‘Dollar Wise Fly’ films in Matlacha Pass New fishing show seeks to lure the average Joe
By
Kevin Lollar klollar@news-press.com
Originally posted on January 19, 2008
Andrew West/news-press.com Conway Bowman, the host of a new fishing show
called “Dollar Wise Fly,” which will air on Versus, fights a redfish in
a mangrove mudflat near Matlacha Pass on Wednesday. He is being filmed
by Matt Arkins of Stafford Films. Bowman and his crew were filming and
catching fish in the area and were being guided by Mote Marine Lab
biologist Aaron Adams.
A honking 20-mph southeast wind Wednesday turned Matlacha Pass into a churning mess of whitecaps and sloppy chop.
Not a good day for fishing, especially fly fishing, especially from a kayak.
But
the show must be shot — the show in this case being “Dollar Wise Fly,”
a new program that follows fly fisherman Conway Bowman around the
country as he goes on inexpensive fly-fishing trips.
This week,
Bowman, who runs Bowman Bluewater out of San Diego, and a camera crew
from Stafford Films of Beverly Hills spent three days paddling Matlacha
Pass and Pine Island Sound with Aaron Adams, manager of Mote Marine
Laboratory’s Fisheries Habitat Ecology Program.
“Fly fishing
is perceived as an elitist sport, but this show is for the everyday fly
fisherman, not the elitist, the guy who goes into a fly-fishing shop
and spends a lot of bread,” Bowman said. “We’re doing stuff I’d do, not
going to some isolated fly fishing country, staying in a big lodge and
dressing in the proper fly-fishing clothes — you can always tell a fly
fisherman: They all wear the same clothes.”
Instead of staying
in an expensive resort, Bowman and cameramen Matt Arkins and Justin
Lubke stayed at The Sun & Moon Inn at Matlacha and hung out at such
Matlacha establishments as Mulletville Bar & Grill and Bert’s Bar.
Other
segments for “Dollar Wise Fly,” which is scheduled to debut Feb. 15 on
the Versus Network (formerly OLN), have been shot in Colorado, where
Bowman fished for rainbow and brown trout, Louisiana (redfish), the
Sacramento Delta (striped bass), and San Diego (blue sharks).
“We
came down here because the ability to catch a lot of different species
of fish in the wintertime is intriguing — there’s not a lot of fishing
going on in the United States right now,” Bowman said. “And what a cool
place this is. I’ve never been to this part of Florida. It’s a whole
’nother world: Paddling through the mangroves, ospreys, bald eagles,
all the fish life, and I’ve always been intrigued by tarpon — we don’t
get tarpon on the west coast.”
Adams got involved with the
project because he’d worked on a video about kayak fishing with Ken
Daubert, author of “Kayakfishing: The Revolution.”
Daubert knew
that Stafford Films was looking for sources in Southwest Florida and
contacted Adams about being on “Dollar Wise Fly.”
“I agreed to
be on the show in part because I wanted to try to inject a degree of
game fish ecology into a fishing show, which, with some rare
exceptions, is not done on fishing shows,” said Adams, author of two
fly-fishing books. “The great thing is that these guys were agreeable
to this approach.
“So, Conway and I had a lot of conversations
about habitat, about handling fish in the best manner to ensure their
survival, about how important juvenile fish habitat is for adult fish.”
Monday and Tuesday, Bowman caught spotted sea trout, snook and a juvenile tarpon.
None of it was easy because stiff winds made paddling difficult, and cool water temperatures made fish sluggish.
On Wednesday, the last day of fishing, Bowman wanted a redfish to complete the Southwest Florida Grand Slam.
With
the wind blowing harder than it had all week, Adams and Bowman decided
to fish the sheltered backcountry around the Coleman Keys and Big Dead
Creek on the western shore of Cape Coral with the camera crew following
the kayaks in a flats boat.
The fish did not cooperate. A lot of paddling in a lot of wind, and not a bite.
Finally,
at about 3 p.m., Adams discovered a half-acre mangrove-enclosed area
sheltered from the wind and full of redfish. With Bowman fishing in
another spot, Adams landed an 8-pound redfish in eight inches of water.
The
idea, however, was for Bowman to hook and land a fish for the cameras,
so he went to Adams’ enclosed area, and, with Arkins and Lubke 30 yards
behind, started stalking, his line forming glittering arcs in the late
afternoon sun as he repeatedly put the fly inches from the mangroves.
Suddenly, a redfish slammed the fly: The fight was on, and Lubke and Arkins moved in to get it all on tape.
After
five minutes, Bowman had the redfish, another 8-pounder, under control
and, before releasing it, talked excitedly to the cameras about how
hard the fish had fought.
The only thing left to do was attach his fly to a mangrove root so he could fake the hook-up for the cameras.
“I hate doing that,” he said when the pretense was complete.
Back at the Sun & Moon, Arkins described shooting conditions this week.
“It
was tough,” he said. “With the cold front and the winds, it was tough
to film, and there’s only so much you can do when the fish shut down.
It’s all been about tenacity, sticking with it, being out there. If
you’re not out there, you won’t catch fish.”
Over a cold Corona, Bowman said that catching the 8-pound redfish was as exciting as catching a 200-pound blue shark.
“I was stoked,” he said. “I live in the moment, man. Each fish is special. Each fish is unique. It’s the process.
“Once
I caught that redfish, I was done. I don’t need to beat up on a bunch
of fish. I’ve had 50-fish days. Now it’s like a Zen experience, looking
to see what’s around the next corner, or checking out the osprey and
saying, ‘Wow, that’s the ultimate fisherman.’”
Photo Gallery: 
