My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scott Waldie (who unfortunately passed away a few years ago) gave us a fine gift in his three Travers Corners books. The last, The Final Chapters,” continues the stories of the characters in fictional Travers Corners, Montana.

There is nothing new or startling about these stories, either in content or execution. One of the things I like about these stories is the lack of pretentiousness—what you see is what you get: good old fashioned storytelling. These stories aren’t about big issues. The author isn’t trying to make a point. These are stories about regular people doing regular things as they live their lives in a small corner of the world.

Fly fishing is an integral part of nearly every story. The main character, Jud, is a river boat builder. He also guides and fishes on the local waters, known for their large trout.

Waldie’s storytelling skills are just right, with a turn of phrase here and there to add just enough something extra to a story that makes a connection with a reader. He brings the reader into the story, making them wish they were a part of the story, or, rather, part of the town and lives of the characters in the story.

These stories are about friends and how people get along in a small (albeit idealized) town. Things usually work out well for the characters, but when they don’t you are there pulling for them.

These are “feel good” stories, but they aren’t sappy. They are easy reads, and each chapter is a self-contained story, although they are all about the same place and same people. You could easily open the book to a random chapter and read it without missing a thing.

When you’re tired of your heavy reading, and need a light pick-me-up read, make sure you have all three of the Travers Corners books on hand.

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I have a quest. The quest involves answering several related questions. I won’t list them all, but the following two questions should give an idea as to the basic gist of them:

• Do fish suffer when they are caught using standard fly fishing techniques?
• Is angling cruel?

I have explored these types of questions in at least four posts on my blog (see links to them at the bottom of this post). And, frankly, I’ve been a bit disappointed at the lack of response. It seems like it is a topic that fly anglers do not want to discuss. I guess I can’t really blame them, who wants to think about their possible cruelty?

Over the years, the discussion has usually hinged on the aspect of whether or not fish feel pain. Various experiments have been carried out, and, depending on where one stands on the issue, various conclusions have been reached. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that “we” are right and “they” are wrong.

Which perfectly illustrates how the issue has been exacerbated through an “Us” versus “Them” mentality. Much of the writing produced in the debate has come from a person who is passionate about one side or the other, typically either someone from the angling community or someone from an animal rights group.

This is as good as spot as any to address two important, and quite different, terms: animal rights and animal welfare. Many groups espousing animal rights believe that animals have equal rights with humans (and in some extreme cases, an animal’s “rights” trump a human’s). The most well known group in favor of animal rights is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Animal welfare advocates believe that animals can have benefits to humans, but that the animal should be treated as humanely as possible, give the situation. One of the biggest groups supporting animal welfare is AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association). These two groups are often at odds with each other.

Many anglers hear the words “animal welfare” and mistakenly think “animal rights” and begin bashing the views of those speaking on behalf of the welfare of animals. In a research paper from 2007 titled “Animal welfare perspectives on recreational angling” by Steven J. Cooke and Lynne U. Sneddon, they state that “informed anglers and fisheries managers can adopt practices to improve the welfare of angled fish.” They do not advocate the eradication of catch and release, but rather suggest that certain methods be observed to reduce potential pain and suffering. Many animal welfare groups are not against recreational angling.

One of the things most often missing in the debate is clear (to the lay person), reasoned (data, not emotion) and unbiased information concerning the issue. Enter Dr. Braithwaite and her book, Do Fish Feel Pain?

To illustrate a point made above, this is from the first paragraph of the preface, in which Braithwaite describes reactions from an Op-Ed piece she published in the Los Angeles Times regarding fish pain:

After the article appeared, the newspaper and I received letters and emails. These were of two sorts. Some told me that I was persecuting anglers by spreading untruths and myths—wasn’t it clear to everyone that fish don’t feel pain? But the others wanted to know why I bothered to investigate the question—wasn’t it clear to everyone that fish do feel pain?

This is an interesting reaction, in which it is clear to pretty much everyone, except for those who are most worried about the potential for scientific results to change their recreational lifestyle, that fish feel pain.

But that wasn’t her point. Rather than tell you about her point, I’ll let her speak for herself.

I had a certain amount of sympathy with both camps. I could identify with those who believed I was threatening the angling community. That was not my intention, but there had been a great deal of inaccurate information written about research on pain in fish so it was understandable that some people were being defensive. On the other hand, how were the others to know that no scientific analysis of even the basics of fish pain had been conducted before the turn of this century?

