What is the worst fly fishing commercial or movie scene?

[wolfglen]

What's the worst commercial on TV or scene in the movies that you have seen which makes your blood curdle?

I don't think I've seen a commercial where the producers knew anything about fly fishing or had enough brains to actually contact for advice someone who really could fly fish.

I love the cell phone ad where the looks as though he's trying to cast and he's actually hooked up to a tree in back of him and trying to yank it out of the limbs.

Watched the old movie with Don Stroud about the Red Barron and Brown and there was a scene where the Red Baron was casting with a fly rod and using a sinker to pull line from the reel like tournament bass guy with a 4 ounce jig!

 

[runningfish]

wolfglen, i know that cell phone ad, and I thought it was very neat.

I can't remember the name of a movie where the actor was holding a spinning setup at the very end of the butt and reeling the line in like he was beating some eggs.

I saw an ad in a home depot or lowes or probably in a crate and barrel catalog where they put a fishing rod setup on a dock by a river or lake.
The problem is, they put a spinning reel on a baitcasting rod.
Brilliant....absolutely brilliant.

I watched a utube video of a portion of a saltwater TV fishing program where a guy was on a kayak surrounded by producer and crews boats. He was fishing for Goliath grouper with thick heavy rope, pulling the poor grouper by hands while the others cheering.

last but not least, i saw a video about a guy learning to spey cast, and it was a nightmare.....wait a minute, that was me.

 

[jdwy]

Can't remember what they're pedaling, maybe arthritis pain reliever, but the idiot with the young boy has a fly reel and fly line on a spinning rod.

 

[fredaevans]

A good read that should never have been made into a movie:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2455271-a-river-runs-through-it-and-other-stories

 

[yikes]

Some may rank a movie "worst" on the basis of true-to-life accuracy or technical gaffes; others on the basis of editing, storytelling, or cinematography.

I realize are people on this forum who liked "The River Why", but for me it was the worst in terms of expectations vs. final result. The characters seemed so flat, so one-dimensional.
Granted it wasn't 100% bad: I did develop pathos for the corpse in the river.

 

[cpowell]

Can't remember what they're pedaling, maybe arthritis pain reliever, but the idiot with the young boy has a fly reel and fly line on a spinning rod.

This is also the one that popped into my head.

 

[Rip Tide]

Can't remember what they're pedaling, maybe arthritis pain reliever, but the idiot with the young boy has a fly reel and fly line on a spinning rod.

That's a center pin reel on a noodle rod. (I think)
... still
That's not something that you'd use in skinny water like that

 

[bloomagoo]

Yup, that's the one that came to mind for me too

 

[williamhj]

That's a center pin reel on a noodle rod. (I think)
... still
That's not something that you'd use in skinny water like that

Oh come on Rip, he's got the floppy hat and fishing vest. How can you not trust him!

 

[caseywise]

I think the rod is longer than the creek he's fishing in!

 

[acorad]

Back in the day day, when I dabbled in acting here in Hollywood, I auditioned for a commercial which called for a fly fisherman.

There were several dozens of actors there, and not one (besides moi) knew how to cast. They were all the rankest of first-timers.

I heard they gave whoever they ended up hiring some casting lessons and were happy with the result, though I never saw the ad on TV.

Ah well, hiring actors is often all about finding the guy/girl who "fits the suit" iow, "looks right," the rest can be "massaged."

Andy

 

[yikes]

That's a center pin reel on a noodle rod. (I think)
... still
That's not something that you'd use in skinny water like that

Any chance they just took off the end section(s) of the rod?
My guess is that the director wanted the whole rod + reel in the picture, and also wanted a close shot.

 

[lil_ol_angler_me]

wolfglen, i know that cell phone ad, and I thought it was very neat.

I can't remember the name of a movie where the actor was holding a spinning setup at the very end of the butt and reeling the line in like he was beating some eggs.

I saw an ad in a home depot or lowes or probably in a crate and barrel catalog where they put a fishing rod setup on a dock by a river or lake.
The problem is, they put a spinning reel on a baitcasting rod.
Brilliant....absolutely brilliant.

I watched a utube video of a portion of a saltwater TV fishing program where a guy was on a kayak surrounded by producer and crews boats. He was fishing for Goliath grouper with thick heavy rope, pulling the poor grouper by hands while the others cheering.

last but not least, i saw a video about a guy learning to spey cast, and it was a nightmare.....wait a minute, that was me.

If you had ever caught a GOLIATH Grouper you'd know why he was using a rope...catch two of them and you'll swear off them for life!!!

 

[wolfglen]

Most Ad Company people are oblivious to the fact that if you insult people's intelligence they are not going to want to use their product.

