Fishing 1 by 1

posted by admin on Jan 14

Editorial Reviews

Review
Few angler-authors can match the skill and insight of Steve Raymond . . .”–The New York Times“Reading Steve Raymond’sNervous Wateris much like sitting around a campfire with a good scotch, a fine cigar, and listening to your best friend. The tales and rants are a look into the soul of a man who loves the marvels of nature.”–A. K. Best”Steve Raymond has been one of fly fishing’s finest writers longer than most of us have been fishing. Nervous Water is a splendid and vastly entertaining celebration of all the big and little things that make fly fishing such a compelling way of life.”
–Paul Schullery, author of Royal Coachman and American Fly Fishing: A History
“…contrasts the tranquil surface of the sport with the trends, debates and issues that roil the waters.”–Seattle Post-Intelligencer

”The entertaining stories are a snapshot of Raymond’s life and reveal engaging insights in the complex sport…”–Northwest Adventures
“…adds a bit more glitter to the bright thread of fly-fishing gold that runs through the fabric of American sporting literature. Raymond has for several decades made important contributions to the literature of fly fishing. In his collection of loosely connected essays we see him at his intriguing best. There’s something for all tastes-easygoing appreciation of the sport’s quirks, heartwarming reminiscence, and just simple tales wonderfully told. This is vintage Raymond, and for those who know his work, that means a literary wine to sample and savor.”–Fly Rod & Reel“Here you’ll find 34 essays ranging from outright comedy through some fascinating historical research, from a wry commentary on the burgeoning technologies of the fly-fishing industries and the cult of celebrity to some just plain, excellent fishing stories.” –Flyfishing and Tying Journal“Raymond’s prose is direct, his commentary forthright, frankly opinionated, frequently funny and not without cutting edges…”– Fly Rod & Reel“In a genre whose longing for the old days and calls for better management are too often scolding and furious, Raymond offers a simpler and more graceful message: Get out ther and pay attention to the wonder of the water.”–Seattle Times
“…a thoughtful and entertaining collection…”–Fly Rod & Reel

Praise for Steve Raymond’s Blue Upright:

With Blue Upright, Steve Raymond proves once again why he is the Raymond Carver of fly-fish lit. With elegant, unadorned precision, Steve offers the biographies of his favorite flies, which blossom into an autobiography of Steve Raymond and a history of fly-fishing for salmon, trout and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, with side trips after bonefish and Atlantic salmon. It is complex wisdom simply presented, and belongs on any literate fly-fisher¹s bookshelf.–James R. Babb, Editor, Gray’s Sporting Journal

Raymond’s storytelling and writing skills enable him to seamlessly work these varied topics into cohesive chapters that both inform and amuse. And no matter where Raymond’s thoughts take him, he’s always able to convey how each of these tiny fishing flies has affected his life in a big way.”–Publishers Weekly

“Insightful, informative, and always interesting, this book could be a fitting capstone for the author’s literary career . . . “– Library Journal

Nervous water: sometimes it’s nothing more than a fleeting crease or wrinkle on the surface of a lake or stream, or a small patch of salt water that looks as if it’s shivering. But wise anglers know that such subtle surface movements are nearly always signs of fish stirring down below. The sport of fly fishing is like that. It has a reputation as a tranquil, contemplative sport, but something is nearly always going on down below: constant currents of new thought and theory, a relentless drive to develop new technologies, an ongoing muted chorus of debate. Esteemed fly fisher and author, Steve Raymond has contemplated many of these issues and presented them in articles and essays published in many magazines. Now, for the first time, many of these works have been collected in a single book - thirty-four variations on the theme of fly fishing. Together they form a selective, opinionated chronicle of the trends, developments, and changes in fly fishing from the 1960s to the present, along with a look back at some pioneers of the sport - and the fish that make it all possible. Most of these pieces have been updated, expanded, or otherwise revised or edited for publication in this book; several appear here for the first time. Some tackle important topics (such as the very definition of fly fishing itself), and others take a light look at the more trivial angling concerns (such as how, or even whether, to dress for fishing). A thoughtful, engaging contemplation of this complex sport, “NervousWater” belongs on the shelf of anyone who loves fly fishing.

