Fishing
Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, where Whistlestop Bookshop is situated, is generously watered and drained by creeks renowned for their fishing. Conodoguinet Creek, which flows about 100 miles to the Susquehanna River and is nearest to Carlisle, is actually better known for the fishing in its two tributaries, Big Spring Creek out of the Newville area (only 5 miles) and Letort Spring Run, which arises south of Carlisle and flows north 9 miles to the Conodoguinet. The Yellow Breeches Creek, which flows along South Mountain for 56 miles to the Susquehanna, is internationally famous for its trout fishing.
Naturally, a trout-fishing and especially a fly-fishing culture has developed, sometimes thought to be mostly local, sometimes acknowledged to be of world interest — the world that loves the quiet and focus and solitary rewards of fly-fishing. Rarely, the local zen masters of fishing wrote books. Charlie Fox was once a customer of Whistlestop, and Joe Humphreys is still in print and in fact the subject of a documentary we carry. Fishing does inspire fine writing, after all — the names of Izaak Walton, Norman MacLean, Thomas McGuane, Patrick McManus, John Gierach suggest the range of approaches in writing about “standing in a river waving a stick,” to use Gierach’s famous descripton.
Dedicated to the memory of a great fisherman and an even better brother, Gordon Wood (1956-2020).
A Fly Rod of Your Own
A Fly Rod of Your Own
"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).