Somewhere along the line, someone made an advertisement for some company and the executives hated it. So, the ad man quickly tried to recover him fumble by saying "Oh, I made it obnoxious so that people will remember it, then when they see the product in the store they will buy it."

That's about the dumbest idea anyone could ever concoct, but as Lenin said a hundred years ago, tell a lie long enough and with enough conviction and people will believe it. Well, advertising men have told that lie to their clients for so long that they too have come to believe it.

I've known a good many advertising men and I can't remember one who knew enough to come in out of the rain or to at least put on rain gear. I once did a survey and I found that the percentage of people who said they would NOT buy a product when the commercial was stupid and insulting outnumbered the people who said that the commercial got them to buy said product was about 5 to 1 for NOT buying the product.

Take a look at some of the videos on the fishing channel where the scenes are staged, the fishermen can't cast, don't know enough to get the line back on the reel, bring in the same almost dead fish time and time again.

I can remember one fly fishing video where the host said something to this effect"

"Here we are for out first trip to XXXXXX lodge."
Five minutes later in the film was the statement, "The river is at least five feet higher than we've ever seen it!"

Then there was another film where the narrator said "Ms X is rightly proud of her tarpon (about 20") for it's the first time a woman has ever caught a tarpon at ------------ lodge"

In another film were the two "expert"anglers wading along when they spooked a pod of bonefish and they went running through the calf deep water casting on the run at the bonefish fleeing for their lives!"

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 AM ----------

Then there's the commercial about buying gold where the actor is talking about how much he loves his fly fishing but although he's a multimillionaire, he is using a cheapie rod that even Wal Mart would be ashamed to see, wearing a vest which was apparently just taken out of the plastic wrapper ten minutes before the shoot. At least they were smart enough to not show him trying to make a cast.

Who writes this dribble?

 

[cpowell]

The good thing for the advertisers is that the fly fishing knowledgeable public is one of the very smallest groups of our population...Most people see the fly fishing thing and think woohoo as they have no idea what is correct or realistic. It just leaves a few of us out in the wind.

 

[moucheur2003]

There was an episode of Downton Abbey where the aristocrats all bundled off to Scotland for some salmon fishing at the country manor. Once on the river, though, they could barely heave a fly the length of the rod. Their ghillie stood silently by and did nothing to help their technique; I guess they forgot to give him his dram of the Macallan. Nevertheless, as the end of the scene, the ghillie picked up a brace of very stiff and previously-frozen-looking salmon from the grassy bank and carried them along behind the posh sports who we were meant to believe had actually caught them, during the commercial break I suppose.

---------- Post added at 09:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 AM ----------

That's a center pin reel on a noodle rod. (I think)
... still
That's not something that you'd use in skinny water like that

And if that guy ever really waded while wearing that vest, he'd have a lot of rusty hooks in the boxes in the lower pockets.

 

[jdwy]

Any chance they just took off the end section(s) of the rod?
My guess is that the director wanted the whole rod + reel in the picture, and also wanted a close shot.

I could be wrong, but that looks like the commercial I was referring to. To see the better vid on TV from various angles with both rod sections, IIRC it sure looked like a spinning rod, huge guides from end to end.

Somewhere along the line, someone made an advertisement for some company and the executives hated it. So, the ad man quickly tried to recover him fumble by saying "Oh, I made it obnoxious so that people will remember it, then when they see the product in the store they will buy it."

Doesn't work for me! In fact nothing is more irritating to me than an add where some Jackass talks at triple speed with a long winded disclaimer towards the end of the add. That guarantees no sale in my book.

 

[Rip Tide]

I could be wrong, but that looks like the commercial I was referring to. To see the better vid on TV from various angles with both rod sections, IIRC it sure looked like a spinning rod, huge guides from end to end.

There's 2 rods in one scene and the other one is much longer
That's why I'm sure it's a noodle rod
I have no clue why his rod is so short. I first thought it was a boat rod, but the the guides are too flimsy for that.
I'm thinking that they just put it together wrong

Edit... I guess that's actually called a "float rod". Noodle rods are slow action / light line. Float rods are faster action

 

[jdwy]

Got'cha, and it looks like he needs something a little more stimulating than Symbicort (whatever that is).

 

[pjcalla]

I just saw a commercial that made me think of this thread. I was watching a fishing show with my son (he prefers them to cartoons), and this ad came on for some sort of magnifying glasses. One of the "uses" showed a guy "tying" a fly, or that what was implied. He had one fly that he was working on in an alligator clip, another fly in some pliers that he was holding, and some yarn or something in another set of pliers in his other hand. I think he was trying to tie them together. Quite funny. I'll try to find it online.