'The Fly Fishing Anthology' features glorious artwork and more than twenty stories and essays celebrating, reminiscing, and bemoaning the high sport of fly fishing. This first-of-its-kind book is divided into six themed chapters. The first chapter features stories of initiation -- none painless and all memorable. Chapter two explores the glorious vistas of fly fishing country. In the third chapter, our writers go nuts for trout, that highest echelon of game fish. Chapter four examines the seductive art of fly-tying. The fifth chapter is devoted to reminiscences, and the final chapter defends the great sport of fly fishing. More than half of the pieces take jabs -- some gentle, some sharp -- at the sport of fly fishing and the men and women who aim to master it. Highlights include John Gierach's Keillor-esque vision of a sleepy Colorado trout fishing town jolted awake by the age of neoprene waders and Latin terminology, Charles Elliott fly fishing for the elusive bone-fish at the elbow of baseball great Ted Williams, and newcomer George Tichenor self-deprecating with cheerful aplomb as he practices casting a fly on the revered Willowemoc.The writing represents the best that fly fishing literature has to offer. In these pages, dry fly master George LaBranche argues with passionate conviction that dry fly fishing is the highest art of angling. Zane Grey waxes poetic on the wild, lonely beauty of his beloved West, and sports-writing genius Red Smith wrests a hilarious, epic tale out of an amateur fly tier's first Silver Tip pattern. Of course, the fly fishing legends are present in these pages, including Cornelia 'Fly Rod' Crosby, G. E. M. Skues, and Joan Salvato Wulff.

"Many of these writers came to fly fishing in order to defy, or to wow, or to woo a man. But once the River speaks, the man becomes a superfluous distraction and a woman finds herself standing alone, in living water, defying and wowing the self. This is the moment the fly fisher is born. This beautiful birth is the heartbeat of these stories."-David James Duncan, author of The River Why and The Brothers K ? Includes stories by Pulitzer-Prize-winner E. Anne Proulx, Cowboys Are My Weakness author Pam Houston, fly casting champion Joan Slavato Wulff, Lorian Hemingway, LeAnne Schreiber, and more ? Since the success of Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis and A River RUns Through It, fly fishing has been growing in popularity among both sexes ? ?Both men and women will enjoy these sometimes poignant, more often humorous tales of uniformly high literary quality.? ?Library Journal

A host of writers take readers to their favorite fishing spots in a captivating collection of 55 pieces, many written especially for this book. Reflecting every nuance of the fly-fishing experience, culled from more than 100 years of writing, this is the book fly-fishers will want to come home to.

“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 Delaware Valley Womens Fly Fishing Association has nourished a passion for fly-fishing in hundreds of women since 1996. This was when women were rare participants in outdoor sports, but during the clubs first two decades, this has changed dramatically. So many women are now fly-fishing that they have become the most important market segment in the fly-fishing industry. This book tells the story of some of these women, how they developed an interest in fly-fishing, and why. More importantly, this book is a celebration, not just of the DVWFFAs twentieth anniversary, but of fly-fishing itself, in the form of the best of articles from its widely praised newsletter. Beginners and veteran anglers of all ages and from all walks of life share their enthusiasm and love for the sport. From Cancun to Canada, fly-fishing saltwater, streams, ponds, and rivers, they share their insights, humor, and learning experiences, proving that good womens fly-fishing stories are just plain great fishing yarns.

The annual Robert Traver Award honors the very best writing that implies an implicit love of fly-fishing. For more than 20 years, Fly Rod & Reel magazine has consistently published some of the finest short stories about fly-fishing and the people who love it. This anthology showcases work by some of the most well-known outdoor writers, some of them were Traver winners, some were finalists, all are exceptional.