Download or read book Even Brook Trout Get The Blues written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. “Once an angler has become serious about the sport (and ‘serious’ is the word that’s used), he’ll never again have enough tackle or enough time to use it. And his nonangling friends and family may never again entirely recognize him, either.” In other words, he (or she) will have entered Gierach territory. And fishermen who choose to brave the crowds at the big hold, commune with the buddies at the “family pool,” or even wade into questionable waters in the dark of night are sure to recognize themselves in Even Brook Trout Get the Blues. Whether debating bamboo versus graphite rods, describing the pleasure of fishing in pocket waters or during a spring snow in the mountains, or recounting a trip in pursuit of the “fascinatingly ugly” longnose gar, Gierach understands that fly-fishing is more than a sport. It’s a way of life in which patience is (mostly) rewarded, the rhythms of the natural world are appreciated, and the search for the perfect rod or ideal stream is never ending. It is not a life without risks, for as Gierach warns: “This perspective on things can change you irreparably. If it comes to you early enough in life, it can save you from ever becoming what they call ‘normal.’” Even Brook Trout Get the Blues will convince you that “normal” is greatly overrated.
Download or read book Still Life with Brook Trout written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. In Still Life with Brook Trout, John Gierach demonstrates once again that fishing, when done right, is as much a philosophical pursuit as a sport. Gierach travels to Wyoming and Maine and points in between, searching out new fly-fishing adventures and savoring familiar waters with old friends. Along the way he meditates on the importance of good guides ("Really, the only thing a psychiatrist can do that a good guide can't is write prescriptions"), the challenge of salmon fishing ("Salmon prowl. If they're not here now, they could be here in half an hour. Or tomorrow. Or next month"), and the zen of fishing alone ("I also enjoy where my mind goes when I'm fishing alone, which is usually nowhere in particular and by a predictable route"). On a more serious note, he ponders the damaging effects of disasters both natural and man-made: drought, wildfires, and the politics of dam-building, among others. Reflecting on a trip to a small creek near his home, Gierach writes, "In my brightest moments, I think slowing down...has opened huge new vistas on my old home water. It's like a friendship that not only lasts, but gets better against the odds." Similarly, Still Life with Brook Trout proves that Gierach, like fly-fishing itself, becomes deeper and richer with time.
Download or read book Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Witty, shrewd, and always a joy to read, John Gierach, “America’s best fishing writer” (Houston Chronicle) and favorite streamside philosopher, has earned the following of “legions of readers who may not even fish but are drawn to his musings on community, culture, the natural world, and the seasons of life” (Kirkus Reviews). “After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master” (Forbes). Now, in his latest original collection, Gierach shows us why fly-fishing is the perfect antidote to everything that is wrong with the world. “Gierach’s deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…His alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers, Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is “an acquired taste that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated lives.” Lifelong fisherman though he is, Gierach can write with self-deprecating humor about his own fishing misadventures, confessing that despite all his experience, he is still capable of blowing a strike by a fish “in the usual amateur way.” “Arguably the best fishing writer working” (The Wall Street Journal), Gierach offers witty, trenchant observations not just about fly-fishing itself but also about how one’s love of fly-fishing shapes the world that we choose to make for ourselves.
Download or read book Gilgamesh to Gierach written by James W. White and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-08-02 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fish have figured profoundly in both human history and imagination for millennia. They are both gifts of the sea, drawing civilizations to the water, and terrors of the deep, holding revelations of the unconscious and the unknown. Today, fly fishing attracts millions looking to escape modern life and reconnect with some primal, meditative instinct to partake in nature’s offerings. Gilgamesh to Gierach is a collection of three hundred fishing, water, and fish tales spanning four millennia and numerous genres. More than a historical overview, White has distilled this immense topic into threads that flow through time, from legends and literature to nursery rhymes, poems, and humorous fish tales. Anglers will discover fly fishing’s ancient roots and spiritual seekers the fish’s religious and existential implications. Among the included voices are Homer, St. John, Ovid, Brendan the Navigator, Dame Juliana Berners, Shakespeare, Walton, Melville, Yeats, Thoreau, Hemingway, Rodrick Haig-Brown, and Norman Maclean. Whether told in full or, more often, condensed, these stories will leave the reader with a strong sense of the fish’s significance to many of the world’s greatest thinkers. Brimming with jokes, histories, simple folk tales, and great tragedies, this impressive work offers something for everyone.
