Dean Bell, one of New Zealand’s premiere guides, is filmed fishing Fiordland of New Zealand’s South Island. If you aren’t familiar with this part of the world, it is truly beautiful: fjords with their lush landscape and plunging waterfalls; glaciers; the towering mountains of the Southern Alps; and lacing their way through it all are clear, pristine rivers bearing large trout.

If you are interested in a travel DVD, or in any way hope to see the natural wonders of New Zealand (with the exception of beautiful rivers), this is not the DVD for you. I was slightly disappointed because it has been over 20 years since I lived in New Zealand, and visited these places, and I really wanted to revisit them through the DVD—but that is not the purpose of this DVD. If you are planning a trip to NZ to fish, and you want that kind of DVD, there are lots of others out there for that purpose.

If you like watching large brown and rainbow trout caught on large dry flies in incredibly clear water, then pop this DVD in, turn off the volume, and watch 65 minutes of High Definition footage as Dean catches and releases over 20 of these big boys. It looked great on my 50” widescreen, putting me right into the action as if I were there, at Dean’s side.

If, however, you are interested in learning some (mostly) dry fly tactics suitable for not only New Zealand, but anywhere with clear water and picky trout, then turn up the volume and listen in as Dean instructs on not only the “dead drift,” but pre-casting analysis of the conditions of the lie, the cast, and playing the fish to bring it to hand.

He revolves each of these aspects around reading the structure of the water: the rocks and the hydrology of the water caused by those rocks. The lies created by the hydrology dictating where to cast to get the drift that is needed to 1) get the fly to the fish and 2) present the fly in the most natural way possible. And then how to best use the current to play the fish and bring it in.

Dean does an excellent job talking through his immediate thoughts right there on the water. There is the occasional voice-over done in post-processing where some additional analysis goes on as he talks through the different aspects of fishing for a particular fish he caught. (I’m not sure why, but this voice-over was done in Dean’s best “golf commentator” voice. I found this slightly bothersome because when he was on the water, he typically used his regular voice and the fish certainly would hear him better there than in post-processing. It’s not a huge issue, but a non-modulated voice would work a little better for me.)

Steve Couper’s Stealth Films Ltd. did a fine job in filming and editing the audio and video of the DVD. The only suggestions I have for future DVD’s is to change the voice-overs and to add a little extra content at the end. Dean does a nice job summarizing at the end of the DVD, but maybe another section of the DVD accessed through the menu with these points in text format (a bulleted list kind of thing), as well as some of the other salient points made throughout the DVD, would be nice.

This is an enjoyable DVD to just sit back and watch to get your fishing fix (especially during the off season). It also has excellent information to help you improve your sight-fishing skills. Dean is a delightful host who keeps things interesting and exciting without showboating his successes or haranguing his failures.

Purchase the DVD through Stealth Films http://www.stealthfilms.co.nz (go to this link to purchase directly) for $25 + shipping (I thought well worth the price). Check out the 1 minute 16 second trailer here. Steve Couper of Stealth Films was prompt in answering a couple of my questions (see previous post here). The DVD was shipped promptly and arrived quickly.

I do have to apologize to Steve: I wrote the review last August, but never typed it up (I do many of my first drafts on a yellow legal pad, and there it sat). So here it is, a bit belatedly.

We took Dan’s across the street neighbor, Ken (he is a very nice guy, by the way). He’s only fly fished a couple of times before. It was great to hang out with someone who hasn’t fly fished much and is interested in learning how—not just the motions, but actually asking questions and using the advice given to him. We may have overloaded him with info (sorry Ken!).

But it made me think about all of the little things in fly fishing that eventually become natural to you. Everything from casting to fly and line management when the fly is finally on the water. Lies (uhhh…not that kind of lying, those come automatically to all fishermen) as in, where the trout are in the water. Insects. Fly selection, etc. But I was more focused on this little fishing time with fly drift and line management—making that fly look right on the water.

In trying to vocalize to Ken what to do with his arm/hand to make the fly look like it should on the water, I realized ho involved it really was. Cinnamon Creek is small with lots of overgrowth. So getting a “real” cast just isn’t typical there. This also means that most of the fishing was done within 20 feet of us, usually more like 10 feet. There is plenty of pocket water too. So this isn’t your 50′ cast and then let fly and line float back to you.

Since the float line catches in chutes going from one pocket to the next, it’s important to keep the float line out of the fast water. If you don’t the line is going faster than the slick water in the pocket above that has your fly in it. Therefore your fly just drags through the pool. So you have to learn to keep the fly at the same speed as the pocket water.

You do a quick roll cast then almost immediately flick a little slack into the line, or, since we were so close to the pockets we fished, the best method was usually highsticking. You roll cast the fly into the pocket then lift the rod up. Not just the rod tip, but actually lift your entire arm up so the whole rod goes up. This lifts the float line off the water and allows you to control the fly.

It’s pretty much an automatic response for me when fishing this kind of water. But it has to be taught to beginners.

Ken was a great student and in just an hour or so of fishing (actually, with three guys sharing one little creek and Ken spending a fair amount of time with snags and wind knots, I’d say more like 30 minutes of fly on the water time) he caught his first fish on a fly:

The fishing was pretty good overall. I lost a nice one and landed several decent ones. Dan landed a handful too. Ken caught a larger fish than this picture (but he said he didn’t need any more pictures). He also lost a couple of decent sized fish.

Great fun! Thanks for coming Ken.