Angling The World

Hemingway would have been impressed. In a stunning combination of superb color images and literary yet lively personal essays, celebrated angling photojournalist Roy Tanami chronicles his adventures to far-flung fly-fishing destinations in some of the most remote wilderness areas on the planet. Angling the World takes us along on amazing excursions to ten of the world's top fly-fishing destinations. We seek out steelhead on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula; sea-run Arctic char in Nunavut, Canada; peacock bass and piranha in the Amazon jungle of Brazil; and brown trout on New Zealand's South Island. That's not to mention the fabled giant taimen of Mongolia, “one of the undisputed holy grail species for the serious, been there/done that, traveling fly angler.” This member of the salmon family can weigh in at almost 200 pounds—and, yes, can “strike suddenly and often in a highly violent manner.” There's drama around every bend in the river, with thoughts on conservation woven effortlessly in, as Tanami examines the ways in which traveling anglers can help save not only wild fish but also the wild places they inhabit. Written with keen observation, wit, and verve, and interspersed with fascinating tidbits of historical and geographical lore, Angling the World is a passport to a world of extraordinary angling adventure. Conveying the full awe and wonderment, enthusiasm and reflection of a consummate storyteller who also knows just how to capture his catch on film, it will have all anglers hooked—even if, while dreaming of distant waters, they're curled up on the couch. From the introduction: Wandering the globe to fish is every bit as good as it sounds, and the outrageous fishing is just a part of it. All of fly fishing's considerably powerful seductions—the quest for adventure and discovery; meeting new challenges, people, and environments; and the pleasures of being in direct contact with the elemental, pristine, and most beautiful aspects of nature—are amplified in the extreme and exotic edges of the world.

From the bestselling author of Saban, 4th and Goal, and Sowbelly comes the thrilling, untold story of the quest for the world record tarpon on a fly rod—a tale that reveals as much about Man as it does about the fish. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, something unique happened in the quiet little town on the west coast of Florida known as Homosassa. The best fly anglers in the world—Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Ted Williams, Tom Evans, Billy Pate and others—all gathered together to chase the same Holy Grail: The world record for the world’s most glamorous and sought-after fly rod species, the tarpon. The anglers would meet each morning for breakfast. They would compete out on the water during the day, eat dinner together at night, socialize and party. Some harder than others. The world record fell nearly every year. But records weren’t the only things that were broken. Hooks, lines, rods, reels, hearts and marriages didn’t survive, either. The egos involved made the atmosphere electric. The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. The drugs and romantic entaglements that were swept in with the tide would finally make it all veer out of control. It was a confluence of people and place that had never happened before in the world of fishing and will never happen again. It was a collision of the top anglers and the top species of fish which would lead to smashed lives for nearly all involved, man and fish alike. In Lords of the Fly, Burke, an obsessed tarpon fly angler himself, delves into this incredible moment. He examines the growing popularity of the tarpon, an amazing fish has been around for 50 million years, can live to 80 years old and can grow to 300 pounds in weight. It is a massive, leaping, bullet train of a fish. When hooked in shallow water, it produces “immediate unreality,” as the late poet and tarpon obsessive, Richard Brautigan, once described it. Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction that exists as a result—brought on by greed, environmental degradation and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster—and how all of it has shaped our contemporary fishery. Filled with larger-than-life characters and vivid prose, Lords of the Fly is not only a must read for anglers of all stripes, but also for those interested in the desperate yearning of the human condition.

Anders Halverson provides an exhaustively researched and grippingly rendered account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Discovered in the remote waters of northern California, rainbow trout have been artificially propagated and distributed for more than 130 years by government officials eager to present Americans with an opportunity to get back to nature by going fishing. Proudly dubbed an entirely synthetic fish by fisheries managers, the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state and province in the United States and Canada and to every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on the native fauna. Halverson examines the paradoxes and reveals a range of characters, from nineteenth-century boosters who believed rainbows could be the saviors of democracy to twenty-first-century biologists who now seek to eradicate them from waters around the globe. Ultimately, the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world--how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.

From Alaska to the Bahamas, Panama to The Seychelles, Pat Ford knows where to find the best places to go fly fishing. In Fly-Fishing Daydreams, Ford and his camera capture the most exciting adventures in the sport, from great sailfishing expeditions in Guatemala to Atlantic salmon-finding missions on the icy waters of Russia’s Kola Peninsula. In each far-flung locale, Ford recounts his unforgettable fish tales and illuminates them with spectacular full-color photography, putting the reader right there in their waders beside him. The result is a book that enables readers to live out their fly fishing dreams. Complete with 300 full-color photographs, a foreword by legendary fly fisherman and author Lefty Kreh, a preface by Mike Myatt, chief operating officer of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), and a special chapter on digital photography basics for anglers, Fly-Fishing Daydreams is a book no lover of fly fishing should be without.