Casting expert Simon Gawesworth (right) taught the actors in Mending the Line how to fish and cast so the scenes looked authentic. Some actors played the roles of new fly fishers, but Brian Cox (left) portrayed a fly fisher with decades of experience. (Eros Hoagland photo)
April 09, 2024
By Josh Bergan
When I spoke to Executive Director of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association Lucas Bissett about the potential impacts that the film Mending the Line could have on our sport and the industry, he kept coming back to one thing: He appreciated the efforts of writer Stephen Camelio and director Josh Caldwell to attain realism. We’ve all seen the corny commercials for prescription medication or pickup trucks that use fly fishing to sell a lifestyle and product–but those ads fail miserably at the fly-fishing authenticity aspect. Actors holding fly rods upside down, embarrassing casting techinique, trucks driving through rivers ruining riparian habitat, and more.
But if you watch Mending the Line , a wonderful 2023 film about the healing and mental health benefits of fly fishing , you might notice something different. These guys are holding the rod–with the reel down. The casts look good. There is genuine excitement upon catching fish. This was largely accomplished by employing RIO Products’ casting wizard Simon Gawesworth teach actors Brian Cox, Sinqua Walls, Perry Mattfeld, and Wes Studi how to actively and authentically fly fish. That, and the filmmakers commendable commitment to getting it right.
“I appreciate that they took the time to get the fishing right,” Bissett said. “I appreciate the authenticity of it. They went to an actual fly shop.”
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The movie features shops like Anglers West in Emigrant, Montana and Dan Bailey’s in Livingston; real fishing brands like Simms , Sage , Winston , Yellow Dog , Smith Optics/Sun Cloud , and Zap-a-Gap; real fisheries like the Gallatin River , Yellowstone River , DePuy Spring Creek –even Sacagawea Lagoon; real Livingston nightlife at the Mint and the Murray; real fly-tying and flies like the Prince Nymph and Rusty Spinner; and real fish with proper handing with the aid of fisheries biologist Joe Urbani who safely handled all the fish, a job he also did on the set of A River Runs Through It . Using video of rising trout from real anglers Ryan Kelly and Gilbert Rowley was the icing on the cake. (NOTE: There is no VA hospital in Livingston.)
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Most of all, it might have been borrowing the eloquent pathos of fly angler and author Steve Ramirez’s book Casting Forward to guide to the film’s emotional arc that took the authenticity to the next level.
“I guess sometimes surviving is your punishment,” the character Lucy reads from the book in the movie. “So you stand in the river, facing upstream with the water rushing down upon you, as if it could somehow fill the hollow emptiness. And somehow, it always does.”
The book surged to be the #1 selling fishing book on Amazon.com and reportedly broke the top 100 overall best-selling books in the days following its release on Netflix. Ramirez writes the Seasonable Angler column that appears on the final pages of Fly Fisherman .
This team took the time to get it right, and on behalf of Bissett, Fly Fisherman magazine, and the fly anglers of the world: Thank you.
Mending the Line is available to stream on many streaming services , including Netflix .
Fly-fishing audiences will recognize places like the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley and DePuy Spring Creek. Here, actor Sinqua Walls fishes in Gallatin River in the canyon. (Eros Hoagland photo) Josh Bergan is Fly Fisherman’s digital editor.
