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.
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