Nomadic Studios Presents, "Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys"

B.C. Wehman:
Who is Joe Humphreys? He's a father, a wrestling coach, a boxer, an ice skater, a teacher, and a conservationist. But, first and foremost, Joe's a fly fisherman.

Heather Grayson:
This is what actor Liam Neeson had to say about his time fishing with Joe.

Liam Neeson:
A number of years ago, I had the honor and the pleasure of fishing with the great Joe Humphreys in the Chuck Streams in Pennsylvania. We'll never forget the experience. Because not only was it a masterclass in watching a great flight fishermen, it became a lesson in how to conduct oneself in life. I remember, as we approached the stream, and Joe very carefully got into the creek, the stream, he, within seconds, became one with the environment.

Liam Neeson:
Within seconds, he became one with the stream, the rocks underneath the stream, and indeed the fish, hiding and feeding behind certain rocks. It was quite uncanny. And I'll never forget the day we caught some fish, catch and release, of course. And to be in the company of this joyous man, wonderful human being, who laughed a lot, giggled, talked about different things, but all the time his third eye was on that stream, and where a fish might be hiding or lurking. Beautiful mind. I'll never forget the day.

Heather Grayson:
Hi. I'm Heather Grayson, writer, producer and director who craves passion in filmmaking. And documentarians are just that. I write fiction, but I love to watch the truth.

B.C. Wehman:
My name is B.C. Wehman. I'm an actor, a writer and entertainer, all sorts of creative endeavors. But what I love most, being a storyteller. It's why I love documentaries. They're extraordinary stories from every day extraordinary people.

Heather Grayson:
This is Behind The Doc, and today we are behind the scenes with Live The Stream, the Story of Joe Humphreys.

Joe Humphreys:
I am Joe Humphreys. I am 86 years old, 86 years young. I'm a professional fly fisherman here in central Pennsylvania. And these streams are some of my favorites to fish in all of the world. I've been fishing since I was six years old. From that moment on, I have lived, breathed, taught, and competed in the wonderful sport of fly fishing.

B.C. Wehman:
All right. Welcome everyone. Behind The Doc, where we take a deep look into documentary filmmaking. And we are very excited today to be joined by two people. The directors of, gosh, an amazing film. An amazing film that really kind of pulls on all your heartstrings. It's really the best way I can say it.

B.C. Wehman:
We're here with Meigan and Lucas Bell from Nomadic Studios, who are the directors of Live The Stream. And Heather and I just watched this recently, and it was a pretty amazing film. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves to the audience and we'll go from there?

Lucas Bell:
My name is Lucas Bell. I'm co-director and cinematographer of Live the Stream.

Meigan Bell:
And I'm Meigan Bell, and I'm co-director, writer, and editor of Live the Stream.

Lucas Bell:
Live the Stream follows the story of Joe Humphreys, who's an 86 year old legendary fly fishermen from Pennsylvania. His story is just really unique. And he's an icon of fly fishing, but I think this story touches more than just people that like fly fishing. I think that it really resonates with a lot of people.

Meigan Bell:
Live the Stream is an inspiring story about an 86 year old man who has followed his passions his entire lifetime. So a lot of people look at this film and just assume it's all about fly fishing, but it's about far more than fly fishing.

Meigan Bell:
And, especially, I think it's something that it's a film that relates to all ages, and all ethnicities and all genders. And, I mean, it's a story about living your passion for your lifetime.

Heather Grayson:
Yeah. I found it really fascinating, not only the depth of the fly fishing, and him teaching and him being this just wonderful man, but I loved you guys put in how he was a wrestling coach. There was just so many avenues that he went down, and he became a mentor for so many people.

Movie Clips:
I'm most proud of my dad for who he is to other people. It's not just that he's this famous fishermen. Somebody can say to me, my son got to meet your dad for 10 minutes, and it was a wonderful experience. And that sums it up of who he is as a person.