Download or read book All Fishermen Are Liars written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “elegiac tribute to the elusive art and ineffable pleasure of fly-fishing” (Kirkus Reviews) shows us why life’s most valuable lessons—and some of its best experiences—are found while fly-fishing. For John Gierach, “the master of fly-fishing” (Sacramento Bee), fishing is always the answer—even when it’s not clear what the question is. In All Fishermen Are Liars, Gierach travels around North America seeking out quintessential fishing experiences, whether it’s at a busy stream or a secluded lake hidden amid snow-capped mountains. He talks about the art of fly-tying and the quest for the perfect steelhead fly (“The Nuclear Option”), about fishing in the Presidential Pools previously fished by the elder George Bush (“I wondered briefly if I’d done something karmically disastrous and was now fated to spend the rest of my life breathing the exhaust of this elderly Republican”), and the importance of traveling with like-minded companions when caught in a soaking rain (“At this point someone is required to say, ‘You know, there are people who wouldn’t think this is fun’”). And though Gierach loses some fish along the way, he never loses his passion and sense of humor. Wry, contemplative, and lively—that is to say, pure Gierach—All Fishermen Are Liars is a joy to read—and, as always, the next best thing to fishing itself. “From the early days…to his present cult status, Gierach’s candor and canniness at the water’s edge have been consistent…His grizzled, laconic persona is engaging and the voice of the common angler” (The Wall Street Journal).
Download or read book Fool s Paradise written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. If John Gierach is living in a fool’s paradise, then it’s a paradise that his regular readers will recognize and new fans will delight in discovering. Laced with the inimitable blend of wit and wisdom that have made him fly-fishing’s foremost scribe, Fool’s Paradise chronicles the fishing life in all its glory (catching your biggest fish ever) and squalor (being stranded in a tent during a soaking rainstorm). In Gierach’s world, both experiences are valuable, and perhaps inevitable. Fishermen everywhere will understand Gierach’s quest to discover and explore new waters (and then not to divulge the best locations to anyone), the unlikely appeal of winter fly-fishing, or his dismay at encroaching development (“You never get to point at a meadow full of browsing mule deer and say, ‘You know, all this was once condos.’”). Braving trips on small prop planes and down “Oh-My-God” roads, Gierach and his fishing buddies pursue bull trout in British Collumbia, steelhead in the Rocky Mountains, and pike so fierce that a wise fisherman wears Kevlar gloves for the obligatory trophy photo. Equal parts fishing lore, philosophy, and great fish stories, Fool’s Paradise may not be a perfect substitute for actually being out on the water, but it’s surely the next best thing.
Download or read book Death Taxes and Leaky Waders written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-02-21 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders collects forty of John Gierach’s finest essays on fishing from six of his books. Like all his writing, these essays are seasoned by a keen sense of observation and a deep knowledge and love of fishing lore, leavened by a wonderfully wry sense of humor. Gierach often begins with an observation that soon leads to something below the surface, which he finds and successfully lands. As Gierach says, writing is a lot like fishing. This is the first anthology of John Gierach’s work, a collection that is sure to delight both die-hard fans and new readers alike. To enter Gierach’s world is to experience the daily wonder, challenge, and occasional absurdity of the fishing life—from such rituals as the preparation of camp coffee (for best results, serve in a tin cup) to the random, revelatory surprises, such as the flashing beauty of a grayling leaping out of the water. Whether he’s catching fish or musing on the ones that got away, Gierach is always entertaining and enlightening, writing with his own inimitable blend of grace and style, passion and wit.
Download or read book All the Time in the World written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the answer to life’s most pressing problems through the joy of fly-fishing from master philosopher John Gierach, “the dean of fly-fishing” (Kirkus Reviews), who is “arguably the best fishing writer working” (The Wall Street Journal). Once again, John Gierach tells the world why the pastime of fly-fishing makes so much sense—except when it doesn’t. In this “shrewd, perceptive, and wryly funny” (The Wall Street Journal) book, he recalls the joys of landing that trout he’s been watching for the last hour—and then losing an even fatter one a little later. Joy and frustration mix in Gierach’s latest appreciation of the fly-fishing life as he takes us from his home waters on the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado to the fishing meccas all over North America. From fishing lodges in Alaska to memories of the local creek in the Midwest where he grew up, Gierach celebrates the indispensability of the natural world around us.
