“There’s a Cougar Out There”

Twain-like tales are a part of every fly fishing writer’s repertoire, often drawn from real-life fears and fantasies.  Keith Stamm’s “There’s a Cougar Out There” captures the tension that venturing forth with bike and fly rod in mountain lion country should engender for any experienced wilderness angler. It’s from his newly published book Home Waters: Stories From a Fly Fishing Life, a collection of stories about everything from boyhood Wisconsin spring creeks to treks over steep mountain passes, down ice cold rivers, and into mosquito-infested alder swamps.