Meigan Bell:
Oh yeah, it's incredible. I mean, everywhere that we traveled, with our film festivals and with our film tour, there were always audience members that stood up across the country, standing up and being like, "Hey Joe. I don't know if you remember me, but you were my teacher, you were my coach, you were my mentor. And you have meant the world to me throughout my lifetime."

Meigan Bell:
We not only get that, but we have gotten so many emails and so many messages from around the world, of people who he has inspired and who ... He's bettered their lives. So it's incredible how far his reach is.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. And he has no email. He's not on any social. He has a rotary phone at home. And yet he has a massive following. I got an email, I think two days ago, from somebody in Iraq that's deployed there. And they watched Live The Stream with his group of guys. And he emailed me saying how inspiring it was and stuff like that. It's just awesome to hear.

Joe Humphreys:
The fact that you become known for some expertise in your field, that's wonderful. But I think, as a teacher, you want to be as well versed as you possibly can. You owe it to your students. I have traveled extensively, and I've had the privilege of working with so many people and teaching so long, and I'm still so busy teaching.

B.C. Wehman:
I think one word that keeps coming back to Joe Humphreys is teacher, right? We keep coming to that, to allow whether it's a mentor. But he has taught so many people. And one of those places that's near and dear to Joe is Penn State University, State College Pennsylvania. And from my understanding, Lucas, that's where you first ran into Joe. I think you were a student there. Is that correct? Can you tell us a little bit how you met Joe?

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. So I went to Penn State. And Penn State, if you watch Live the Stream, you'll find out that Penn State was the first accredited university in the country to teach fly fishing. When I was there, I was obviously love fly fishing, and I took the class. And I was also a film major, and I wanted to do a quick documentary about the history of the class.

Lucas Bell:
So I was fortunate enough to interview the first teacher who, at the time he was 93, his name's George Harvey, and the second teacher of the class, whose name's Joe Humphreys. So I got to basically interview and do a little quick little doc about the history of the class. I met Joe, and I met his wife Gloria when I was a student.

Lucas Bell:
Fast forward 10 years later, my wife and I have a doc production company. And we were thinking about doing a documentary. And we were kind of brainstorming ideas about who would be a good subject. And I was thinking like, "Maybe there's this guy at Penn State, it's Joe Humphreys. He's a great teacher, loves the outdoors, big fly fishermen. Think he'd be a great story idea."

Lucas Bell:
So I ran into him at a fly fishing show and I kind of proposed the idea to him about doing a documentary about his life.

Meigan Bell:
I do a lot of casting for reality television. And it's always within those first couple of minutes that you know if you have found the right person to be featured, right? You need that, that magnetic personality to be on camera or on film. And it is. It's, literally, within a couple of minutes of meeting Joe, that you suddenly realize how unique he is, and how inspiring he is, and how this was the guy for us.

Joe Humphreys:
The mountains, the streams, the resources were so wonderful. And so State College area was an important aspect of my life.

Joe Humphreys:
We are going after some cold spring water. That water is absolutely delightful. And that's what I have in my coffee. That's my coffee water in the mornings. It's cold spring water that comes right out of the mountain.

B.C. Wehman:
Did he serve you a cup? And I've been thinking about this, since I've seen this film twice now. Did you get a cup of the river stream coffee? Because it looks amazing. And that's all I really want right now, is my coffee made from water straight from a stream. Just 100%, it's the only way to have it.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. I got, I mean-

Meigan Bell:
[crosstalk 00:09:06].

Lucas Bell:
He'd make that for you every morning, if we were like ... He was always up, but you always had to have a cup of coffee before we started filming. So he'd be up, he's making his coffee from the spring water.

B.C. Wehman:
I'm so jealous. I think one of the most amazing things I learned about the film, and learning through Joe, was I think just State College Pennsylvania, the area. I'm familiar with Penn State. You know the Nittany Lions. You know the football program. I'm from Ohio. I'm an Ohio State fan. So I always grew up knowing that.

