Islander Precision Reels / Gibbs Delta / Scotty
Released 2019
Steve Rennalls from Islander Reels came to us with an idea of documenting an upcoming trip to take part in a salmon fishing derby on Lake Ontario. Pacific Salmon. Chinook Salmon! Say what now? Apparently the decline of the almighty lake trout in Lake Ontario lead to huge surge in the population of Alewives, an invasive species of freshwater herring. Chinooks were then introduced to combat the alewives and quickly caught on as a hugely popular sport fishery.
So Steve thought it would be great to get together a couple friends, Rob Alcock from Gibbs Delta and Craig Gebicki from Scotty Products, who had never fished for salmon springs in east, and head out for a few days to see what it’s all about. The plan was to jump on with a few different captains and see what techniques and gear were popular and how they’d compare to how we do things on the left coast, and maybe enter a fish or two in the derby.
It was really amazing to see how different things actually are. In fact, there was very little that’s the same. Everything from trolling speed, to type of line, to rod & reel combos. It’s not uncommon to see boats running anywhere from 6-10 lines at once, maybe even more. The best thing about salmon fishing in Lake Ontario was really just how many fish there are. Once you find them it was pretty much non-stop.
The original goal was to create a film telling the story of the trip that would be shown to a live audience at the award ceremony at the end of the derby. As well as producing the main film, we also edited together a short teaser and a “social edit” to help with marketing and sharing the film. A “social edit” is an edit kept to a one minute max runtime to ensure that it can be shared across all social media platforms.
It’s always great when you get a chance to see how people in a different region do something that you love. As much as techniques and gear may differ, there’s always that common passion that brings everyone together.
“In a world where there have never been so many great content creators out there, Jesse and Tash understand what it takes to set a project apart. Islander wanted to penetrate a new regional market and figured a film would help us get there. Filter took our idea for a film and turned it into a story… One that personally resonated with the community of anglers we were hoping to reach. If you’re looking for a film that says something more about your brand than just the images you see on the screen, they’re your guys.”
Steve Rennalls, Islander Precision Reels