Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers. 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.

In this memoir, novelist Craig Nova explores the interconnections between his work as a writer, his personal life, and his passion for fly-fishing. Nova leads the reader into his courtship, marriage, the birth of his children, and his life as a father, husband, writer, friend, citizen, and angler. Just as the author observes the life of the elusive and beautiful brook trout in the tea-colored streams, he finds interconnections to his daily lifehe teaches his daughter to build an igloo; he deals with the disappointment of a very public mean-spirited review of his much-anticipated novel; he gazes at his wife-to-be in her hammock by a stream; he finds himself the victim of a random blackmailer. Unpredictable and keenly observed, Nova leads us through the terrain of the life of an artist. The one constant is the stream and the brook trout which offer both respite from the demands of his life and a wellspring of inspiration and strength. It is a paean to nature and the beauty of the brook trout.

"When I dream," begins James Prosek in this wonderful book, "sometimes I can smell the resin on my pillow as if I were in the tent again . . .. I think of first kisses with a freckled girl, of abandoned New England farms, and limestone Civil War Homes on Pennsylvania spring creeks, and bright brook trout."The more than 200,000 readers who have bought Prosek's previous books will find in Early Love and Brook Trout his most poignant and revealing work. His memoir includes images of his first love, a girl named Whitney; his rowing days at Yale; his relationship to an old game warden named Joe Haines; and a night spent trapped in a cabin during a flood at the foot of the Smoky Mountains. Always, as is proper for the superb painter he is, his eye catches everything: the way a tree splits when struck by lightning, the way people interact at a salmon camp, the way wood smoke rises from a cabin on Lac St. Jean, and especially the colors of a spawning brook trout. Brook trout are at the center of his memories: They are his home fish, and he follows their range from Quebec to Georgia, fishing, painting specimens from various localities, documenting the immense diversity of this species.Graced with more than forty stunning watercolors by the author, Early Love and Brook Trout is a book no angler will want to miss. (8 1/4 X 8 1/4, 164 pages, watercolors)

From his reminiscences about learning to fish to a lyrical piece about fishing during a late spring snow to a wry, though compassionate, look at the hard life of a brook trout, Gierach provides entertainment for fly-fishers and literature lovers alike. Drawings.

Poems deal with memories, loss of identity, childhood innocence, the past, and mortality.

"A collection of 200 of Bob White's best paintings and drawings-of fly fishing, upland and waterfowl hunting, gamefish, birds, and dogs, and landscapes from Alaska to Patagonia. Text and sidebars provide background and highlight the artist's process"--