B.C. Wehman:
I did not have a concept of how, I mean, gorgeous, beautiful, the natural inherent beauty of the area, with the streams and the tributaries. Is that a common reaction, that people are so used to State College and Penn State, that they're like, "That's a beautiful natural area that, of course, deserves protection." I was stunned to learn all that exists up in that area by Penn State.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. There's some of the best trout streams in, I think, Eastern United States in central PA. I've gotten to fish at a lot of places. But, I mean, I was at Penn State for four years and I only knew of maybe two streams that were ... I mean, they were really nice streams. But, I mean, he took us to these places that just blew your mind, like up in the mountains, these little Brook Trout streams.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, a lot of times we weren't allowed to say where they were or what stream, because he doesn't want a lot of people going there. But central Pennsylvania is just ... I mean, it's some of the best water in the country.

Joe Humphreys:
Sometimes I feel that the streams and rivers run through me. And the flow of the water has been my soul. It's been my heart. And I want to protect it.

Heather Grayson:
It was amazing that you guys put so much emphasis on the conservation of it. Watching that I was like, "Man, we really need to do more." I myself, I was definitely inspired to go out and take a look, and pick up trash if I need to. Was there a lot of that? Were people inspired to do some of this conservation?

Lucas Bell:
I hope so. Because, I mean, that was one of our goals, especially with Pennsylvania, and especially with the way that all these environmental rules are being rolled back. And we try not to be political, but we hope that people watching the film will just take notice, just like you said. Just be like, you know what, "There's some really beautiful things around me. And I should pay a little bit more attention to the environment and the streams and my local waterways."

Lucas Bell:
So we didn't want to be overly political, but we just wanted to give it that conservation message, that you should take notice of what's around you.

Meigan Bell:
And that's Joe's whole mission too. So he would be thrilled if anyone who watched this film walked away wanting to better the environment. Everything that we talked about, even developing the story for the film and everything, that's what he wanted people to take away from it.

Joe Humphreys:
All of these streams bring people from all over the world to fish here. And, unfortunately, there are so many threats that are facing the streams. They drive for the Marcellus Shale. And the disruptive activities of strip mining kind of ruin a lot of waters. It's a never ending battle. And we have to stay on our toes to keep our waters clean.

B.C. Wehman:
I think he makes the act of it doable, right? If you look at just what Joe has set out to do, and whether it's Thompson Run and saving Spring Creek, and just focusing on that little area. His tenacity to just save one small part of it, get it around the duck pond, and make sure it goes setting around that freeway system.

B.C. Wehman:
Just that says, "Well, if I can do this, if I can just do one small part," which I think is what I took from him. Just do your part. And, as Heather just said, just pick up that trash, just do this part, that's a step forward. That's a step in the right direction. And if one part's good, then it will flow, water pun intended, into the next area. So I think his message does come off very strong, of just do your part, because it's all you can do.

Lucas Bell:
Exactly. Yep. And Thompson Run is a very small part of Spring Creek. He's focused on that one spring, that fed Spring Creek since 1977. He's been trying to restore that, because he knew it was so vital to Spring Creek, which is a bigger tributary. To see him do that and to work so hard, it's impressive. I mean, he's almost got it to a point where he feels that it's going to be saved and everything. So it just takes a lot of time. And with progress and everything, it's tough to keep.

Meigan Bell:
I agree. Because it's his message in Live the Stream. It's conservation efforts, that you do in your backyard and your local community, can have a far reach. That's what we wanted this film to say.

Heather Grayson:
And speaking of the water aspect of it, was it working in the water? And how was the fly fishing at night? That was huge questions for us.

B.C. Wehman:
A lot of technical issues there. We'd love to hear how you work through, whether it's nighttime in the water. For a small documentary focused on one person, a very technical shoot it seemed like.

Lucas Bell:
Yes. Well, I mean, just getting to film in the streams. It was the best.

Meigan Bell:
Yeah. We loved it. I mean, we were in the water all the time. It was the best office ever.

Lucas Bell:
Right. Yeah. And so it was tough to come back and start editing. I mean, we basically spent three and a half years in the streams of Pennsylvania and a few other states. I mean, it was amazing. I mean, we definitely took some chances with our ... It's hard to like plant a tripod in the middle of a raging stream, and hope that everything's going to work out. Luckily, we didn't lose any cameras. We didn't lose any lenses, right?

