Product Description

In Still Life with Brook Trout, John Gierach demonstrates once again that fishing, when done right, is as much a philosophical pursuit as a sport.

Gierach travels to Wyoming and Maine and points in between, searching out new fly-fishing adventures and savoring familiar waters with old friends. Along the way he meditates on the importance of good guides ("Really, the only thing a psychiatrist can do that a good guide can't is write prescriptions"), the challenge of salmon fishing ("Salmon prowl. If they're not here now, they could be here in half an hour. Or tomorrow. Or next month"), and the zen of fishing alone ("I also enjoy where my mind goes when I'm fishing alone, which is usually nowhere in particular and by a predictable route"). On a more serious note, he ponders the damaging effects of disasters both natural and man-made: drought, wildfires, and the politics of dam-building, among others.

Reflecting on a trip to a small creek near his home, Gierach writes, "In my brightest moments, I think slowing down...has opened huge new vistas on my old home water. It's like a friendship that not only lasts, but gets better against the odds." Similarly, Still Life with Brook Trout proves that Gierach, like fly-fishing itself, becomes deeper and richer with time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62494 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743229951
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Over the course of 14 books, John Gierach has become the fishing buddy to countless anglers he's never met. Waterlogged and dog-eared and thrown in the back of pickup trucks, Gierach's classics Trout Bum and The View from Rat Lake gave voice to the inner wanderings and wonderings of fly fishers the world over. In Still Life with Brook Trout Gierach continues his enviable jaunts--he seems constantly to be traipsing off to some undiscovered creek, private water, or middle-of-nowhere secret spot--but this time, there's a difference. More than ever, Gierach is forced to deal with an aging body that can't quite scramble over logjams, bushwhack through the brush, or wade quite as deeply as before. Running parallel with these observations, Gierach ponders the effects of a three-year drought in the mountain West. But whether it is his aching knees or dropping levels in reservoirs, rivers, and streams, Gierach always retains hope without dismissing the often grim odds, ridiculous situations, and glum prospects so familiar to anglers. And while Gierach nurses his hope like an ember, he never abandons his appreciation for the sport's absurdity, humor, and humbling moments. He has become the master of the literary shrug, as if to say, "What can you do? Might as well go fishing." Like the best of Gierach's work, Still Life with Brook Trout mirrors the exquisitely languid pace of the sport. He meanders, explores side roads and bends in the river, and never fails to take note of "a deer crossing a meadow or a circling hawk ... even if it means missing a strike when it finally comes." Gierach is on his game here, and longtime fans will rise to this offering hook, line, and sinker. --Steve Duda

From Publishers Weekly
"In some ways," Gierach writes in this breezy, compact volume, "fishing with a good, familiar partner has many of the best attributes of fishing by yourself." For those unschooled in the particular joys and sorrows of fly fishing, Gierach (At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman) is that good, familiar partner as he smoothly details the finer points of tying flies; the agony of replacing an old, worn-out fishing vest; and the ethereal sounds wind can make. This work's power lies in Gierach's assumption that readers are interested. He doesn't stop and explain; his stories flow unapologetically from the singular viewpoint of the committed angler. Fishing in rainy conditions may "make fishermen seem crazy to the great mass of unimaginative people, but then few fishermen care what they think," he writes. Beyond describing the specifics of landing this or that elusive fish, Gierach's main concern is the drought that has plagued the American West since the end of the last century. He spikes his stories with accounts of ravaged streams, depleted fish stocks and forests devastated by huge fires fueled by bone-dry timber. His well-mapped territory is one of challenge and setback, good friends and comrades in arms, fact and poetry. It's a world that goes beyond the bubbling trout stream and into the stuff of everyday life. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In his fourteenth book, Gierach takes readers on a tour of some of his favorite fishing spots around the country, from the Colorado mountain streams where he learned to fly fish through rivers and streams in Wyoming, Oregon, Maine, and Oklahoma. Along with his typically lyrical descriptions of the pleasures of fishing, Gierach delivers solid how-to advice that even average anglers will be able to follow. Best of all, though, are his stories: witty, self--deprecating accounts of car trouble, broken tackle, and losing catchable fish. There is a serious side here, too, as Gierach drives home a strong environmental message, in which he inveighs against a questionable water project that nearly floods his home valley and a national economy "based on replacing elk and peregrine falcons with suburbs." As always, Gierach deserves prominent placement among fishing's A-list literary writers: Nick Lyons, William Tapply, and Thomas McGuane. John Rowen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

He's Still my favorite
Gierach has put together yet another collection of fly fishing stories in and around Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Oregon, Maine and Canada. He's still fishing with his old pals Mike Price, and A.K. Best. He still writes about his love of Bamboo Rods, but not as much as his last book. He's still taking trips to ponds to fly fish for Bass. And, he still writes in that fantastic meat and potatoes style of his. If you dont know Gierach you should know that he is originally a midwesterner who grew up in the 60's. Many of his books, including this one, are spattered with his political thoughts and real life protests against governmental organizations trying to destroy natural habitats. In this book he joins a group of citizens dedicated to fighting a proposal to build a new dam near his home. The proposed reason for the dam is the recent drought the West has been experiencing, which Gierach details in many of his stories. He states that it's ironic how earlier in his life "he wanted change but now just wants things to remain the same". Another significantly new writing subject for Gierach is his developing love for Steelhead fishing using a Spey rod. I predict his next book will have more stories involving west coast trips. All in all Gierach continues to be my favorite contemporary fly fishing author.

A FlyFisherman's Author
I can see the hype Gierach gets for his writing from fly fisherman. This guy is into it!

Reading this delightful book takes me back to fly fishing times and emits once again those feelings that he so accurately and passionately describes in this book. It is a collection of his various outings, most for trout in Colorado and Wyoming, moving out to Idaho and steelheading in Oregon with other trips east and some even south to Oklahoma and to Nebraska for bass and bluegill types.

The hiking out of canyon and wilderness at dark; fishing in pouring rain and snow; catching that big one with no one to witness; glorying in the gorgeous aethestics. All these touched the dormant fly fishing spots in my memory and evoked great remembrances.

This guy can fish and he can write about it: "my fly box has over a hundred flies in it .. but use only two. I'm beginning to wonder why I carry the rest." "With steelhead, that's like teaching a new driver how to start a car and then turning him loose in rush-hour traffic" "The one about the guy who kept a twelve-pound rainbow that he wanted to mount, but who then dumped it on the ground halfway out because ..." "sign saying 'See the Real West' means this is one place where the real West no longer exists. Signs in the real West say 'No Trespassing.'"

Fishing and outdoors are about this, memories and stories. This book has them in spades and will take those who are into fly fishing and these spots there with author vicariously. Those who haven't experienced them firsthand, will likely get as close as possible in reading this great book.

The unique accompanying drawings are just outstanding!

Continued excellence
Again, another great read. However, in his last few books, I've noticed a thread of melancholy that was absent in his earlier works. In his earlier books (e.g., "Trout Bum", "Sex, Death, and Fly Fishing"), there was a cocky, swagger-like tenor to his writing. In his later books, such as his one, Gierach seems to be doing alot more nostalgic tripping, and lamenting his increased frailty (recent operation, reliance on pain pills, a more measured approach to hiking treks, etc.). This is not a criticism, just an observation.