Download or read book The Zen of Home Water written by Jerry Hamza and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Collection of Fishing Stories from Across the Globe, by a Master Storyteller. To the uninitiated, it might be somewhat surprising to discover that fly fishermen tend to be rather contemplative sorts. During those dark nights and long seasons when fishing is not a promising endeavor, we settle down to the next best thing, reading our vast libraries of ancient fishing lore, interspersed with the odd philosophical tome. And when we do, we usually don’t want to read proverbial stories about “landing the big one,” or lengthy how-to expositions on how to catch the aforementioned big one. Rather, we tend to prefer stories that place our beloved piscatorial pastime within the larger context of life and nature. Stories that, as Hamza describes, “…sparks a light. A light that is both familiar and comforting.” Such is The Zen of Home Water, the latest angling book by Jerry Hamza. Hamza is a John Volker for the new millennium. His book is interspersed with stories about monster brook trout, beautiful North woods streams and lakes, quirky backwoods guides, and legendary fly hatches. Through it all, he shows us one of the most profound truths of life, that “It takes the acquisition of wisdom to understand that a happy life is actually a mosaic of small and insignificant events…we string together moments in life—like pearls becoming a beautiful necklace.” The iridescent pearls that Hamza strings together are many and include the importance of “freestyling”, that uncontrollable escape impulse that implores us to drop whatever we are doing and head to the stream, any stream, with fly rod in hand. Another recurring theme is the need to unplug from the modern, electronic world. He instructs us how to trespass (with bartered permission) and fish those waters that look so inviting yet so out of reach to the (usually) law abiding. His recipe for squirrel stew is not jealously guarded but freely shared. And his stories of catching giant brook trout in the Maine North Woods allow the reader, who usually can’t participate in such acts of angling greatness, to at least know that they are occurring to someone, somewhere. Hamza is a member of that peculiar subset of anglers, the bamboo rod aficionado. While acknowledging the cold, hard fact that bamboo rods are nothing more than conglomerations of “expensive blades of grass,” he also realizes that these handmade treasures passed down to us from previous generations will hopefully outlive us (and our car doors) and that we are merely their caretakers for a time. Although the dreaded “g” word (i.e., graphite) does make a brief appearance, Hamza is definitely one of those anglers who would rather hold an aged, organic creation of the bamboo rod maker’s art than the latest admittedly efficient chemical concoction straight from the laboratory. This puts him squarely in the tradition of John Gierach, although Hamza’s writing is better and his stories more entertaining. Hamza’s own home waters are dual--Maine’s Grand Lake Stream area and the southern shore of the Lake Ontario region. There are echoes of Thoreau’s Maine Woods in his stories of remote lakes and plentiful trout. And while he takes us all around the country when relating his angling exploits (Kerouac’s On the Road is a particular favorite of his), it is evident that the concept of “home water” carries a lot of weight with him. His beloved “Zen Lake”, with its less than perfect history and many small fish, could be the home water of any of us.
Download or read book Fly Fishing Small Streams written by John Gierach and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 1989 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laced with fishing stories and a guest appearance or two from the inimitable A.K. Best, Gierach's book offers advice on tackle selection, reading water, casting technique, and small-stream scouting. Photos and drawings.
Download or read book Trout Bum written by John Gierach and published by Graphic Arts Books. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trout Bum is a fresh, contemporary look at fly fishing, and the way of life that grows out ofa passion for it. The people, the places, and the accoutrements that surround the sport make a fishing trip more than a set of tactics and techniques. John Gierach, a serious fisherman with a wry sense of humor, show us just how much more with his fishing stories and a unique look at the fly-fishing lifestyle. Trout Bum is really about why people fish as much as it is about how they fish, and it is ultimately about enduring values and about living in a harmony with our environment. Few books have had the impact on an entire generation that Trout Bum has had on the fly-fishing world. The wit, warmth, and the easy familiarity that John Gierach brings to us in Trout Bum is as fresh and engaging now was when it was first published twenty-five years ago. There's no telling how many anglers have quit their jobs and headed west after reading the first edition of this classic collection of fly-fishing essays.