Meigan Bell:
Oh, no. We did really good with that.

Lucas Bell:
We may have lost a drone.

B.C. Wehman:
I was going to say, there are any good bloopers of people sliding in the mud bank, someone slipping under the water? I feel like this also is a shoot roup or rife with potential bloopers, because of all the rough footing in water.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, we probably fell a couple of times. But somebody asked me, "In filming with Joe for three and a half years, did you ever see him fall?" We never saw him fall.

Meigan Bell:
No, not once.

B.C. Wehman:
Wow.

Lucas Bell:
He is unbelievably ... I don't know if it's ice skating or whatever, but he is just so stable on his feet.

Meigan Bell:
Well, it's spending a lifetime in the stream. And, I mean, for a guy who also, like you said, night fishes. I mean, he has the ability to go out in the water in the pitch black with no lights, and be able to work his way through the water that way too.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. And that's the other thing with night. When we did all the night shoots, you aren't allowed to have lights on.

Joe Humphreys:
Okay. Lights out. It's called pinpoint casting in darkness. You have to know when to squeeze that stroke off, to get back under those trees, and next to that bank. And if you don't spot that fly in a very few winches, it's difficult to take them.

Lucas Bell:
We'd be rolling in pitch black. And if he got a big, giant brown trout on, then we could turn the lights on. So you're filming it in the dark. You're hoping that something's going to happen. I mean, we were out for two to three hours, easily, multiple times.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, there was points when we were in Arkansas, and it was four o'clock in the morning. And I'm sitting in the pitch black being like, "What am I doing here?" But when you look back at it, it was the best thing ever. [crosstalk 00:16:11].

Meigan Bell:
The night fishing, by far, those are my favorite memories. I feel honored to have experienced that with Joe Humphreys.

B.C. Wehman:
I was amazed at how many people just wanted to watch him. Right? There was that one comment where some guy just found him, and he's like, "Hey, I just want to watch you fish." I guess it must be a surreal experience. Because everyone just seemed satisfied, not just to fish with Joe Humphreys, but to be around him and watch him fish.

B.C. Wehman:
Was it his just enthusiasm? Is it his knowledge? Is it his aura? Why are so many people attracted to just watching this man do his craft amazingly well?

Meigan Bell:
All of the above.

Lucas Bell:
I think, Denny, who's also in the film, and it's his very close friend, basically is his son. But Denny always would compare, "It's like watching Babe Ruth take batting practice."

Movie Clips:
90% of the time, when we fished together, I'm not fishing. I'm just standing next to him. Why would I possibly want to be 50 feet down the stream doing my thing, when the living legend is right there?

Lucas Bell:
Even that first day, that we kind of went up and did a little scouting and met him, we were walking down the stream on Spring Creek. We had like a 70. We're just kind of filming a little bit. And this kid was fishing across the stream. He came running out of the stream, to walk up on shore to shake Joe's hand. He's like, "I've been wanting to meet you forever."

Joe Humphreys:
Choosing between wrestling and fly fishing, it was a decision that I knew would really affect my life. Fishing, I guess you might say, was in my blood. I would never discard it. I would never. It was always there. It had to be there. But when I found out that I could make money in the fly fishing world, collegiately as an instructor at Penn State, there was no choice. I gave up wrestling, and continued in the fly fishing world.

B.C. Wehman:
He seems to excel, by the way, if you're thinking about it a little bit, at these sports where it requires some singular focus. And I know that ice skating could have partners, but wrestling, ice skating, fishing are all sole individual sports, with very mentally strong focus to pull off what you do well. Do you think that is a trait that just pulled through, and something you learned about him?

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. I mean, he's also a coach too. So he's just got that ability to really focus on things. So the ice skating thing kind of came out of nowhere for us. We were with his family, and they're like, "Hey, by the way ..." We were all sitting around in his living room, and they're like, "Our dad ..." His daughters were there and Joe was there. He was like, "He likes ice. He used to ice skate all the time." Like, "Oh, cool."

