Read on the river, 2024
Sometimes, literally. The five favorite (mostly) fly-fishing books I read this year
CFS crew: 'tis the season. A short one this week, then a holiday lull. I'll be writing to you again in the new year. In the meantime, I leave you with a few options for some downtime reading. But first, three things:
💥 Just one spot left for winter class.
Going, going, gone. Hello to the folks who've subscribed here in anticipation of joining the Winter class. There's just one slot left, so get on it if you haven't yet.
🎣 Fishy folks talking in Portland
The Deschutes River Alliance (the major advocacy group for that river) is hosting a panel tomorrow (Tuesday) night with some major names in freshwater conservation and angling.
It's at Steeplejack Brewing in SW at 6:00pm. Give me a shout if you're going to make it out, a few of us will be there.
🪶 Would you be interested in a fly-tying class?
I've been chatting with a pal who's an avid fly-tier, and we're thinking about expanding the curriculum to add a Fall-Winter fly-tying class. The focus would be on "guide flies," simple, effective patterns, with step-by-step guidance on how to tie them, along with conversation on how to fish them.
Sound appealing? I'd love to get a sense of whether that'd be something folks would want to do. In the general spirit of this, I think if we could devise a way to do it in the classroom, we could widen the spread to CFS members who can't be there in person.
Give this button a tap if you're interested in learning to tie flies:
Reading on the river: a 2024 favorites roundup
I love to read. And a lot of my book fare tends to be stuff in the angling realm.
It's not always contemporary work. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Treasure Island were two old favorites I revisited this year, both with strong waterborne themes.
Here are five current-ish (both in newness and watery themes) books I read this year, that I think you'd get enjoyment and knowledge from.
Let me know if you wind up reading, or have read, any of them! I'd love to discuss what you enjoyed the most.
Fly Fishing Evolution: Advanced Strategies for Dry Fly, Nymph, and Streamer Fishing
by George Daniel
George Daniel is one of fly-fishing's most accomplished anglers, and a superb educator. His books are the kind that come with me on fishing trips and have lots of Post-Its and highlighting. Fly Fishing Evolution, his fourth book, shows he's continuing to grow and evolve his fishing and teaching. It's full of technique and technical pointers, across different styles of fly-fishing, not just euro nymphing, where he earned his early notoriety. It demonstrates a maturity and refinement wherein George has been able to simplify his setups and fly selection and help readers focus less on gear, and more on how to fish. Evolution is more of an intermediate-advanced approach rather than a book for beginners, but it contains years and years of wisdom to unpack.
Trout Water: A Year on the Au Sable
by Josh Greenberg
The Au Sable will always be the river closest to my heart. It's where I caught my first trout. Josh Greenberg is the proprietor of Gates Au Sable Lodge, the most storied fly-fishing lodge on the river, and (in my opinion) the epicenter of fly-fishing in the state. Trout Water is a collection of essays spanning a year in Northern Michigan, from the spring mud through the Hex hatch on hot summer nights to the ice floes of winter. Greenberg tells stories of the people and places on the river that feel true and resonant without being overly sentimental, reflecting and connecting across the various currents that influenced his life.
Stronghold: One Man's Quest to Save the World's Wild Salmon
by Tucker Malarkey
"Why doesn't someone do something?" is a pretty common feeling these days. Stronghold is a book about someone who did do something, and continues to do something. It's a biography of Guido Rahr, founder of the Wild Salmon Center, and an active interrogation of his strategy to preserve wild salmon all over the world. There's a fun stylistic quirk of this book that makes it even more engaging. The author, Tucker Malarkey, is Rahr's cousin, and a neophyte angler. Her family memories and access deepen the profile of Rahr, and her own journey to face the adventure and excitement inherent in these wild places make it feel personal. (n.b. Rahr is one of the panelists in the DRA event mentioned earlier in this newsletter.)
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
by Kevin Fedarko
The latest wrinkle in my angling life is in reconditioning and learning to row an antique wooden drift boat. And to be quite honest, it scares the hell out of me. Kevin Fedarko's portrait of the iconoclastic crew who set off to break the speed record of running the Grand Canyon (in a wooden dory) gives me a little more courage to take my own craft out on the relatively-placid Class 2 whitewater near me. In between the dory guide nuttiness, Fedarko chronicles the hydroelectric infrastructure and bureaucracy that have made the modern West, in a more adventurous spirit of Mark Reisner's essential Cadillac Desert. Fedarko's other Grand Canyon book, more walking than floating, is apparently a must-read as well, and on my list.
The Uncontrollability of the World
by Hartmut Rosa
This is a small book that's more philosophical treatise than directly fishing related. But, it feels relevant. Rosa's thesis is essentially that modern life is rigged to enforce control wherever possible, but outside of that control is where all the fun stuff happens, what Rosa termed in an earlier book "resonance". Kind of an elaborate way to say "life begins at the end of your comfort zone," but a deliberate and impactful argument to convince yourself to find ways to push outside your own boundaries, or established cultural norms. Rosa approaches the topic like a well-read layperson rather than a total academic, but this is indeed on the drier side.
Last cast: Seasons on the Driftless
The Driftless refers to a region touching parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa where the massive glacial scour that created the great plains (drift, in geological terms) missed.
Jason at Scientific Fly Angler gave a season-by-season rundown, with food and drink pairings. I've never fished out there, and from the looks of this post I'd like to order the whole menu and enjoy it at a leisurely pace.
Jason G. Freund
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