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. But for years now we’ve all been fed an endless buffet of 15-minute videos in which MTV-style editing and adrenaline-forcing music are leveraged to deliver a vignette of one bearded, so-called hardcore angler or another whose serial killer sensibilities about their pursuit of leisure is presented as aspirational. No substance, no story, just quarter hour-long Instagram reels that have more in common with a Fast & Furious trailer than they do with anything resembling storytelling.
The Silent Spotter, tells the tale of Tommy Batun, a supremely talented permit guide working out of The Xflats lodge near Xcalak, Mexico. As the film makes clear, Tommy has eyes like “a freaking osprey.” But Tommy’s keen vision and permit-spotting skills aren’t the only thing that set him apart. Unlike other guides, Tommy can’t hear you. Your confusion, complaints, excuses, rationalizations, and expletives—whether shouted or muttered through gritted teeth—all fall on deaf ears. Literally.
Having lost his hearing as an infant, Tommy has had to navigate the world and waters of Xcalak in silence. Being unable to hear and unable to speak has presented a unique set of challenges for an apprentice permit guide whose success and failure on the flats requires effective and prompt communication with the anglers standing on the bow of his panga.
Spotter doesn’t just explore Tommy’s journey, under the tutelage of his father and storied flats guide Alejandro Batun, to becoming one of the most notable young guides in Mexico. It also shines a lens on their efforts in pioneering an entirely novel permit fishery, one borne of climate change-enhanced blooms of stinky, suffocating sargassum — huge mats of seaweed that blanket the increasingly warm waters of the Caribbean, causing innumerous headaches. The permit, however, don’t seem to mind, as the giant, migrating seaweed islands attract their favorite treat: crabs. And not just any crabs—floating crabs. These topwater crustaceans have birthed an electrifying new brand of permit fishing where explosive dry-fly eats are now common, not freakish, once-in-a-lifetime anomalies.
Xcalak permit guide Tommy Batun (photo: Arian Stevens).
The film is narrated by the owner of The Xflats, Jesse Colten, a Colorado-born gringo that transplanted himself to the beaches of Xcalak. Colten’s storytelling feels earnest and authentic and his frequent skewering of fly fishing tropes is irreverent, sometimes (whether intentionally or otherwise) self-deprecating, and flat out funny.
The whole thing kicks off with a rant by Colten, in which he asks “Who’s the hero in most fly fishing media? Someone who spent a grip of mommy and daddy’s money to be fly fishing famous? Bearded bros that smell like hickory and look like they chop wood but really only chop Instagram reels? … What if we tried a different kind of hero for once?”
The Silent Spotter answers that what if in fine fashion. In the spirit of soulful fly fishing films of the past like Eastern Rises, this is a film with a heartfelt narrative, clever writing, and characters you’ll feel invested in — as much as one can become invested in the characters in an 18-minute flick. It’s also beautifully filmed by trio Will Phelps, RA Beattie, and Arian Stevens. And fish porn aficionados need not fear. If tedious stuff like storytelling, characters, and substance are your elevator music, the aforementioned filmmaking team captured no shortage of mouth-watering shots that illustrate just what dry-fly fishing for permit looks like. The footage will send your heart rate climbing, your mind reeling, and might just have you searching the internet for cheap flights to the Yucatan.
The Silent Spotter is screening as part of this year’s Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T). For more information, head to flyfilmfest.com, The Silent Spotter film site, and The Xflats.
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