Lucas Bell:
We have on video, an old VHS video, of him ice skating at the Bryce Jordan Center. And I'm like, "What?" Because then they put that video in, and I'm like, "This is going to be in the film."

Movie Clips:
And here's something a lot of people don't know, he was a very good ice skater. And he taught advanced ice skating as a Phys Ed course at Penn State.

Movie Clips:
Or my mother taught beginning ice skating. So, at any given time, you could go up to the rink and find both of them teaching a class.

Movie Clips:
He actually was in an ice show where he did an ice dance with his fishing rod, which was amazing.

Heather Grayson:
I was saying earlier, I said, "There's things people say, if you can excel at something, be very, very good at that one thing." And this guy just proves that theory wrong. He is just great at everything he's doing. And it was really great to look at.

Heather Grayson:
And it's really great to have the family members involved and talking a lot, and his daughters, and then talking about his wife. And that was just pure gold, and pure peace and love. And I know that that's a little bit hippy, but it's definitely something that I needed right now.

Meigan Bell:
I love that. That's what we wanted too. Who was it? Someone told us before, "It's like the healthy dose of positivity the world needs right now." Right? That was one of the reviews that we got. And that's exactly it, but it's also Joe.

Meigan Bell:
Joe, again, he's unlike anyone else that you'll ever meet. Because he's so honest and he's so giving. And, yeah, he's so good at so many different things. But every path led him back to fly fishing and back to teaching,

Lucas Bell:
He's super humble. And, I mean-

Meigan Bell:
He's just a good guy. And how many documentaries are out there right now that just are about really good people on this world, and people trying to make a positive impact?

Heather Grayson:
Yeah. I will say there is one heartbreaking moment, and that is when he didn't get that big Brown. I mean, I know that I teared up, for sure. And then you guys hugging him and just making him feel better. I was just like, "Oh, that stupid fish." I was definitely mad at the fish.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, he still talks about that today. I mean, he's trying to get us to go back to Arkansas. I mean, even this January, he was trying to go back again.

Joe Humphreys:
I am still going to take a 20 pound Brown. If I have to come back from another world and do it, I will find a 20 pound Brown.

Meigan Bell:
That fish haunts us now.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah. I remember, once that night happened, we went and looked at the footage, and I'm like ... And you want to want to keep watching and be like, "Okay, he's going to get it this time, right?" And it's just-

Meigan Bell:
Well, again, because talking about the brilliance of Joe Humphreys and why people watch him fish, we spent how many days on ...

Lucas Bell:
Six days.

Meigan Bell:
... that river with him? And you could watch him. You could see it happening. He was studying the river. He was studying what he needed to do. And then by the last run on that very last day, he knew exactly what he needed to do to get that big fish. And he got it. But he didn't.

B.C. Wehman:
I mean, you talked about not only that Joe loved to be on camera, and he's got a ton of archival footage where he was on ESPN, as one of the first fly fishermen featured on there. You have your ice skating video. And you have, as you talk frequently, lots of footage in editing. How was that process on the technical side?

B.C. Wehman:
How do you decide in your brain, after all these hours of footage, this is what makes our narrative, and this has to go? What was that decision like in editing? Was there any pieces you left out, that were tough to leave out, but you knew you had to? Just talk a little bit about that process, of what you had to leave behind, and what it was like to scour.

B.C. Wehman:
Because I think that's an underestimated part of making a documentary, especially, that young filmmakers of any age will realize, is the amount of footage you have to scour through to make, in your head, the perfect film.

Lucas Bell:
We had 25 terabytes of footage on Dropbox.

Heather Grayson:
Oh man.

B.C. Wehman:
I get mad when I go above my two gig free limit. I'm like, "Oh."

Meigan Bell:
I know, for us, we're used to either doing short promos, or even, the longest, hour long episodes for different series. So sitting down and having that daunting task of 23 terabytes to look through, it was the biggest puzzle that we have ever assembled. But also it was so fun.

