Tag: books

Do you believe in unicorns? I know my young daughters used to. I’m still on the fence with the idea, but there is a small part of me that wants to believe. I believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, so why not unicorns as well? When you look up the word “unicorn” in the dictionary, there are two definitions. The first is the one we all instantly...

The Dog, the Boy and the Trout The first fly I ever tied consisted of a carp hook, my mom’s sewing thread, hair from our dog, Goldie, and a liberal dollop of Bostik (hobby glue). I tied it without a vice and didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. I’d modelled the fly on something I’d seen in a magazine. Mine looked terrible by comparison...

The "Orvis Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing" is a grand tour of the world of fly-fishing strategies and techniques, from Orvis's world-famous team of experts and advisors. In large format with rich and helpful color photos and drawings, the book covers everything from basic fishing knots and casts to expert techniques you won't see in standard books. Besides...

At lunchtime, we beach the boats on a gravel bar and try to light a fire. But all the available wood is damp, and the wind repeatedly blows out our matches—fifteen in succession—despite our best efforts to shield the pile of tinder from the gusts. On the menu? Mongolian sausage—two kinds, one of which closely resembles an American hot dog. I suppose...

In fluid mechanics, flow in a liquid is described as either laminar or turbulent (or some consider a transitional state, which is a bit of both). In laminar flow, particles move in smooth paths in layers, with no mixing of adjacent layers. Everything moves independently, like a deck of cards thrown on a table. The velocity, pressure, and other flow...

We tried a bit of sight fishing along a crescent shaped flat, but we saw only one striped bass and I cast to it, saw it follow, saw it eat the fly and was so mesmerized that I failed to set the hook before it spit the fly and turned away in disgust. So much for redemption. It’s okay. Everything in life is practice. We live, learn, laugh, adapt, and move...

“West Yellowstone is as friendly a little hamlet as you will find anywhere. Fishing is its very life and livelihood; it is the language which everyone understands, the foremost topic of conversation.” ~ Howard  Back, The Waters of Yellowstone with Rod and Fly (1938) The cultural, environmental, and tactical landscape of Western American fly fishing...

Whether an upstream edge or a downstream edge, the world of watersheds in Michael Garrigan’s newest book of poetry, River, Amen, are many: flooded, failed, left high and dry in drought, pastoral banks in afternoon sun. And it is from these living edges River, Amen, begins to take shape. In one of the first poems of the collection, “Of Blood and Bark,...

John Gierach sat down with the folks over at Field & Stream for a Q&A session, discussing his newest book All the Time in the World. The Q&A is typical Gierach, so fans of his writing should love this extra glimpse into his life. You can read it here.

I didn’t really awaken the next morning. I’d been tossing and turning and yanking the sleeping bag past my head all night, and I eventually decided to stop fighting it and make the coffee. It was around five. Plenty early to beat the other campers. I ate granola drowned in milk, then I slid myself into cold, slimy waders. It was still raining when I...