ries

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

Mouse Trap

Filmmaker: Jack Beaudoin (Instagram)

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

Bumpyland

Filmmaker: Helmut Zaderer (Instagram)

Produced by / featuring

Left Field

Filmmaker: Tyler Soares (Instagram)

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

Streamers, Steamers & Struggles on the Krka

Filmmakers: Rok Rozman (Instagram) / Rožle Bregar

Produced by / featuring

Echoes in the Tundra

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

Shadow People at the Falls

Filmmaker: Jesse Males (Instagram)

Produced by / featuring
Sponsors

King of Color

Produced by / featuring

Sponsors

The Oscar goes to...

oscars.002_small.png

Best Sound and Music

Sound design and music can make or break a film.

Do you highlight the soundtrack and try to amplify the action, or do you let the track ride shotgun to the overall balance? Films in the festival weren't all uniform in how they approached music. Some kept a constant undercurrent, some punctuated big moments with big tunes.

Meanwhile, audio mix, especially with narration, is critical to help the audience track what's happening. Not all films were able to nail the sound.

Nominees

  • Shadow People at the Falls, for audio accentuating key fishing moments
  • The Hard Way for a steady musical undercurrent and great voiceover
  • King of Color, for a balance of regional tunes that supported the narrative

And the Oscar goes to...

King of Color, with music from Belize, Mexico, and Costa Rica that supported David Danforth's artistry and angling across the region. The mix was crisp, and Danforth's straight-to-camera discussion came through clean and clear.

Watch the King of Color trailer

Best Visual Effects

We're not talking spaceships or monster makeup or CGI, we're talking about the biggest fish.

One of my favorite parts of the Fly Fishing Film Tour is the oohing and aahing when the trophy fish make an appearance.

This one celebrates the whoppers.

Nominees

  • Mouse Trap, for an utter hog of a brown trout
  • Echoes In The Tundra for not one or two but three exquisite Atlantic Salmon
  • Shadow People at the Falls for exotic toothy and multi-meter-long creatures

And the Oscar goes to...

Echoes In The Tundra for showcasing fish that were utterly gorgeous, and increasingly difficult to find.

Watch the Echoes in the Tundra trailer

Honorable Mention:

Shadow People at the Falls for bringing our attention to two new interesting species, the arapaima and payara.

Best Editing

You can only edit what you shoot. For a few of the films in the festival, it felt clear that they were working from a deficit of footage, rather than an abundance, and so their editing lacked the fluidity and ability to make more systematic choices, and establish patterns. Editing feels like an area where a lot of films in the festival could have improved.

Nominees

  • Streamers, Steamers & Struggles on the Krka, for comedic timing
  • This is Captain Lacey Kelly, for a tidy package
  • King of Color, for balancing art and angling

And the Oscar goes to...

Streamers, Steamers & Struggles on the Krka
I really enjoyed this film, mostly because of the editing. The filmmakers were able to develop a rhythm in a short space. They built narrative all through a good use of voiceover, scene composition, and simple setups. They were also able to edit for comedic timing, something other films had to use performances and subject goofiness to get across. Editing enhanced the film's overall narrative and isolated lines / writing, and made them more impactful, and felt on the screen.

Watch the trailer

Best Supporting Actor

We're all supporting actors in this world, anyway, right? We're here to hold each other up. And what better way to hold up your fellows than on a fishing odyssey.

Your fishing buddies do the net work when it's critical, they take a turn on the oars when Uncle Gusty is going hard, the talk you out of (or into) that after-hours mistake. This one's for the boon companions.

Nominees

  • The adorable (and fishy) Iorg kids in Left Field
  • The dynamic duo of Westley Allen and Trevor Joslin in Mouse Trap
  • The untouchable angling of Blane Chocklett in Dan's Pain 2

And the Oscar goes to...

Westley Allen and Trevor Joslin, Mouse Trap
What a pair of fishing buddies these two are. Through a lot of defeat and heartbreak (and not a lot of sleep) they managed to not just persevere, but to also seem to stay nice to each other. I know plenty of marriages that can't function this effectively under pressure.

Watch the Mouse Trap trailer

Honorable mention

Blane Chocklett, Dan's Pain 2
I could have watched Chocklett alone work a Game Changer for six hours. That doesn't make him Best Supporting Actor, but just saying.

