Fly Fishing Film Tour lured to Big Grove
The 12th-annual Fly Fishing Tour heads to Big Grove.

By Matthew Kinney
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The 12th-annual Fly Fishing Film Tour will hook Big Grove Brewery & Taproom, 1225 S. Gilbert St., on April 8 at 1 p.m. The event showcases documentaries featuring unique characters, stories, and the flick of the wrist that make up the vast world of fly-fishing.

The 2018 Fly Fishing Film Tour, which will travel to more than 175 cities in eight countries, consists of eight documentaries set in various locations from Michigan to Honduras to Greenland. Along with showing world-class fly-fishing films, the film tour is dedicated to supporting local fly shops and conservation groups that are instrumental to the sport.

Big Grove hosted the Backcountry Film Festival in January, and it has partnered with FilmScene to screen movies for free, making the Fly Fishing Film Tour a no-brainer for the brewery. Big Grove manager Rachel Wobeter sees the event as a chance to introduce more people to fly-fishing as well as helping out a good cause.

“We’ve done another film festival before, so they came to us as a venue, and we saw a great opportunity,” she said. “There aren’t many other venues in Iowa City that have the space to hold these events. Besides showing the most interactive and interesting documentaries made about fly-fishing, it’s helping to generate interest in fly-fishing. It’s kind of a niche sport, so we’re focused on how we can get more people interested in fly-fishing.”

Along with the documentary films, the tour generates raises money for the Driftless Flyathlon, which takes place in northeast Iowa. This October will be the third-annual event.

“You fly-fish while you run, it’s like a triathlon, but you have to catch fish in different locations, take a picture of it, and run to the next stop,” Wobeter said.

While the film tour features world-class documentaries and garners attention for fly-fishing, the ultimate goal of the event is to promote conservation and awareness of the sport.

Money generated from the event is donated to nonprofit organizations dedicated to conservation of the environment.

“This film festival is a way for this group to help get more word out and raise awareness about conservation,” Wobeter said. “They donate money from the film tour and the flyathlon to Coldwater Conservation and sustainability efforts to keep the environment clean.”

The festival provides an opportunity to support wildlife conservation while also having the chance to showcase unique films from all over the world.