fishydreams

Three years ago a film crew from Madrid drove down to my local river to make a film about fly fishing for gypsy barbel. The makers of the popular TV series “Jara y Sedal” had been in touch with John Langridge, a veteran of several fishing programmes and author of many books on fishing, and they asked of he would like to be part of a feature on the Río Guadalhorce.

I had fished with John on the river before and he asked me if I wanted to be involved in the project. As if he needed to ask! I had assumed that as a local boy my role would be to offer some guidance as to where to fish and was rather surprised when I met the director on the eve of the first day of filming and was told that I would be actually filmed myself as part of the show!

And so that is how things panned out. John and I were filmed together over three days while fishing the Río Guadalhorce and the Río Grande, and then John fished a fourth day when I had to be back at work. The footage taken over this period of time would be cut up and stitched together to make a programme which would last for about 25 minutes.

It seems a long time ago now but I wrote about the experience at the time and the relevant posts are here on the blog. If you want to look at them the easiest way to find them is to just put “TV” into the search box and they will pop up!

On Friday evening the episode was broadcast for the first time. John had been in touch the previous day to tell me it was coming. So I trotted down to the the local pub and was joined by my wife who was on her way back from work. I asked the lady in the bar if she wouldn´t mind turning on La 2 TV station at 6.15 and she was kind enough to do so.

And so, pint in hand, I enjoyed the surreal experience of watching myself catching fish with John from rivers that are no more than a few minutes drive from the pub itself. To the other punters it was just background telly and I don´t think anyone made the connection between the man wading in the shallow river and the bloke having a drink with his wife.

The same episode is to be broadcast again today and will then be available online. When it is I will put a link through to the blog and you can look at it if the mood takes you. I was delighted by it myself. It shows the river when it is looking well and tells a simple and story of a couple of blokes with fly rods out on the river enjoying the whole experience.

Sounds familiar?

Here is John catching landing a barbel. It is one of the frames taken from the programme.

John Langridge with a lovely gipsy barbel. This was taken during one of John´s earlier visits to Málaga before we fished for the cameras and became major film stars!

This is one of my favourite photos. It shows everyone involved in the production of the episode enjoying a bit of down time on the river (there was plenty of down time!). From left to right: Guillermo (producer) Moi, Gustavo (driver), Fernando (driver), Raúl (director), Paco (cameraman), Juan (cameraman) and John. My wife made the comment that the easiest way to tell me and John apart is to look at our shorts. John´s are too short and mine are too long!