Fly Fishing: Great Rivers of the West

THE PERFECT CAST

A Review of Fly Fishing: Great Rivers of the West

Sometimes you see a movie or read a book that sparks your interest. Some

thing that makes you get out and climb a mountain, ride a bike, some thing

that makes you want to experience a different thrill. Now it’s multimedia,

and Fly Fishing Great Rivers of the West does just that. It is an ambitious

project with over 10,000 hours of production time. There are over 200

photographs, 60 natural sounds, maps and travel guide, 48 video clips, 36

interactive maps, an ecosystem gallery, and a 60 page printable field/travel

guide, and a slide show that showcases the talents of two outdoor, Emmy

winning photographers: David Stoecklein and Denver Bryan. You can order

prints from the gallery of photos included in this CD, by printing out an

order form worksheet and placing an order directly to the photographers. With

a undertaking like this, it makes you wonder if they can get all of that

information assemble onto one CD-ROM without getting it muddled, but this CD

handles it well.

The six rivers that are showcased in this CD are: The Green River in Utah,

Yellowstone River in Wyoming, Henry’s Fork in Idaho, Deschutes River in

Oregon, San Juan in New Mexico, and the Madson River in Montana. But the

Rivers of the West doesn’t stop with just showing a river. They do

everything to make you feel like your standing right on the bank of these

crystal clear rivers watching a trout rise with fly rod in hand casting out

for that elusive fish.

To give you an overview on how this CD works, you select a river, next a

short narration tells you about that particular river. From here the options

are: Tour, Technique, Fishing, Sounds, Flies, Ecosystem, Maps/Travel.

Let’s start with TOUR. The tour button takes you on a short video showing

different sections of the river, and also introducing you to one of the many

professional guides who specializes on that river. The videos are well

edited, but they tend to run choppy on slower machines.

TECHNIQUE, again is another movie with the guide showing how he might fish

the river. Here there are some good action fishing video. On the fishing

button you get a layout of the river, with certain hot spots highlighted,

included with this is a “Tip” button which gives a short video clip from a

guide on how they like to fish a particular part of the river.

Next is SOUNDS. And that is just that, natural sounds of a babbling brook, a

rushing river, a powerful waterfalls, or the peaceful sound of crickets

filling the evening sky. When I first saw this, I thought that it seemed kind

of wasteful use of CD space, but after I heard some of the different files I

changed my mind. This is all part of the sensory feeling from this program.

Not only do they give you the sights, but the sounds as well that accompany a

fishing experience.

The FLIES section lets you see what specific flies work for that river. These

are the favorite patterns of the guides with large graphics with what size of

hooks to use, how they flies should be made, with what specific material is

needed if you like to tie your own, and what names to look for if you buy

them.

ECOSYSTEM is a gallery of information ranging from Plants, Animals, Climate,

Hatches, Geology, Conservation. Here you can find out everything from how

the rivers were formed, to the kind a wildlife you might expect to see. What

the kind of hatches, when they occur, and the conservation efforts going on

to preserve the waterways.

MAPS/TRAVEL give information on where to find the guides, hotels, shopping,

and eateries, Licenses and regulations. You can find practically everything

you need to know about the how, where, whens of planning your trip. In

addition, another feature of Great Rivers is the ability to print out field

guides, and travel handbooks for specific rivers, that give you detailed

information fishing the river. It’s like being able to take all of the

invaluable information you need while your on the river. Everything from the

type of flies you’ll need to the plant and animal life is all covered in the

printout. I did experience problems in this area with trying to print out.

Though, I am using a PC compatible HP Desk jet with a Power Print cable with

my Macintosh I couldn’t get anything to print out. I did experiment with

some different settings, but so far no luck. I did, however, have no problem

printing out a field guide using a Quadra and a Apple Laser printer.

Fly Fishing Great Rivers of the West is a well organized program, compacted

onto a single CD. To have all of the information given here in brochure form

could take up half of a living room floor. This program is not only for the

veteran fly fisher person, it’s for the beginner. The many videos on fishing

techniques from top casters will benefit even the most inexperienced person

to the sport.

I recommend Fly Fishing Great Rivers of the West. Even if you aren’t

interested in fishing, but enjoy the outdoors, the photography in it is

superb. But if you like to fly fish, or are just starting out then this

program is definitely for you.

Copyright © 1995 Brad Jeske for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.