Meigan Bell:
I don't know. There weren't many bad moments in that footage, because it was all so beautiful. And how can you go wrong with gorgeous stream scenic shots? And we built the film, gosh, I don't even know how many different times. And then tore it apart and shuffled it around, and made it all over again. We were happy with where it landed.

Meigan Bell:
And we're happy with the message that kind of shines through the film, because that's ... It also was important to us that it was a story that Joe was happy with too.

Heather Grayson:
I really know fly fishing from A River Runs Through It. So I don't know, how many times have you watched? How many times did you watch that? Has he watched it? Does he think they're awful at fly fishing? I just had to know.

Lucas Bell:
Oh, no. I mean, he loves that.

Heather Grayson:
Okay, good.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, he loves that film. Obviously, it's one of our favorite films too. I have a great story about River Runs Through It. I'll tell it real fast. So we got invited, our film was up for a film of the year at the international fly fishing ... Was it IFTD?

Meigan Bell:
Drake Magazine.

Lucas Bell:
Yeah, the Drake Magazine film of the year. And it was in Denver. And our film won film of the year. And as I accepted the trophy, I was walking on stage, and a guy reached out and shook my hand. And he said, "Hey, my name is so and so. And I was one of the cinematographers for River Runs Through It." I was like, "What?"

Heather Grayson:
Wow.

Lucas Bell:
So he's like, "I can't wait to see the film," because he hadn't seen it yet. But to have him ... The first person I met, after we won our award, was pretty cool.

Meigan Bell:
And also we've had some great reviews, where people say, "The film that kind of shone the spotlight on fly fishing was A River Runs Through It. And now the film that's coming up next is Live the Stream." So, I mean, we've kind of been compared to it, which is incredible.

B.C. Wehman:
Yeah. That's a good comparison to have. Your time on the awards circuit, is that something you like to do? Do you find yourself, when you're sitting there and showcasing it off to these different groups of people, and you have fisher focused people, and then people just into the movies, did you enjoy that process?

B.C. Wehman:
Because you do got to kind of work it, to get it out there, right, to make these kinds of tours. What's that process? And just maybe distribution, trials, tribulations, and successes that you've had during this time. And I'm sure there's a lot of them.

Lucas Bell:
Oh yeah. The film circuit was amazing. Because not only did we get to go on a film circuit, but we also brought Joe and his entire family with us. So the film premiered at Breckenridge Film Festival, in October of 2018. We had all our family come out and his family. So we rented houses, and it was just an amazing experience. So we got to not only do the festival circuit, we got to share it with our families and Joe. And it was-

Meigan Bell:
It was awesome. We really enjoyed that. Because then we're also stopping and fishing along the way with Joe. But it's all of the ... And he was doing some casting demonstrations after some of the screenings. And it was great. We're expecting fly fishermen and fly fisherwomen to appreciate the film. But, for us, it was all of the people who came to our screenings, who would come up, especially to me afterwards.

Meigan Bell:
A lot of women would come up to me afterwards and be like, "Oh, you know what?" In tears, being like, "I'm so sorry. I only came to this film with my husband because he he dragged me here. And I thought I was going to hate it." But they were crying. And they're like, "This quickly is one of my favorite films I've ever seen. It's more emotional than I ever expected it to be." So that was awesome. And that's exactly what we wanted for this film too. We wanted it to reach past the fly fishing community, which it definitely has and does.

Heather Grayson:
Yeah, that's the best part of filmmaking, is breaking that mold sometimes.

Meigan Bell:
Exactly. Yeah.

B.C. Wehman:
A good summation of the film for me was when he's teaching. It was one of the different classes, that I pause on which one. And it was the young woman, who her dad was a fisherman, and she never caught a fish. And he works through her and she catches that fish. And it's a beaming smile. Joe just walked her through it.

B.C. Wehman:
And he seemed to walk all of these young people through it, from inexperienced, to the youth fly fishing team, to 60 year old men hanging out there learning how to fish. He just walks them through it. And he shares their jubilation. Even though he has caught, as you said, hundreds on a day, he can still share the jubilation of one small 10 inch fish.