Order Nervous Water: Variations on a Theme of Fly Fishing: Steve Raymond form Amazon.

posted by admin on Jan 13

Editorial Reviews

Review
“A Good Life Wasted is a vicarious pleasure for anyone who has ever wondered, even once, what it would be like not to have a ‘real job’.”–Missoulian, July 10, 2003

“[Ames] writes 11 loosely connected stories, eloquently using the medium of angling to discuss the virtues of a lifestyle old timers used to describe as ‘trifling.’ Moving, thought-provoking, sometimes powerful, and always entertaining, this is an important and welcome addition to the literary side of the angler’s world.”–Library Journal, July 29, 2003

“Powerful at points, moving, thought-provoking, and always entertaining, this is an important and welcome addition to the literary side of the angler’s world.”– Library Journal

Told through the eyes of a longtime Montana fishing guide and itinerant fishing bum, A GOOD LIFE WASTED offers a unique perspective on an implausible period in the recent history of human civilization. When Dave Ames started guiding, Rocky Mountain locals rode horses and dug camas roots; now they’re trading stock options on cell phones. The collision of stone and computer ages was short-lived, but the deep-rooted themes of this book remain.
A chronicle and celebration of the fishing-guide life, A GOOD LIFE WASTED is a vicarious pleasure for anyone who has ever wondered, even once, what it would be like not to have a “real job.” The book is poignant and spiritual; it’s Blackfoot Indians and copper miners’ daughters; it’s fiddles and guitars and the fabric of space; it’s about what happens to wild people when the wilderness is gone.
From the first chapter–in which Dave Ames recalls bluffing his way into a job as a fishing guide to the rich and famous (after barely managing to suppress the overwhelming urge to go postal at the federal agency where he suffered his first, and only, “real” job in a cubicle farm)–we’re hooked. We gladly follow Ames as he describes the rite of tasting clouds of mating midges to better match the hatch, tells the story of a fabled Blackfoot fishing guide, and shares his further adventures as a guy with no job, no office, and no stress. A GOOD LIFE WASTED spins a fascinating, compelling web–a web that entices the deskbound salary slave to make a break for it, and head west to big sky and fast, cold water, ASAP.

Order A Good Life Wasted: or Twenty Years as a Fishing Guide: Dave Ames form Amazon.

posted by admin on Jan 12

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
“It is a truism among anglers that the deepest affections attach to first waters. They become our private archetypes…. The images of people, the reflections of other times and places are mirrored in a silver surface, and fishing becomes a form of memory, and memory a form of return.” Angling essayist and Oregon State University English professor Leeson’s new collection of essays (after Habit of Rivers) returns to the waters he’s known since childhood, the spring creeks in southern Wisconsin’s pastoral “driftless country.” The landscape is an Ice Age geologic anomaly, untouched by glaciers and composed of narrow valleys, coves, hollows and small creeks full of trout. Leeson’s finely woven recollections and thoughtful meditations on the natural world drive these essays, as he considers everything from bees to Amish farms to the special qualities of trout fishermen. He recalls becoming a fishing fanatic at the age of 14, describes his favorite fishing companions (his brother and their old childhood friend, nicknamed “Lizard”) and tells of a medieval custom called “beating the bounds,” in which older villagers taught young boys the limits of their rural hamlet by banging their heads against trees and other boundary markers. Occasionally Leeson’s reveries drift into vague sentimentality, but for the most part he keeps them grounded with anecdotes and facts about the natural history and geography of his native region.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Spring creeks (streams rising from subsurface aquifers) loom large in Leeson’s angling life, even though less than one-thousandth of all trout water flows in them. This book’s 15 essays explore the spring creeks that Lesson has fished in “Driftless country” on the Illinois-Wisconsin border, a region mysteriously spared alteration by the great Wisconsin glaciers. Although spring creeks and Wisconsin geography are somewhat arcane subjects, Leeson brings them alive with style and insight in this remarkable memoir, one of the last books edited by angling great Nick Lyons. Leeson’s writing displays the same thoughtfulness and beauty evident in his first book, Habit of Rivers (1994), but this time the pace is faster, and there is more wit. Remarkably, there is no fishing in the book’s first third, and when Leeson does describe his forays into the spring creeks, it is always without jargon and with a vivid sense of place and context. The text is peppered with allusions to books and films (Hemingway and Hitchcock’s The Birds); marvelous reflections on Wisconsin farms, taverns, cows, and cheese; references to English writers Halford and Skues, also devotees of spring creeks; and even a touch of baseball. Like the best fishing books, his account transcends its topic; its audience should be not just those who read the great fishing writers (Lyons, Barich, Gierach) but also those who savor the nonfiction of Annie Dillard, John McPhee, and William Least Heat-Moon. John Rowen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Order Jerusalem Creek: Journeys into Driftless Country: Ted Leeson form Amazon.