Gin-Clear Blog

Gin-Clear Media films have always been well received by the European market, in particular the Scandinavians. It is great then that we now have an official distributor, Karuvaara Flyfishing, selling and shipping our movies from within the European Union.

The principle behind Karuvaara Flyfishing is Toni Karuvaara. We were lucky enough to have Toni along for a couple of weeks during the filming of The Source – Iceland so not only will he be distributing the movies but he will be featuring in them as well. If you own a store in Europe and want to stock our films please get in contact with Toni.

KARUVAARA FLYFISHING
Toni Karuvaara
Phone:
+358 405755977

We have spent the last two weeks in Iceland putting the finishing touches to the film. We were severely hampered by the encroaching winter weather that included days of -4C maximums and frequent snow storms. We were eagerly awaiting a break in the weather so that we could do some aerial filming with a helicopter. Finally the weather did break if only for one afternoon and we charged out to the river to get the shots.

It was a sublime experience as a cameraman to be removed from the limitations of gravity and to float above the river.

A big thanks to Snorri the pilot for keeping us alive, despite some tricky maneuvers, and to the helicopter company Nordurflug for being very professional. If you are in Iceland I can recommend these guys for any kind of helicopter experience be it work or pleasure.

The day after the heli shoot we decided to have one last day of fishing before leaving Iceland. Unfortunately the weather once again turned savage with torrential rain and wind. Not deterred, we headed to our chosen river. While searching for a good pool to start fishing we took a small track through a field. We approached a suspiciously bright green patch of grass and decided to try to charge through it. BIG MISTAKE!

The trusty Defender was stuck above both axles in very odd looking mud. After 4 hours of digging, raising and propping we finally managed to get the car into a position to be able to be dragged out. The local farmer came with his tractor to extract us. He took one look at me covered from head to toe in ‘mud’ and laughed. He took great delight in telling me that the ‘mud’ we were stuck in was actually sheep shit. Life can be a great leveler sometimes.

Hi All

Gin-Clear Media in media partnership with Fishing Tasmania will be presenting six shows of Rise Fly Fishing Film Festival through the UK during Nov 09. The show will play in London, Reading, Manchester, Exeter and Edinburgh.

Check out www.flyfishingfilmfest.eu for tickets, tour information, video teasers, photos and more.

RISE – Fly Fishing Film Festival 2009 features stunning movies from global destinations including Tasmania, UK, Iceland and Canada. Gin-Clear Media’s ‘THE SOURCE – TASMANIA’ is the feature movie of the festival. Local content is provided in the form of a short film about the plight of the English Chalkstreams from Charles Rangeley-Wilson.

LONDON SHOW
Vue West End Cinema

Tuesday, 10th November 2009

7.30pm-9.30pm

READING SHOW
Vue Cinema – Reading
Wednesday, 11th November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm

MANCHESTER SHOW
Vue Cinema – Manchester Lowry
Monday, 16th November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm

EDINBURGH SHOW
Dominion Cinema 

Wednesday, 18th November 2009

8pm-10pm

EXETER SHOW
Vue Cinema – Exeter
Monday, 23rd November 2009
7.30pm-9.30pm

Hope to see you all at the shows.

Nick Reygaert
Film Festival Presenter
Gin-Clear Media

For the last week it has been our pleasure to have Toni Karuvaara hanging out with us and joining in the Iceland adventure. Toni is from Finland and he keeps himself busy as editor of Chasing Silver Magazine and being on the Guideline staff. He is also a pretty awesome salmon fisherman.

Our first port of call was to Orri Vigufsson’s magical salmon river the Sela. The Sela is held up as the shining light to prove that catch and release salmon fishing really works. When Orri first took control of the fishing on the river it would return around 180 fish a season, since implementing catch and release, fish ladders and habitat enhancement the river now returns around 2500 fish a season. A staggering achievement!

We had a great time on the river. The sight fishing was outstanding with Toni getting stuck into 5 salmon over our two days fishing most of which were into double figures.

The last two weeks have been dedicated to exploring the lesser known fishing waters of Iceland´s West Fiords and North-West. First up was a visit to a tiny salmon river in Kollafjordur. This river was amazing, small enough to cross in a couple of strides but holding a large stock of big Atlantic Salmon. The bad news was that this particular valley had gone 10 weeks without rain, an unheard of situation in Iceland. The result was a river full of doggo salmon and nothing moving to the fly. We did get some amazing underwater footage though.

The day we left Kollafjordur it started to rain and we were cursing our luck. Fortunately our Icelandic friend James had a trick up his sleeve and took us to an even smaller river right at the very tip of the West Fiords. This river is only known to hold salmon by a few locals and with the river swelling the fish came on the bite. We took five in just a few hours.

A while ago we heard about a river in the North-West that had so many Arctic Char that ‘you could walk across their backs to the other side’. Those kind of phrases always capture my imagination. It was originally a shepherd who had told the story to a friend and he had retold it to us. The shepherd had been in the remote valley herding sheep when he had looked into the river and seen the masses of Char.

To get to the valley required crossing a mountain range, a 5 hour hike that is only possible in a good weather window. We sat it out in a nearby town until the weather cleared and we grabbed our chance. After lumping all the camera gear over the mountain we came to the stream, again very small water. The first decent pool we came to looked to be holding a few fish. I flicked my dry and dropper combo into the head of the pool and came up tight on a big Char. Every pool after held fish and they all took with gusto.

As Autumn moves in the days are become shorter by 15 mins a day. It is the time when Sea Trout run the rivers and the Nothern Lights illuminate the sky. So we head south to the fabled sea trout rivers of the South-East.

In order to get to the prime Arctic Char water we had to drive the Southern half of Iceland, an incredible experience as most of the drive is on the edge of a glacier. The road snakes along the coast with the glacier a constant presence as it looms above, often less than 1 km from the road and coast. Eventually we arrived at our destination – the small fishing village of Breiddalsvik.

A famous salmon river the Breiddalsa River enters the ocean via a small estuary on the edge of town. During a flooding tide the sea run arctic char enter the estuary and begin feeding on small shrimp that inhabit the sand flats. We ambushed the schools of char from rocky peninsulas as they moved through with the tide. They fought remarkably hard and tasted even better.

The last seven days has been a rollercoster ride of difficulty, disappointment, excitement and jubilation. We started with four days on the Minnivallalaekur River, a river with a big name and a bigger reputation. Unfortunately the weather was not kind and we struggled, one 5 pound trout to show for 16 hours a day of fishing and filming.

We then went on to fish a lake in the highlands, set amongst mountains of volcanic ash and with crystal clear water, it was a surreal experience. The rain followed us. After being lashed for hours we finally found some midge feeders and bagged a couple.

Luckily we managed to get back on the Minnivallalaekur for 12 hours. This time the weather was perfect and the fish were feeding on Daddy Long Legs.

Our first week of fishing and filming in Iceland has been on the wonderful Jokla River system in the North-Eastern part of the country. The weather was typically harsh with lots of rain and wind, luckily this didn’t affect the salmon fishing. We caught fish every day, mostly in crystal clear mountain rivers. Sight fishing to Atlantic Salmon is one the most exciting experiences in fly fishing and it really makes the Iceland fishery something special.

After the long flight from Perth, we took delivery of our Landrover Defender in Norwich, UK, and started the long drive-ferry-drive from Norwich to Dover, Dover to Calais, Calais to Hanstholm – a total of 1600 kms in 36 hours.

We drove the car onto the ferry bound for Iceland and began the 3 day boat trip. The North Sea was mercifully kind and we filled in the time tying flies and marking ‘X’s on maps. Let the 10 weeks of filming begin….