From the Arctic to Bristol Bay, this book covers all the fabulous fishing opportunities throughout Alaska. With this resource, anglers can fly into Anchorage, rent a camper, and be catching trophy salmon and trout within hours of arrival. Includes 109 detailed river and lake maps--a big book for a big state.

Tony Route's long experience as a year-round resident of Alaska shows in his descriptions of all the game fish available to the Alaskan angler and his insightful lessons on how to catch them.

"On drizzly August evenings, a bear-fearing man with an eight-weight rod and a large-bore rifle -- a .300 H&H magnum is about right -- could go there and catch silvers, catch them until his forearm wore out. The secret lay in a wisp of a game trail, known only to the hard core, that threaded for a mile through dense black spruce that bristled with the blond, frizzy shoulder hair of passing grizzlies. Often, you could hear silvers before you saw the creek, rolling, tailing, swirling, as silvers will, in the quiet water". From a roadside cafe with huge rainbows covering the walls to a remote fly-in shanty a willowed mile from an unexplored river that might hold steelhead, Ken Marsh will take you on a flyfishing adventure as only a native who has lived and flyfished his entire life in Alaska can. You won't find a catered, cozy flyfishing camp with protective, professional guides in these stories. Instead, you'll join Ken and his sometimes crazy, always interesting friends as he flyfishes through the seasons in the real Alaska. For the anglers who live there, flyfishing is much more than the salmon and big rainbow fishing the outsider rushes in to do. It's quiet evenings float tubing for grayling and flyfishing adventures after prehistoric pike. It's investigating rumors of steelhead and prowling coastlines for sea-run cutthroats. Most of all, it's a search for solitude, for the untrammeled, and for a place where angler and fish can meet in one moment that can't be taken back or forgotten. It's the same search all flyfishers are on, but the scale is, like the state itself, much grander than those in the Lower Forty-eight can grasp during a two-week, color-brochure trip.

If you're ready to live as a diehard fly fisherman in the land of the midnight sun, you'd better be prepared to weather several long months of midnight. Set against the backdrop of a life spent in the latitudes of the Far North, follow the author as he casts about in search of arctic grayling, rainbow trout, and the ultimate truths in life. The author's existential pursuit of a "drag-free drift" borrows from the analogous concept in fly fishing, where one's line is mended as necessary to facilitate the fly's natural flow with the current. This book is targeted primarily towards the North American fly fisherman, and those around the world interested in experiencing the wilds of Alaska.

A complete species-by-species guide to the ultimate fishing destination.

“After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John Gierach] is still a master,” (Forbes) and his newest book only confirms this assessment, along with his recent induction into the Flyfishing Hall of Fame. In A Fly Rod of Your Own, Gierach brings his ever-sharp sense of humor and keen eye for observation to the fishing life and, for that matter, life in general. Known for his witty, trenchant observations about fly-fishing, Gierach’s “deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished storyteller…his alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber” (Publishers Weekly). A Fly Rod of Your Own transports readers to streams and rivers from Maine to Montana, and as always, Gierach’s fishing trips become the inspiration for his pointed observations on everything from the psychology of fishing (“Fishing is still an oddly passive-aggressive business that depends on the prey being the aggressor”); why even the most veteran fisherman will muff his cast whenever he’s being filmed or photographed; the inevitable accumulation of more gear than one could ever need (“Nature abhors an empty pocket. So does the tackle industry”); or the qualities shared by the best guides (“the generosity of a teacher, the craftiness of a psychiatrist, and the enthusiasm of a cheerleader with a kind of Vulcan detachment”). As Gierach likes to say, “fly-fishing is a continuous process that you learn to love for its own sake. Those who fish already get it, and those who don’t couldn’t care less, so don’t waste your breath on someone who doesn’t fish.” A Fly Rod of Your Own is an ode to those who fish that “brings a skeptical, wry voice to the peril and promise of twenty-first-century fishing” (Booklist).

The most comprehensive, best-selling guide book on Alaska fishing, is also the most well--endorsed title on the subject. Written by ten of Alaska's most respected experts. 464 color pages feature stellar photography by Alaskan artists. The insiders guide, now revised, and expanded, is in full-color. Covers all 17 major Alaska sport species (fresh/salt waters), all methods (fly/spin/bait), and all regions of the state, with details on over 300 of the most productive locations. Includes information on regional climate/conditions, run timing, services' costs, trophy/records, USGS map references, regulations, etc. Bonus back section with trip planner, flies for Alaska, knots, fish filleting, and a comprehensive 2,500-entry cross-referenced index. Over 500 color photos, maps, and charts/diagrams. Beautifully illustrated, Alaska Fishing offers a visual feast of this scenic wonderland, with content that not only thoroughly informs, but also captures the imagination and heart of the reader.