Tag Archives: angling

Solitude Films

11 Saturday Nov 2023

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Over the last five or six years I have been making some short films with Fallon’s Angler magazine, fishing being the main focal point. My favourite films always gravitate towards the characters, the individuals like Del Harding in The Outsider, set on the shores of Lough Derg in Ireland. Since then I have been looking for similar people to film, those who hang on the outskirts of society, tucked away in quiet places. In response to this I have now set up Solitude films with its own YouTube channel to showcase these films, including The Outsider and a few of my favourite films shot with Fallons Angler magazine.

Over the last year I have been spending time in Normandy working with the writer Dexter Petley, who lives beside a forest in a yurt, living under natures skin. The film is an intimate portrait of his life over four seasons and will be launched in 2024.

In the meantime Wildie ll has just launched on my Solitude Film channel which you can see here. The story of Dan Rudgley, an angler who approaches angling in a simple manner, who explores the old ponds and moats of southern England.

Please subscribe to Solitude films for updates, or simply give me feedback on the films and suggestions for new projects.

Gritstone and Galena – a film

19 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by in General fishing, Photography and video

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Working with Fallon’s Angler magazine brings me in touch with all sorts of anglers, I get drawn to certain individuals that seek a way of fishing and a manner in which they conduct themselves in life – simplistic and truthful. With a little probe here and there I manage to find some well trodden paths that often feel familiar. After spending much time online with Graham Vasey – angler, photographer and brewer, the Fallon’s Team felt we should drive up north and spend a few days on the Tees with him. After dodging two named storms and arriving on a blustery yet dry day in March we were greeted by the wide shallow rocky rivers of the Pennine landscape and Grahams’s distinctive northern accent. I confess this is not a place that I am familiar with, but the technique of trotting for grayling was. As a filmmaker I had wide open vistas and a grand sense of space as I stood up to my waist in water while Graham skilfully moved his bait over the rocky river bed. His mastery of the float was equally match by his commentary, a welcome voice to join the other Fallon’s anglers.

If you want to see more of our Fallon’s films that have a similar feel and pace please go to http://www.youtube.com/fallonsangler and subscribe to our channel. So far we have only produced around twenty films but managed to generate over quarter of a million views.

Wildie – a film

16 Thursday Sep 2021

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Last autumn I visited the North Kent Marshes for the first time, an invite from musician Adam Chetwood. He spoke of wildies that were spread throughout the fleets. A journey began that has taken a year, lost landscapes, broken houses, a hidden moat and the feral carp. But it has been a tough year, in six months I had lost both parents – this landscape now holds a special place for me, a breathing space during some sad times. I hope the film translates the sense of openness, and of wilderness that lie just 35 miles from London.

The film will be released on the Fallons Angler YouTube on Friday 17th September at 5.00pm

My wife Lucy has created a limited edition A2 poster which can be purchased here https://fallonsangler.net/product/wildie-film-poster-limited-edition-print-by-lucy-merriman/

Angling films – delving deeper

09 Saturday Nov 2019

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This year has seen my involvement in the making of two films, the first  Mr Green’s Rod was shot in Sussex with one of Britains most recognised and enigmatic anglers – Chris Yates, the second a much lesser known angler, in fact he pretty much lives as a recluse tucked away on the shores of Lough Derg in Ireland – his name Del Harding. In hindsight I see many parallels between the two men, both are writers, anglers, men of the old ways, both lifestyles are closely connected to the land and the rhythms of nature. The way they approach angling is also on an equal footing, it’s simple, they respond to the conditions, the light, wind direction, air pressure  and temperature, if the conditions are favourable they pick up a rod. Time is a restrictive measure that appears to elude these two, it’s a quality that I really admire, to loose time is to gain freedom.

I have been criticised for promoting this way of life in the film about Del, ‘living off grid is irresponsible and we should not promote it!’ I suggest it is the freedom that Del represents that makes these rather small minded individuals feel uncomfortable, Del’s world is the only world he knows, he doesn’t do it to prove a point, it is purely the only way of life he is familiar with, it is an alternative way to live and for that reason I feel it is important  to celebrate it. As we work harder on these films I feel the narrative grows stronger even if they are not to everyones taste, we don’t just want to do fishing films. Spending time with Del was a journey that took many years to conclude (I have written about the journey to Lough Derg in Issue 17 of Fallon’s Angler) and when I finally met Del the experience was purifying and reassuring, Del lived up to my expectations as a man who made a path outside the mainstream and he has stuck to it.

Moving forward we come closer to home and look at a film that focuses on the iconic roach, a film that will be more about fishing but still exploring the anglers relationship and how they read the landscape and their quarry. We hope to get this out before Christmas 2019. Further down the line we look at some new characters, ones that I feel duty bound to record. Fallon’s Angler and the films are growing as is our audience, keep tuning in as we delve deeper. You can subscribe for free to the Fallon’s Angler YouTube channel here.

A sense of time and place – Solent Hounds – a film

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Photography and video

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The more places I visit and the more I fish, I find myself transfixed in a state, a place imagined from the past, people passing through as their lives ebb and flow, then fade as they dissolve into the soil. When I stand with my video camera this sense is enduring as I piece together a narrative. I relish the past, with it I see the present and look into the future,  it is apparent my films have taken on this tone over the last year. These films are not sentimental nor nostalgic, The Glass Aisle was an engagement into a poets world.  Paul Henry unlocked the souls from the past through the landscape of the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal, the experience was a total immersion, five months on and  the Glass Aisle haunts me every day.

