Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers.
Proving that fishing is not just a part-time pursuit, "At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman" takes us through a year with America's favorite fishing scribe, John Gierach, who dedicates himself to his passion despite his belief that "In the long run, fishing usually amounts to a lifetime of pratfalls punctuated by rare moments of perfection."
Beginning with an early spring expedition to barely thawed Wyoming waters and ending with a New Year's Eve trip to the Frying Pan River in Colorado, Gierach's travels find him fishing for trout, carp, and grayling; considering the pros and cons of learning fishing from videos ("video fishing seems a little like movie sex: fun to watch, but a long way from the real thing"); pondering the ethics of sharing secret spots; and debunking the myth of the unflappable outdoorsman ("masters of stillness on the outside, festering s***holes of uncertainty just under the surface").
With an appreciation of the highs, the lows, and all points between, Gierach writes about the fishing life with wisdom, grace, and the well-timed wisecrack. As he says, "The season never does officially end here, but it ends effectively, which means you can fish if you want to and if you can stand it, but you don't have to." As any Gierach fan knows, want to and have to are never very far apart.

With guidance and tips on modern tackle, fly lines and flies, and many delightful photographs, the 'Little Book of Fly Fishing for Trout' will help you to improve your tactics, techniques and your catches.

Classic writing remains "classic" only insofar as people want to read it. Angling historians may study the evolution of tackle or tying techniques, or perhaps the methods of fishing used hundreds of years ago, but the wonderful stories about fishing are read and reread only because they give pleasure today; because they give us insights into why we fish and the nature of our passion; and because they are well written. This book offers more than twenty of the best classic fishing stories that have stood the inescapable test of time.

Fishing Glacier National Park includes over 250 fishing locations from Waterton Lake to the Flathead River. This guide uncovers streams and lakes for Kokanee salmon, mountain and lake whitefish, arctic grayling, and trout--lake, brook, rainbow, and cutthroat. Novice as well as expert anglers will find that the trails and roads in Glacier lead to more than spectacular vistas--many of them lead to great fishing sites.

Wisdoms and Frustrations of fly fishing in an irreverent poem, illustrated in color. If you've ever had a day you could not catch a fish, this gives you the reasons, and possibly the solutions. A few secret flies for the Bighorn River in Montana are pictured.

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 both evoke humor and insight.

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 ("the ice fishing shanty served the dual purpose of group therapy and the neighborhood tavern"), how impossible it is to predict the best fishing ("Everything that happens is entirely familiar, but I don't always see it coming"), or even the absurdity of the entire exercise ("day after day, you're casting a fly that doesn't look like anything to fish that aren't hungry and may not even be there"). Braving trips on small prop planes and down "Oh-My-God" roads alike, Gierach and his fishing buddies pursue bull trout in British Columbia, steelhead in the Rocky Mountains, and pike so fierce that a wise fisherman wears Kevlar gloves for the obligatory trophy photo.

But as with any activity that depends on unspoiled wilderness, change is constant. Gierach sees this happening both in the landscape ("You never get to point at a meadow full of browsing mule deer and say, 'You know, all this was once condos.'") and at lodges that now require guests to sign liability waivers ("[I] had a brief vision of herds of lawyers coursing over the tundra in search of litigation"). Just the same, he is always awed by the experience of nature, or as he puts it: "You're on a lovely, remote wilderness river in the Alaskan backcountry. There are people who would make this trip and not even bring a fishing rod."

Musing on the enduring appeal of fishing, Gierach theorizes, "We're so used to the fake and the packaged that encountering something real can amount to a borderline religious experience." 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.

Edward Nickens has written a very popular column for Field & Stream magazinecalled "Total Outdoorsman" for six years. It's a first-person essay that explores the modern expression of hunting and fishing in America. Along with the editors at Field & Stream, he has chosen the best of these articles and collected them in a book for the first time. Nickens is best known to readers of Field & Stream and Garden & Gun, for essay-driven articles, and that's what this collection reflects.