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How did we go about making this documentary?

Ged Yeates - cameraman / producer's opinion!

Well, Richard first approached me as I waited in a passing place during a hold up on the road outside his house. This was on a single track road which was blocked by heavy plant machinery as they were resurfacing at the time. He had this idea to make the best fishing film ever, mainly because the river where he was the fishing guide was unique in that you can actually see the fish you are trying to catch whilst fishing.... and so it began! If you would like to read a detailed description of equipment and technical production topics ...click here

Richard Davies - writer producer's / opinion!

Ged Yeates is a long serving cameraman and producer regularly shooting documentaries and current affairs throughout Scotland and Europe for the BBC whilst Richard Davies was a complete newcomer to film making but a very experienced salmon and sea trout fisherman. Between them they had the expertise in the relevant areas to painstakingly piece together the story of the salmon and fly fishing for them in the beautiful Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

We would like to thank Malcolm and Barry Green, the owners of the fishing rights to Fhorsa system. Without their continued help and co-operation we would not have been able to paint such an intimate portrait of the Hebridean salmon or it's hunters! We would also like to thank Simon Scott of Grimersta for allowing us to film there and of course we would like to thank all the anglers and others who allowed us to film them or who even allowed themsleves to be interviewed. Without you all we could not have done this. Thank you.

One highlight of filming was a wonderful tide fishing in the sea when Malcolm Green outfished Richard and caught six salmon in two hours to Richard's four. Some of the catches from this day are shown on the film prior to rain and the salmon running into the river. The pair could have caught more but Malcolm had a dinner party to go to so while silver fresh salmon were leaping all around they left the shoreline slightly frustrated but having experienced a wonderful fishing session. That night it rained and no more fish were caught in the sea for a whole eleven months! Timing is everything in salmon fishing.

All in all we used nine different recording formats, from Digital Betacam to one shot on the lowly Hi-8 and everything in between! Because it took us eight years to make, technology moved on and Ged upgraded his gear to the latest available. This he found quite amusing and he always endeavored to record some material on another format whenever possible! However, the problems in editing the different formats was quite a strain and in hindsight we should probably have stuck to one or two!

Ged filmed all the above water material apart from the time lapses of Uig Bay showing the tide ebbing and flowing. Ged's camera work is quite superb and even though we argued a lot during production because the camera does not always like what the fisherman does, we have grown to be good friends and are hoping to work on more projects together in the future. Richard filmed all the underwater material (and bloomin cold it was too!) and wrote the script. He is also in it a lot (I know, I am writing this and blushing) and quietly enjoys being the centre of attention when it comes to fishing...

The initial idea was to gather as much footage of rare or special events during the fishing year and then write a script that tied the footage together. Ged estimated a few weeks to make the film, Richard knew fish better and estimated three years! In the end it took seven years but of course, only a few days filming was done each year when conditions were just right. The exception to this was the first year's filming when enthusiasm was high and by chance a very dry summer was underway. This allowed much of the salt water fly fishing sequences to be recorded and catalogued.

Each year after the first was just a waiting game for the right conditions to film a certain aspect that we felt was important for the story to be shown in full. For example, the shot of the salmon egg hatching took three months preparation work and a lot of monitoring some eggs waiting for the right moment. In this age of computer imagery it is nice to know there are no fake images in the film. Every shot was done by a camera with real subject matter. This is why natural history productions take so long to make. Nature does not perform to the click of a button. We found this out the hard way many times and wasted weeks getting nothing because the fish would not co-operate.

Despite being based mainly in the Outer Hebrides, most of what is shown is relevant to most systems holding stocks of Atlantic salmon. Paul Young agreed to record the Narration for the film and he was quite brilliant. I could hardly believe it took us seven years of filming and a long time tweaking the script and he came in to Murricane studio in Glasgow and completed the entire voiceover in about two hours. Remarkable man and very very modest for one so talented.

In the end it is not - in our eyes -perfect. Of course we could have changed a shot here or there or had that perfect angle for other shots. However, reviews are overwhelmingly good and hopefully enough people will get to see our piece and perhaps have a little more respect for the King of fish.

You just have to see the film to see what we mean. A picture tells a thousand words and I guess a film tells millions.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW WEB VIDEOS ABOUT MAKING THE FILM