Confluence Films recently completed the traveling fly angler’s dream trip — an exploratory venture to remote Venezuela to fly fish for the trophy payara of the backcountry jungles of the country.
For many educated anglers, payara are unheard of, and the fly fishing treasures of Venezuela (minus perhaps the flats of Los Roques) are somewhat unknown.
For Jim Klug and the gang at Confluence Films, Uraima Falls of Venezuela was reached with significant effort in an exploratory trip, and the filmmakers and anglers (including Oliver White and Wil Flack) found this spot to be some of the most exotic fly fishing in the world. Further (pun intended), Uraima Falls is home to one of the most gnarly looking freshwater fish on the planet: the toothy payara.
Payara are not only full of razor-sharp teeth with an under-bite of two massive fangs, they are also large, beautiful and can bend a rod and test an angler as well as any other freshwater critter. These fish are pretty wild looking!
This recent Confluence Films trip is one of several taken in pursuit of the making of Waypoints – a new fly fishing film to be released in late fall 2013. Having first filmed saltwater action at St. Brandon’s Atoll (also not known to many fly anglers), this new film is measuring up to perfectly fulfill the meaning of a frequently overused word: epic. Waypoints promises to feature several destinations throughout the world, and all of these spots are far beyond the beaten path. In fact, they are all quite tough to get to, and the film might be the first to document several species and locations for the fly fishing “big screen.”
To check out more on Waypoints and what is going on with Confluence Films, please click here.