The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing

by Mark Kurlansky

Overview

National Outdoor Book Award Winner for Outdoor Literature

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Cod-the irresistible story of the science, history, art, and culture of the least efficient way to catch a fish.

Fly fishing, historian Mark Kurlansky has found, is a battle of wits, fly fisher vs. fish-and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets-salmon, trout, and char; and for some, bass, tarpon, tuna, bonefish, and even marlin-are highly intelligent, athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky learns, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. The flies can be beautiful and intricate, some made with over two dozen pieces of feather and fur; the cast is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results.

Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into specific subjects, from cod to oysters to salt. But he spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, his love of the sport has led him around the world's countries, coasts, and rivers-from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from Ireland and Norway to Russia and Japan. And, in true Kurlansky fashion, he absorbed every fact, detail, and anecdote along the way.

The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing marries Kurlansky's signature wide-ranging reach with a subject that has captivated him for a lifetime-combining history, craft, and personal memoir to show readers, devotees of the sport or not, the necessity of experiencing nature's balm first-hand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635578751
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	164,447
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Milk!, Havana, Paper, The Big Oyster, 1968, Salt, The Basque History of the World, Cod, and Salmon, among other titles. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appétit's Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. He lives in New York City. www.markkurlansky.com

Hometown:

New York, NY

Date of Birth:

December 7, 1948

Place of Birth:

Hartford, CT

Education:

Butler University, B.A. in Theater, 1970

Table of Contents

Prologue: Winter Without Tolstoy on the Big Wood River xiii

1 Why? 1

2 Doing It the Hard Way 18

3 The Thinking Prey 38

4 Who Started This? 61

5 American Fly Fishing 92

6 It's About the Fly 118

7 The Comfort of My Rod 158

8 Send You Reeling 177

9 A Good Line 188

10 Wading In 195

11 Fisherwomen 204

12 Difficult Thoughts 216

13 Fishing for Words 226

Epilogue: Yeats on the Blackwater 248

Acknowledgments 259

Appendix: Rivers in This Book 261

List of Illustrations 263

Bibliography 265

Index 273

Editorial Reviews

Mr. Kurlansky is a veteran writer. Over the course of 34 books-including bestsellers on such seemingly mundane subjects as salt, cod and paper-he has come to be known for his ability to weave history, philosophy and personal experience into compelling narratives. His latest, The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing, is on a subject that is clearly dear to his heart. . . . The book offers fascinating chapters on the history of fly fishing and tackle-flies, rods, reels, lines, even waders. . . . The fishing trivia Mr. Kurlansky cites is often marvelous.” —Wall Street Journal

“This being a book by Kurlansky, who never met a fact he didn't like, the narrative turns from his experiences as a fisherman to a more universal history. . . . Stuffed full of trivia, data, lore, and anecdote-a pleasure for any fan of trout fishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[A] vibrant treatise on fly-fishing . . . This is a thoroughly enjoyable mash-up of vivid memoir and fastidious, eccentric history.” —Publishers Weekly

“Perfect for your favorite angler and gifts all around.” —Napa Valley Register's “Fishing Report”

“This is a book about fishing that isn't a book about fishing at all. To be clear, Kurlansky has been a fisherman his entire life. But this fresh, revealing memoir reflects on the life lessons he has learned from fish … and the many things that make the pursuit such a special part of his life.” —Arizona Daily Star

From the Publisher

01/04/2021

Journalist Kurlansky (Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate) enlivens a quotidian subject in this vibrant treatise on fly-fishing. The draw of fly-fishing, Kurlansky suggests, lies in the sport’s challenging nature—it takes more patience, guile, and finesse than bait fishing. Alongside personal meditations, Kurlansky provides a wide-ranging history of fly-fishing, noting how it has featured in art, literature, and the lives of political figures. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, for example, loved fish and protected salmon runs in the northern Spanish rivers; Herbert Hoover was “a dedicated fly fisher”; and Czech writer Ota Pavel wrote, “fishing is about freedom, most of all.” Kurlansky describes his personal draw to fly-fishing as a primordial urge, writing, “whenever I see a body of water, I look for fish.” He enlivens historical explanations with personal anecdotes, describing, for example, the history of the fishing rod as he tells the story of once fishing with an old bamboo rod that a park ranger failed to recognize as an instrument for fishing. Kurlansky captures in crisp detail his experience in nature: “That an icy river can have a warm embrace is one of nature’s ironies.” This is a thoroughly enjoyable mash-up of vivid memoir and fastidious, eccentric history. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/05/2021

For some people, fishing is not just for food or competition: it is compulsory. Writer Kurlansky (Salmon) and others are driven towards the challenge and beauty of fly fishing. To better understand this fervor, the author gives a comprehensive history. Every piece of equipment—fly, rod, reel, line—has their own chapter. The book cites various authors, poets, thinkers, and political figures throughout, as well as Kurlansky's own experiences of fishing all over the world. Back matter includes an appendix of rivers mentioned throughout. Kurlansky's fans will enjoy sharing his passion. But unfamiliar readers may struggle to stay interested with the verbose text. Also, while the book recognizes the troubling "fraternity" past of fly fishing, it doesn't offer solutions. Fisherwomen, who get their own chapter, are praised for their accomplishments throughout time. There are more women in the fly-fishing community today, but they might find the book off-putting due to lingering attitudes, such as how "there is something feminine about casting flies." Native Americans are referenced several times as a group who distrust fly fishing, yet no references are attributed. Also, some readers will be distressed by repeated use of a slur for disability and disabled people. VERDICT The author's love of fly fishing is obvious, but this latest book is for limited audience.—Elissa Cooper, Helen Plum Memorial Lib., Lombard, IL

Library Journal

★ 2020-12-25
The prolific author returns to an old love: angling for trout.

“Any day fishing on a wintry river is a great day,” writes Kurlansky, refuting Tolstoy’s grumpy assertion that angling is “a stupid occupation.” His river of choice is the appropriately named Salmon, in central Idaho, where the water flows so swiftly that Lewis and Clark named it the “River of No Return.” It’s not open in winter, notes the author, but there are other wintry rivers where one can test “the only two rules of fly fishing that cannot be broken: you cannot fall in and you must keep your fly in the water as much as possible. Everything else depends on circumstance.” This being a book by Kurlansky, who never met a fact he didn’t like, the narrative turns from his experiences as a fisherman to a more universal history. First come the fish themselves, the salmonids, which people have been harvesting for millennia. Only one of those species is a true trout, namely Salmo trutta, the brown trout, with every other kind of trout so called only because they resemble it. The author then moves on to the “acclimatization” projects of the French and the British, “an imperialist concept in an age of Empire,” whereby British anglers felt it was only proper that the brown trout follow the course of conquest, which explains why it can now be found in places such as New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa, “to assure that anywhere a British colonist went, there would be good game for a fly rod.” As for rods and flies, Kurlansky geeks out, reciting names that are known to this day: Charles Orvis, for one, whose contributions to the tackle box are legion; and Clarence Birdseye, the frozen-food magnate whose automatically retracting reel when a fish struck was a dismal failure since “hauling out the fish is part of fishing.”

Stuffed full of trivia, data, lore, and anecdote—a pleasure for any fan of trout fishing.

Kirkus Reviews