Fool’s Paradise…

The crusty ol’ troutbum has returned with another book…

Of course, I’m talking about ‘legendary’ author John Gierach…If you’ve been involved in the ‘angling’ world for more than 15 minutes you might know who he is…A couple of his ‘famous’ books are ‘Troutbum’ and “Sex, Death and Fly-Fishing.”

…He writes about fly-fishing, the outdoors, good flies, bamboo, sex, death, leaky waders, small streams and bad coffee…He manages to do it all with…uh, kind of a good-hearted, smart-ass sense of philosophy and an all-American spirit…He’s been a favorite of mine ever since my ‘old man’ (MY fishing sensei) introduced one of his books to me about 10 years ago:

-”Son, read this book, I think you’ll like this guy.” -The book was ‘Standing in a River Waving a Stick.’ I had heard about Gierach but I didn’t care to read any books ‘about’ fishing. I would rather ‘be fishing.’ But…

…I read it and loved it. I laughed at it and understood it. Gierach hit a ‘note’ with me. It was as if my old man had “written” that book. The upbringing, the way of life and the ‘philosophy’ all made sense. I was an instant Gierach fan.

SO, I just finished his new book:

 

 I don’t mean ANY disrespect but Gierach is like ‘McDonald’s.’ Meaning, everytime you order something from there you always know exactly what you’re going to get. For most people, that is very comforting…I’m one of those people. Usually…

‘Fool’s Paradise’ is another venture into the stories of an angler that we all wish we could be and THEN write about…It’s nice to hear that the ‘Troutbum’ has done some fishing in Washington and Idaho…Again…

You don’t have to be an angler to enjoy Gierach, there’s plenty more that he writes about. The great thing about him is that everybody will find a piece for themselves somewhere. I have to admit though, his stories were a ‘teeny-tiny’ more fun before he quit drinking.

I had the pleasure of meeting him about 3 or 4 years ago while he was doing a book signing for ‘Still Life with Brook Trout.’ He was at a downtown Seattle ‘FLY SHOP’ that doesn’t get my business (sorry guys).

I left work early to go get my books signed. I walked in and there he was, all alone reading and drinking coffee. I walked up and introduced myself:

-”Pleasure to meet you, would you mind signing my books?”

“Sure, sure, no problem.”

-”Are you doing any fishing while you’re here?”

“No, I can’t, there’s no time on this trip.”

-”Alright, well, pleasure to meet you.”

And that was that… I was on the ferry heading home I thought to myself: “Dude, you just acted like a 13 year old girl at a Backstreet Boys concert.”

I had to laugh, it was out of character for me. I didn’t even ask to get a picture with him, I chickened out. Asking for a picture would have been too pussy.

-Good writers have that effect…