Joe Humphreys:
Just they are a young group of children, or mostly from the cities, who never got a chance to fish and enjoy the great outdoors.

Movie Clips:
Good one. That'll be a good day, if everybody caught a fish.

Movie Clips:
This is my first time fishing. My dad fishes all the time. So I wanted to give it a try.

Joe Humphreys:
We got him. You got a fish. This is fantastic.

Movie Clips:
Oh, this is amazing.

Joe Humphreys:
Wow, look at this. Wow. Your first trout?

Movie Clips:
My first trout.

Joe Humphreys:
Oh, what a beauty. Look at the pretty colors.

Movie Clips:
Yes. Oh my gosh. It's just amazing.

Meigan Bell:
He will tell you that fishing, that trout are what keep him young. It's his fountain of youth. So, for him, it's like he never grew up. He started fly fishing when he was young. He never grew up. And now he's passing along that joy to anyone who wants to learn.

B.C. Wehman:
I think it would be an amazing time. I think Joe Humphreys clearly is a pretty amazing individual. And I think, Meigan and Lucas Bell from Nomadic Studios, we thank you very much for introducing him. As you said, when I first heard about the film, I'm like, "Oh, I'm watching this nice fly fishing documentary." And I left like a sobbing mess. It was inspiring.

B.C. Wehman:
And I tried to do more that very day, like, "I just got to get out there. If he's waking up and jumping rope at six in the morning, and catching fish all night, I can do more. And if he's trying to save one little tributary, I can do more." And I think that's a great message, whether it's fishing or not, that I have taken away from that.

B.C. Wehman:
So I'm really happy that we got to talk to you, and that we got to meet, via you, Joe Humphreys. So thank you very, very much for joining us.

Heather Grayson:
I think that, as a filmmaker, you guys took ... You found such an amazing subject. And, for us, we're doing this podcast for people to maybe listen, and see how they can make their own documentary. And I think that you guys taking Joe, putting in what you have, and just making this film, it's amazing. I love it. Thank you for being positive. I think we all need it.

Lucas Bell:
Thank you so much. It means a lot.

Meigan Bell:
Thanks a lot. Yeah.

Lucas Bell:
I mean, it was quite an undertaking, but definitely one of the best things we've ever decided to do.

Meigan Bell:
Definitely.

B.C. Wehman:
Well, I am still rooting to the end for him to catch that fish. So I expect, as soon as it-

Meigan Bell:
He's still going for it.

B.C. Wehman:
Yeah. If you have whatever social media you have out there and stuff, follow Nomadic Studios. Because I feel like, the moment that happens, that's very important breaking news right now, that they just caught-

Meigan Bell:
It will be. Yes.

B.C. Wehman:
Thank you very much for just introducing Joe into the lives of the people that didn't know him, even more people that can call him a friend. So thank you both.

Lucas Bell:
Sure. Thanks so much, guys.

Meigan Bell:
[crosstalk 00:30:09]. Thank you.

Joe Humphreys:
To grow older, you appreciate what you have more. And I think trout streams are fountains of youth. It's that challenge, to try to take that fish. It's always a learning situation. I will never lose that excitement of going on a trout stream. Every day on the stream is an adventure.

Joe Humphreys:
And, as a teacher, if I've passed some good things on to other people, not only the how to, the nuts and bolts of the fly fishing game, but an appreciation of nature itself. That's what it's all about.

Heather Grayson:
Thanks for listening to this episode of Behind The Doc. If you liked us, because we all know you did, leave us a review in your Apple podcast app.

B.C. Wehman:
Behind the Doc is produced by Evergreen Podcast, in association with Gravitas Ventures.

Heather Grayson:
Special thanks to executive producers Nolan Gallagher and Michael [Diyaloya 00:00:31:08].

B.C. Wehman:
Produced by Sarah Willgrube.

Heather Grayson:
And audio engineer Eric [Cortmow 00:31:13].

B.C. Wehman:
And you'll find us everywhere and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.