Hardy Krüger once said of being cast in this film: "The three most important things about a movie are the script, the script, and the script. They chased me to the wilds of Canada to show me this script. I took it home and read it overnight, and decided I wanted to do it. I had seen an Australian film at a Western film festival at Cannes. My film 'Potato Fritz' [Montana Trap (1976)] was in it and I was hoping it would win. But the film that won was Mad Dog Morgan (1976). That made me aware that Australia could make good films. Then when they showed me Storm Boy (1976) in Los Angeles that clinched it".
Second filmed adaptation of a Colin Thiele novel by the South Australian Film Corporation. The first was Storm Boy (1976), the third was The Fire in the Stone (1984) and the fourth was Sun on the Stubble (1996).
Hardy Krüger said that he had only ever caught one fish in his life at the time of being cast in this film. It was a Tuna, the type of fish that the fishermen catch professionally in the movie.