Best Actor

Who would you actually want to fish with? Who would you not want to fish with? Fly-fishing films run the gamut in how they characterize their subjects, anglers or guides, in what sort of light they place them, and whether they try to bring them to life at all.

From the broken-down glamour of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler to the naive positivity of Emmet in The LEGO Movie, there's a range of characterization between polar opposites available to any kind of filmmakers around anglers. Are we more Ahab, or more Forrest Gump?

For our purposes, since we're dealing with real people playing themselves in mini documentaries, a film has to has to establish character while still being true to an actual human being, not an invented one.

Nominees

  • Salty captain Lacey Kelly, in This is Captain Lacey Kelly
  • The land-connected local Matt Mendes, in The Hard Way
  • The guides in Bumpyland, who go the extra nautical mile

And the Oscar goes to...

Lacey Kelly, This is Captain Lacey Kelly
This was the one film where I was left with wanting to go deeper into the main protagonist's world. Who is this person, really? What's behind the big laugh, fun energy, and a really specific place in the world. Is she just Florida Woman writ large, a self-described "fifth-generation cracker"? No, I bet there's way more to it than that.

I'm struggling to remember if Lacey Kelly even caught a fish or cast a fly line in the film, which should take this one down a peg, but it doesn't: the storytelling is that pure.

(n.b. I picked up a copy of Stonefly, "the magazine of the Fly Fishing Film Tour" at the show, and apparently Kelly didn't want to fish with a crew to avoid hot-spotting her tarpon holes. Chapeau, madam. You just got even cooler.)

Watch the trailer

Honorable Mention

The guides in Bumpyland
Diving off the boat, swimming half a mile after a fish, wedging your body under a coral head to pull a fish out, or set the fly line or leader free before it frays on the sharp coral.... ay yi yi, I'm sure some of the trout guides in the audience who just throw on an indicator and say "mend" and "set" to the custies for six hours felt deep shame.

Best Cinematography

For my fly-fishing film festival-going dollar, Best Cinematography is not about "Coolest Location". It's easy to take a great picture when the landscape gives it to you. Shooting during the day on the ocean, where you have all the light in the world is very different than in the dark. Which kind of gives this one away.

Nominees

  • Echoes in the Tundra, for capturing the North's moodiness
  • The Hard Way, for showcasing the exquisite Deschutes
  • Mouse Trap, for capturing the night fishing grind

And the Oscar goes to...

Mouse Trap
It's really hard to shoot in the dark, and still capture people's faces and emotions, and this film did both really well. A good 80% of the shots were at night, on the boat, or setting out, and still it managed to establish the narrative, and these characters and show their ups and downs.

I felt like there were a few key setups this film went back to, which really emphasized the repetitiveness of the team's journey over their two week search: the headlamps on the boat, the overhead shot of the boat with the running lights and transom light. Those would not have worked without great camerawork and planning and probably some strong supplemental lighting.

Watch the Mouse Trap trailer

Honorable Mention

The Hard Way
This film did a great job at capturing both the beauty of the Deschutes and working at the odd angles the river offers. There were a couple of setups on the bank that you could tell were precarious, with featured angler Matt Mendes under a bush sneaking in a cast. A-plus setup work.

Best Picture

There are really only four questions a really great fly-fishing film has to answer effectively to move towards the realm of the classic:

Does it have ambition?
Does the film set out to prove something, or show something special?

Is it cohesive, technically and story-wise?
Does everything hang together?

Is it about something bigger than itself?
Does it maybe make a commentary on something larger than itself, without trying too hard to be preachy or teach a lesson?

Is it fun?
Does it look like the people in it are having a good time?

Just four things. Simple enough, right? It's harder than it looks.

Nominees

  • Shadow People at the Falls, for questing toward epic
  • Echoes in the Tundra, for a generational portrait
  • Mouse Trap, for showing what perseverance gets you

And the Oscar goes to...

Mouse Trap
The camaraderie between Joslyn and Allen. The excellent camerawork. The narrative tension around catching a trophy fish that builds with the crew's sleeplessness. The random phone call with someone's Michigan mom. All this adds up to make a really compelling film, with a lot of heart.

I'm not sure if it'll be as believable if they try to spin this into a series, but the idea of driving ten hours to Arkansas to night-fish for two weeks in search of the fish of a lifetime is a one-off that's incredibly compelling.

