The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing
by Mark Kurlansky
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"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--are highly intelligent, wily, strong, and athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky finds, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as show more possible. There is an art, too, in the crafting of flies. Beautiful and intricate, some are made with more than two dozen pieces of feather and fur from exotic animals. The cast as well is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results. Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into the history of specific subjects, from cod to oysters to milk. 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, a lifelong love of the sport has led him around the world to many countries, coasts, and rivers--from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from the Catskills in New York to Oregon's Columbia River, 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"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I have only a slight interest in fly fishing, but having loved Kurlansky's book on cod, I figured that this book might be of equally broad interest. But it is really much more technical, going deep into the nitty gritty of fly fishing history and literature.
> Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. -Henry David Thoreau
> what is a trout? From a scientific point of view, there is no real definition. Trout is not a scientific term. It is a name commonly used for freshwater salmonids distinguished by various spots and stripes of often very different colors and even different markings. Trout are also generally smaller than salmon, except when the taimen is called a trout
> The book also advises show more tying flies on different-size hooks and using larger-size hooks for less-than-clear water, a choice with which many modern fishers would agree.
> The state of Oregon started requiring men to purchase fishing licenses in 1899, but women were not required to have them until 1923. Some U.S. states did not require women to get fishing licenses until the 1960s. show less
> Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. -Henry David Thoreau
> what is a trout? From a scientific point of view, there is no real definition. Trout is not a scientific term. It is a name commonly used for freshwater salmonids distinguished by various spots and stripes of often very different colors and even different markings. Trout are also generally smaller than salmon, except when the taimen is called a trout
> The book also advises show more tying flies on different-size hooks and using larger-size hooks for less-than-clear water, a choice with which many modern fishers would agree.
> The state of Oregon started requiring men to purchase fishing licenses in 1899, but women were not required to have them until 1923. Some U.S. states did not require women to get fishing licenses until the 1960s. show less
Not really my kind of book. I requested it, but found that I couldn't get into the story.
I do read a lot of non fiction books, but sometimes some don't appeal.
I do read a lot of non fiction books, but sometimes some don't appeal.
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Author Information
46+ Works 21,410 Members
Mark Kurlansky is the author of The Basque History of the World, the New York Times bestseller Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (among the New York Public Library's Best Books of the Year in 1998), as well as A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry; A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny, and show more several acclaimed works of short fiction and journalism about the Caribbean. He spent seven years as the Caribbean correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He lives in New York City. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Hunting and Fishing, Sports and Leisure, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 688.7 — Technology Manufacture for specific uses Other final products, and packaging technology Recreational equipment
- LCC
- SH456 .K87 — Agriculture Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling Angling
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 81
- Popularity
- 390,675
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (2.92)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
