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).
Six Fish Limit: Stories from the Far Side of Fly Fishing
Six Fish Limit: Stories from the Far Side of Fly Fishing
“Few angler-authors can match the skill and insight of Steve Raymond. . . . Raymond leads his reader to a refined and refreshed understanding of what the natural world is really all about.”—The New York Times
Perhaps the most innovative fly-fishing writer of his generation, Steve Raymond reaches a new level in this collection of five short stories and a novella. Here you’ll learn the fate of the world’s first genetically modified fly fisher, discover the secret behind the amazing success of an isolated little fly shop, and find out what was really going on between the sainted Theodore Gordon and his mysterious young woman fishing companion. You’ll witness the suspenseful trial of the world’s most famous fly fisher, chuckle at the tale of an angler who outwitted the Internal Revenue Service and his own accountant, and laugh out loud at the “real” story behind the first words ever written about fly fishing. And you’ll agree with the words of Arnold Gingrich in his classic work, The Fishing in Print: “Such books, and such authors, are rare, and Raymond is somebody simply not to be missed.”
Steve Raymond, a native of Bellingham, Washington, had a thirty-year career as a reporter, editor and manager at the Seattle Times. He also edited two magazines, The Flyfisher and Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, and reviewed fishing books for several publications. A charter and honorary life member of the Federation of Fly Fishers (now called Fly Fishing International), he is author of a dozen fly-fishing books, including two award-winning classics, The Year of the Angler and The Year of the Trout. He received the prestigious Roderick Haig-Brown Award for significant contributions to angling literature and his work has appeared in nine anthologies and at least twenty-four magazines. His manuscripts and papers are now part of special collections at the Western Washington University libraries in Bellingham. In 2022 he was admitted to the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. Raymond and his wife, Joan, reside on an old farm on Whidbey Island in northern Puget Sound.