Download or read book Dances With Trout written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. With the wry humor and wit that have become his trademark, John Gierach writes about his travels in search of good fishing and even better fish stories. In this new collection of essays on fishing —and hunting—Gierach discusses fishing for trout in Alaska, for salmon in Scotland and for almost anything in Texas. He offers his perceptive observations on the subject of ice-fishing, getting lost, fishing at night, tournaments and the fine art of tying flies. Gierach also shares his hunting technique, which involves reading a good book and looking up occasionally to see if any deer have wandered by. Always entertaining, often irreverent and illuminating, Gierach invites readers into his enviable way of life, and effortlessly sweeps them along. As he writes in Dances with Trout, “Fly-fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic considerations. It’s not even clear if catching fish is actually the point.”
Download or read book Another Lousy Day in Paradise and Dances with Trout written by John Gierach and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2011-04-19 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. For the first time, two of John Gierach’s most popular fishing books are collected in one volume—a double dose of delight for longtime fans or first-time visitors to Gierach country. As Gierach astutely observes in Dances with Trout, “Fly-fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic considerations. It’s not even clear if catching fish is actually the point.” This observation might also describe Gierach’s writing—catching fish might be the subject, but most of the fun and (mis)adventure comes well before that point. Whether it’s fishing close to home waters (Colorado) or farther afield (Alaska, Scotland, Texas); ice-fishing, tournament fishing, or night fishing; fishing for trout, salmon, carp, splake, or grayling; fishing with familiar companions like A.K. Best or the enigmatic “Zen master among fishing guides”; no detail of the fishing life is too insignificant or too absurd for Gierach. As he writes in Another Lousy Day in Paradise, “The real truth about fly-fishing is, it is beautiful beyond description in almost every way, and when a certain kind of person is confronted with a certain kind of beauty, they are either saved or ruined for life, or a little bit of both.” So start reading and be saved—or ruined—by Gierach’s wonderful insights into the world around us.
Download or read book Good Flies written by John Gierach and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-10-21 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The favorite fly patterns of one of the country's top angling writers, revised and updated.
Download or read book Where the Trout Are All as Long as Your Leg written by John Gierach and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. Fly-fishing’s finest scribe, John Gierach, takes us from a nameless stream on a nameless ranch in Montana to a secret pool off a secret creek where he caught a catfish as a five-year-old, to a brook full of rattlesnakes and a private pond where the trout are all as long as your leg. As Gierach says, “The secret places are the soul of fishing.” Hearing about a new one never fails to entice us. And so Where the Trout Are All as Long as Your Leg transports the reader to the best of these places, where the fish are always bigger and the hatches last forever. After all, it’s these magical places that Gierach so vividly evokes that remind us how precious—and precarious—are the unspoiled havens of the natural world.
Download or read book Flyfisher s Guide to Colorado written by Marty Bartholomew and published by Wilderness Adventures Press. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This all-new third edition of this best-selling flyfishing guide to Colorado's waters includes an 8.5x11-inch layout, full-color photos and maps, and many brand-new redesigned highly detailed river and lake maps with GPS coordinates for all access points. Breaking the state into six sections, Bartholomew, a Colorado native and guide, blends his personal knowledge with the experience of state biologists and regional shop owners to offer the most complete flyfishing guide ever offered on Colorado. Also includes a warm-water section.
Download or read book Why I Fly Fish written by Chris Santella and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chris Santella, bestselling author of the Fifty Places series, is back in action with the inspirational gift book Why I Fly Fish. Based on 25 interviews with fly-fishing professionals and celebrity hobbyists alike, Why I Fly Fish encapsulates the life lessons fly-fishing aficionados have learned from their favorite pursuit. Featured contributors include Donald Trump Jr., Bill Ford (CEO of Ford Motor Company), Conway Bowman (host of several flyfishing TV programs), actor Henry Winkler, Lefty Kreh (the world’s best-known fly-fisherman) and many more. With personal photographs by the contributors themselves, Why I Fly Fish is an inspirational and intimate reflection on the beloved sport and pastime.
