Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing

This is a great read. The author takes gives you an inside look into fanatic fly fishermen - with tongue in cheek often enough to keep it moving along and interesting. Whether you fish or not, I recommend this, excellent writer, excellent reading.

The book is a collection of essays written more about fly-fishing than sex. The writing is crisp and avoids any notion of being "flowery." Gierach is at his best when things go bad - real bad. In the context of fishing that is. The worst fishing conditions bring out his laser-focused wit in Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing. And nobody or nothing is off-limits. He'll take a swing at "selective" trout and those "tweed-coat" types along with anyone else who happens to be near where he's fishing. A good example which had me laughing was "The Drought Years." But it's not all laughs. Gierach has the unusual talent of sneaking in very lucid observations. Just when you think he's going to continue on his comedic-roll... Bang, he hits you with a simple truth of the matter. A truth you probably knew, but never saw put in words so simply and clearly. Gierach can even render the philosophical without sounding philosophical. Again, he finds a way to express a concept like an "ecosystem" in terms I think we can all understand: "A good ecologist can dovetail into dovetail until the whole thing stretches out of sight. We call it an ecosystem now; earlier Americans called it the Sacred Circle. Either way it can make your little head swim with a vision of a thing of great size and strength that still depends on the underpinning of its smallest members." Makes sense... So, maybe it is about the birds and bees afterall.

Had me laughing out loud in the resort café. John Gierach captures the very essence of the sport....and will make your sides hurt while doing it!

I humbly admit that the title with sex in it made me curious since I have a health libido when it comes to my PASSION for fly fishing. So I bought the book, and am so glad I did. Now I am a Montana, California, Washington and Idaho as well as New Zealand trout seeker so reading (this is where the sex comes in) of the northern Colorado Red Quill spinner and its short life span and how the fish love this bugaboo was truly fascinating. Since I had or have never given much though to the life cycles of various water bugs, flies I have seen dancing on the river tops as I have been fly fishing. Chapter 13 titled RIVERS page 166 is utterly wonderful to read since I love small towns in remote areas near pristine rivers that are trout havens. So reading about similar areas like Frying Pan: Basalt, Colorado, the South Platte in Colorado, the Gunnison in Colorado, Roaring fork of the Colorado, the Green River in Utah, Bitterroot in Montana (which I know well), as well as the Yellowstone made me feel as if I were there. I could almost hear the water, the slight breeze and warmth of the sun as well as the sound of the inevitable fly that buzzed nearby. And at 11pm at night it would snap me from the pages and remind me that 'no' you cant go fish until morning. What held my attention and makes this book a favorite read and a must for my bedside table is the states of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado written about so well. Guess having been to each state so often it is like a mini visit each time I re-read the book. Make me want to grab Bill and suggest we move back to Montana where he as born and raised and where my Moms family roots go back to the early 1800's.

For those of you who are either into flyfishing or looking to begin, this is an entertaining view of the sport that has a number of short stories. These stories are inspiring, humorous, and enducational. It is nice to look up to someone who does the sport for all the right reasons.