I have shot two more films this summer, one was shot in Canada with Garrett from Fallon’s Angler, this is not finished but once again I was surprised on what we discovered in British Columbia,  kindred spirits? I still not sure but we witnessed a connection with the flora and fauna  at the end of our trip when I caught a sturgeon and landed it on a first nation reservation. There we met a lady who connected us with her spirit world, a world apart from the macho hunting and fishing scene that seems prevalent in modern Canada. The passion of angling had once again blessed us with another soulful experience.

Back in the UK we shot a short film – Solent Hounds – fishing for smoothounds in the Solent. Escaping from London one afternoon just at the start of the hot summer, we fished for several hours with anglers Adam and Ollie. We stayed until dark, what came from the shoreline through our marriage of words and images was once again echoed from the past through the landscape. I thought we were simply shark fishing, instead Garrett and myself found more. There are many angling films out there showing how and where, but I hope these Fallon’s Angler film offer something else? As anglers we have the privilege to stay put, to step away from time, to focus on a spot, transfixed in a meditative state, personally  I dream,  I honour and remember those lost souls that once walked and now lay as dust beneath my feet, while remembering that I  too will one day join them.

Watch Solent Hounds here…

 

A London mullet.

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in General, General fishing, The Lea Valley

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Don’t worry fashionistas of Hackney Wick and Dalston, the eighties mullet has yet to return, (for now) you may stick to your acid tones and cool electro beats but only the brave will dress the mullet once more.

My mullet were lurking in the tidal stretch of the Lea by the sanctuary of two discarded water tanks not found on a whim  but more likely a regular journey, summer after summer, sifting through the silt for a easy feed? Notably hard to catch, these stubborn thick lipped variety were positively zip lipped when it came to my free offerings. Do I have the patience to try and fool one of these or shall I stick to the carp? I’m unsure but to witness these mullet as I have done now for the last few days has been a privilege.

Summer solstice

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Carp, General fishing

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I’m compelled to write a few words on the solstice, a date I regard highly, the longest day and also my daughters birthday. Fallon’s Angler 10 is at the printers and will be dropped through the subscribers letter boxes within the week. This issue we headed towards Wales and shot two films, we rediscovered Cregennan  Lakes after a forty year absence, and met a special lady who has spent a lifetime on the Usk.

Also in issue 10 Chris Yates celebrate his glorious 16th and some new contributors play their part in the Fallon’s story from Wales and beyond.

For now there is a pleasant lull, I’m not racing around the country, I’m fishing locally for river carp, but being nomads they seem to have disappeared, perhaps seeking deep cooler pools while we sit out the hottest heatwave since 1977; I’m happy to sit it out with them…

My canoe is also ready for launch, this may help in seeking new swims that only before I could view from afar, over grown banks and fallen trees obstructing my passage, but first I will have to see if the canoe is stable enough to land a ‘river lurker.’

 

John Richardson of Two Terriers Press – a film.

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Fallon's Angler quarterly, Photography and video

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Art and the art of angling, I consider this to be a partnership that sits comfortably side by side, just like the landscape and the angler. Here is a new film where I find John Richardson a life-long angler and artist in his West Norfolk studio carving and then printing on his Victorian press, while the Fenland landscape dominates throughout.

Shooting in the field

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Fallon's Angler quarterly, Photography and video

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The last year has been an interesting one, I’ve taken off into the field with the aim to shoot video and stills for various projects, one re-accuring challenge is with Fallon’s Angler, it has been…well challenging. The beauty of modern technology is that everything is relatively compact and lightweight although some camera systems have now got smaller, glass is glass and it can still weigh a fair amount,  the task of packing it down so that I can move freely on foot and keep in step with roving anglers is an art in itself. In the summer Fallon’s Angler set off by foot onto Dartmoor, I had to carry fishing gear, camera equipment, food, water, bedding and my house.  I’m not one to weigh everything down to the last gramme but I made sure I took only the absolute essentials, my only luxury was a hip flask of Laphroig, the hip flask was given to me by my father, and if you knew him you would understand that this was to be the professional drinkers 10 oz version! Unusually the hip flask returned from Dartmoor with almost half of it’s content untouched.

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Image courtesy of Bruno Vincent

On the Dartmoor  trip I took a Fuji X Pro 1 mirrorless system with just two lenses a 16-55mm and a 55-200mm, I love this camera but it falls down when it comes to shooting video, the trip was a stills only shoot and the Canon had to stay at home. Below are a few shots that didn’t make the final edit and covered to black and white, the article for issue 7 included a mix of colour and black and white.

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

Dartmoor trout fishing

My next challenge was to put together a compact system that can shoot good quality video and audio as a one-man band. The problem with shooting video is you need a few lens options, microphones, field recorders, monopods, tripods with  pan heads, the list can go on and as the list increases so does the weight, my nemesis was whether to  pack a rod amongst my camera gear?

Shooting video in the field

For those observant types, actually its fairly obvious the image above has the additional baggage of a fishing bag, rod and reel, below is the actual gear that I would take on the field to shoot video once packed up and ready to go, no fishing gear

Shooting video in the field

Last weekend we set off again for Fallons issue 8, our destination has an eastern direction, what we uncovered was a mystery just like fishing itself, we didn’t know the outcome until it was done, but we met some interesting individuals and seen some places  that have formed the story, my job was to get it on film both with stills and on video, the tale of two rivers is unfolding as I sit here and view the edits.