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A River Runs Through It TRIVIA

11K views 83 replies 32 participants last post by  Tom House 
#1 ·
Who knows the name of the KNOT the old man is tying at the beginning of the movie?
 
#2 ·
I seem to remember it as a turle knot, an old, traditional knot that gives a straight-line pull on the leader, through the hook eye and fastened behind the eye. Not the strongest tippet-to-hook knot.
 
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#4 ·
It was something made up on the spot... no one had any idea what they were doing so they faked it :D

The actor who played the electrical specialist on the original Mission Impossible TV series once admitted that he was just clipping wires here and there because he was told no one would know the difference.... he just had to act like he knew what he was doing. So he did.

Same goes for the knot :) (seriously, I don't remember the movie well enough to determine what the old man was tying)
 
#17 ·
It was something made up on the spot... no one had any idea what they were doing so they faked it :D

The actor who played the electrical specialist on the original Mission Impossible TV series once admitted that he was just clipping wires here and there because he was told no one would know the difference.... he just had to act like he knew what he was doing. So he did.

Same goes for the knot :) (seriously, I don't remember the movie well enough to determine what the old man was tying)
i had been told when i came out that the old man was norman maclean himself. myth?
 
#24 ·
Maclean, though, died on August 2, 1990, in Chicago, at the age of 88, before production of the film began. Redford, with no practical knowledge of fly fishing, needed profess-ional expertise. He turned to local experts like John Bailey of Living-ston (he became Redford's Fly Fishing Advisor), and he turned to John Dietsch, a 29-year-old fly fishing guide from Aspen with a background in film-the man who would teach Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, and Tom Skerritt how to fly cast.
You can blame John Bailey....:)
 
#27 ·
If the knot works for you, that's great. Most likely it depends on what you were first taught to tie and for me it was a clinch knot and then later an improved clinch knot. As long as the sucker doesn't break, I don't think it makes much difference in the real world.
 
#29 ·
Learned a clinch first. Then tied so many Double Turles I forgot how to tie anything else. And I'm a knot guy. Now I mix it up with Clinch, Non-slip loops and Turles where appropriate. Don't remember the last Turle tho. A minor PITA with the Turle is removing the knot the next time you use the fly. You're in a hurry and the knot has solidified on the shank. And picking it off you snag some head threads.
 
#30 ·
I suck at knots. I use the Davy Knot on my flies. If I'm not shaking very bad I will do a improved Clinch knot. Any other knot tying I have to fumble through. For adding tippets I use a double surgeons knot. I don't have enough fingers to tie a blood knot. Don't ask about the fingers on a Blood knot. My fingers don't flex enough to tie a good blood knot.

I used to be able to tie a Turle knot but forgot how to.
 
#31 ·
Gets me time and time again I hear how this movie ruined fly fishing, please explain to me how.

Was this movie really about fly fishing? how to cast? proper technique to approach a drift and cast accordingly, etc ?

I guess I am missing something?? but I have led a sheltered life

Please explain
 
#32 ·
At the time I started flyfishing, there really wasn't that many folks interested in that sort of angling.... as a result, the flyfishing only fisheries in Oregon were fairly limited in the number of fishers.

I don't think the movie actually "ruined" the sport but because it popularized it, fisheries that were once fairly sparse suddenly became crowded.

I... as are some others... were a tad put-off by the sudden influx of water floggers where there were just a few.

On the flipside... a number of new publications sprung up that dealt with flyfishing and I was able to sell them freelance material.

I know a lot of flyfishing freelance guys who told me they would have gladly gave up the increase in freelance sales in favor of the sport remaining as it was and not so heavily populated.

I guess it just depends on your view of what the sport was and what it became. I can see the good and bad of the impact of "the movie".

Water Plant Organism Cartoon Art
 
#34 ·
At the time I started flyfishing, there really wasn't that many folks interested in that sort of angling.... as a result, the flyfishing only fisheries in Oregon were fairly limited in the number of fishers.

I don't think the movie actually "ruined" the sport but because it popularized it, fisheries that were once fairly sparse suddenly became crowded.

I guess it just depends on your view of what the sport was and what it became. I can see the good and bad of the impact of "the movie".

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That's the deal. Following the movie, there were suddenly so many wanna-be Brad Pitts on the banks, the quiet part of the past-time was gone, maybe forever. I was an instant curmudgeon at 32.

About the same time a heretic invented some kind of bat to use in handball courts, and there went the neighborhood. You had to join a snotty club instead of playing for free under the tennis courts at U of O.
There's a Willamette Valley stab from the past for you, GAT.

There was a pair of old farts at the club I had to join that had T-shirts which read "A woman should do her serving from the kitchen".

And that's why I hate the movie, not the story. If you like McLean, also read Logging, Pimping, and Your Friend, Jim in the same collection, and his other book, Young Men and Fire.

Oh, some of us use still the Turle knot on up turned-eye steelhead flies.
 
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