And it's not an easy feat. In fact, it's incredibly difficult. In 2018's Live The Stream, one of the most seasoned anglers in the world, Joe Humphreys, went on a similar quest to the White for a similar-sized fish, and failed to bag one.

These two fished their hearts out, persevered through the parts that were hard, and eventually got lucky. That's a story that matters.

Watch the Mouse Trap trailer

Notes for fly-fishing filmmakers

If you're going to be making a fly-fishing movie that'll be shown on a big screen, that you want to land with a bunch of boozed-up, constantly bullshitting fly anglers, you need to take a few things into consideration to be heard over the din.

Watch it on a big screen
There were a bunch of films that had problems with on-screen text being illegible. Either too small, or washed out (don't use white over a nature photo, please). I know it's not cool, but either go and see it on a big screen or bump up the type size to be safe.

Add context
Who is this? Why should we care about them? If this is a sequel, you cannot assume the viewer has watched it before, you still have to properly introduce them.

Where is this? On at least a dozen occasions I saw audience members take their phones out and go right to Google Maps to figure out where Nunavik or the Seychelles or Guyana are. Show a map! Animate an airplane or something. It doesn't have to be as clunky as the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game, but give folks something.

Actor voiceover is hard and takes extra effort to get right
A couple films were let down by stiff voiceover reads. I get it. These people aren't actors. But it's better to figure out a creative solution than to offer the audience something subpar.

First step if it's feeling clunky: Rewrite it. Have the writer listen to the subject talking more. Speeches, presentations, whatever.

If that doesn't work, go to the source. Can they write it? Do you need to get a few beers in them? Do a few dozen takes? Cut and paste from a bunch of efforts? Ad lib it? Patagonia has done this really well with Yvon Chouinard. It doesn't hurt that's he's an articulate guy and could probably ad lib anything, but for the most part it's hard to tell when he's reading from a script someone else wrote.

Don't rush it
These are short films, but the temptation to cram everything in can blow the whole deal. Sometimes films felt like overgrown trailers, stunted, like they didn't have time to develop into something full. They raced through establishing the story in the first :30, then moved on.

You've got the audience in their seats. They're probably distracted by the guy with the mouthful of wintergreen Skoal hitting his spitter again and the stank wafting their way. So take it easy. Don't tell anything in the first minute that would be detrimental to miss. Let things get established.

Make it about something. One thing.
Shorts need a clear theme to get their hooks in the audience. A few of the films tried to be too many different things. Keep it simple. Have one focal area that's easy to clearly articulate.

Make it feel fun
Fishing can be hard work. The audience will be able to figure it out. Even if the fishing's hard, people still have to seem like they're excited.

And, there's a law of symmetry afoot here. The harder the fishing, the bigger the payoff for the audience has to be. This is part of the reason Mouse Trap felt so impactful to me. And part of the reason the quirky humor in Streamers, Steamers & Struggles on the Krka lands. They catch like two fish, one of them a barbell. The stakes are set at fun modem, and you can talk about the characters and the place.

The films I missed

There's a whole grip of films that we didn't get in the Portland tour stop.

Among the full list these ones looked fun for me. Apparently once the festival tour has concluded they'll all be released, so that's something to look forward to.

Iconic Rises: Like I said about Chocklett up above, any time watching Boots Allen fish the Henry's Fork is time well spent.

Hokkaido: I'm not going to lie, fly-fishing in Japan is on my to-do list.

Where I'm Meant to Be: I love stories of athletes or folks who've had their obsession unleashed, or been brought up in a certain way to do a certain thing, who come to terms with that and branch out. This seems to be that kind of story.

It looks like from the trailer that they shot a scene at a private Oregon Fishing Club pond, but let's just pretend that's a studio setting and explained in the film.

Hooked: Balancing family life and fly-fishing in New Zealand is another set of themes that are close to home for me. Minus the NZ part, obviously.

The Silent Spotter is another RA Beattie film he alluded to that seems to have gone to the IF4 instead of F3T.

Send over your favorites, and your films

Like I said, I love fly-fishing filmmaking. I'd love to hear about your favorites, from the F3T or otherwise.

Or, tell me about how much of an idiot I am, and why your favorite from the show deserves to be lauded.

And, if you're working on a fly-fishing film, I'd love to see it. Big or small, exotic or close to home, it doesn't matter. I care because you do.

Send me some feedback (or films!)

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