IT IS GREAT TO BE BACK

Four years ago the Covid Pandemic abruptly halted the film tour in Australia and New Zealand, after 14 successive and successful years of bringing the best fly fishing entertainment to cinema screens across both countries.

Much has happened since then, including the amalgamation of RISE Fly Fishing Film Festival with the Fly Fishing Film Tour. Both tours started in the same year, 2006, RISE went on to tour Australia, NZ and Europe while the Fly Fishing Film Tour grew to be the biggest tour in North America.

Combining both tours brings with it many benefits including a greater pool for film selection, an updated free tour magazine, some great audience giveaways and prize draws. Film makers also benefit through larger exposure and better access to sponsorship and film maker funding. Which all makes perfect sense on a commercial level but personally this union has a more profound effect than just a better product.

The first film I was involved in making was the seminal Trout Bum Dairies – Patagonia. I started RISE in order to market that film and generate some DVD sales (remember those). The four guys I made the film with formed a company called A.E.G (Angling Exploration Group) and they started the Fly Fishing Film Tour. The genesis for a fly fishing film tour was born between a few young trout bums standing around a fire having a few beers in the afterglow of an epic dry fly session on a Patagonian springcreek. It is poetic that through the meandering bends of time the two tours followed their destiny to become one. Enjoy the festival and we will see you next year.

- Nick Reygaert, Rise Founder & Tour Manager

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” - Norman Maclean