Documentary on Lake Erie fishermen to premiere at Hyland Cinema Monday

A local filmmaker has taken a passion project about fishing on the waters of Lake Erie to the big screen.

“I just wanted a challenge,” said filmmaker Daryl Granger. “Everybody that’s in Port Dover has watched those boats go out…so I wanted to show people what really happens on the lake.”

A challenge is what he got – shooting on the water is not friendly to equipment, and Granger said he burned through quite a few cameras along the way.

Granger’s film ‘Netting the Waters’ follows several commercial fisherman in the industry, utilizing everything from iPhones, to drones, to more traditional documentary cameras.

He said got his sea legs while working on the project, “I’m from Simcoe, but I spend a lot of time in Dover, and I hooked up with Captain George. He’s one of the characters in the documentary and he took me under his wing…I spent five months with him and he taught me everything there is to know about fishing.”

The project not only attempts to acquaint the audience with the people that put food on their plate, but also hopes to generate more interest in participating in the industry.

“They need young people to get their captain’s license,” said Granger. “Captains are aging, and you need a captain to run a boat, and so they need some new blood.”

The film is screening in six cinemas throughout southwestern Ontario in the coming months, with a premiere at the Hyland Cinema in London on Monday. It will go on to be shown in Hamilton, Wellington, Kitchener-Waterloo, Tecumseh, and Leamington.