I’d be lying if I told you I love fly fishing during the winter. Maybe, in my teens or twenties, I loved the isolation and the challenge of fishing in harsh conditions. That’s not the case now. As my predecessors explained to me years ago, a cold environment and an aging body don’t mix well. My winter fishing has grown more painful with every lap around the sun. These days, winter also doesn’t provide the solitude it once did, as more anglers take up the sport and realize that good fishing can be had even when temperatures plummet.

If Off the Grid Studio’s newest film, The Silent Spotter, is a tale of things to come, then I’m happy to report that fly fishing films are good again. If reading that leaves you scratching your head, thinking to yourself that fly fishing films have been good all along, I’ve got news for you: no, they haven’t. Yes, there are exceptions. And I’ve missed more than a few.