Those polarized reactions, which also played out on various websites, prompted me to wonder whether there was need for a fuller account of the science behind the fish pain debate. The result is this book.

My goal in writing this book has been to provide the background to promote informed discussion. Like other animal welfare debates, constructively arguing about fish welfare requires that we understand the issues, that we review evidence and discuss this appropriately. In the book, I examine what we know so far about pain in fish, and whether it is meaningful to discuss fish welfare at all. After reading this book, I hope you will be in a position to make up your own mind. I have no axe to grind—I choose to eat fish and I experiment on them, but while I have been fishing in the past, I am not an active angler though I have many friends and colleagues who are.

This is a difficult topic to cover, and one that will take great skill to do it justice. Having spent much time on my own reading, and trying to write, about the topic, I know that it is more than just the science behind pain. There are at least three branches of inquiry involved when tackling the topic: science, psychology and philosophy. Braithwaite also realizes this when she says, “As the book began to take shape, it became clear that the fish pain debate probes questions about science, welfare and ethics.”

I am looking forward to the continued reading, exploring and writing about this new book. From what I have read so far (the preface and chapter 1), I believe Dr. Braithwaite when she says she has no axe to grind. I believe this book could be a great asset to the serious inquirer.

I will probably post updates for each chapter or two (there are seven chapters in the book, containing 184 pages).

The book is published by Oxford University Press. The bulletin from Oxford Press says it’s available May 20. However, Amazon is selling copies (I don’t know if they are shipping yet).

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy, although I do not know the author and am in no way affiliated with Oxford University Press or any of its designees.

http://scarles.org/blog/cutthroat-stalker/1173/fish-pain-here-we-go-again/
http://scarles.org/blog/cutthroat-stalker/1186/hooking-things-survey/
http://scarles.org/blog/cutthroat-stalker/1246/css-double-dog-dare-why-not-birdermen/
http://scarles.org/blog/cutthroat-stalker/2120/gotta-again/

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Dry Fly Gospel
By Terry Coffey

Book Review

This is a quirky book filled with 12 short stories that catch one off guard. At least they caught me off guard. Granted, with the title it bears and a cover with a picture of a nun holding a fly rod and a wicker creel at her feet, it does lead one to believe that what comes under the cover won’t going to be your typical fishing yarns.

There are twelve stories, and they aren’t all about fly fishing (however, I think fly fishing makes an appearance in most of them). I believe each of these stories has been previously published, many of them in print form.

This slim volume of 92 pages is self-published. There are several errors that occur throughout the book, most of them are the things an editor would pick up. That’s one of the problems of self-publishing—it’s sometimes hard to catch your own errors, especially the larger the piece.

The title story, and first in the book, “Dry Fly Gospel,” starts like this:

“The following excerpts are taken from fragments of what many scholars believe is a fishing journal kept by John, who was the son of Zebedee and favorite disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.”

The story, at first glance, may strike a certain type of reader as a bit sacrilegious: Jesus as a fly fishing instructor and early practitioner of catch and release. However, I think Coffey maintains enough reverence for the sacred so that those who might instinctively shy away from such a story, will not take offense.

The second story, “The Jar of Worms,” features Cyrus, one of the 12 disciples, who tells the story in first person. He becomes enraged when Judas Iscariot, a bait fisherman (this made me crack up), interrupts a story being told by the Master, about dry fly fishing. Cyrus is upset because Jesus invites the bait fishing Judas to join them, Cyrus leaves Jesus, and Judas eventually fills his vacated spot, becoming one of the 12. Of course, Cyrus can’t help firing off a few parting comments about watching out for Iscariot since bait fishermen can’t be trusted.

The book contains a story about a medieval nun who believes she might have the opportunity to work on the Shroud of Turin, only to end up trying to decide if she wants to stay at the convent and remain a nun. One of the stories is about a Vietnam vet who meets Freud at a veterans’ hospital and ends up fishing with Freud, Shakespeare and Hemingway. Another story tells of a woman trying to come to terms with her cancer during a fly fishing excursion.

There is a story of a man in Peru who falls off his mountainside potato farm. One about a solo hike to a pond with a possible huge fish, or possibly a UFO incident. Another about a person who died and became a tree. And a couple of others.

I found most of the earlier stories to be more compelling reading and the last few were a bit, well, almost silly? There were enough interesting stories that I would recommend the book to anyone looking for something a bit eclectic.

The price, $12.95 plus shipping (about $16 total for me), seems a bit pricey for what you get. There is a Kindle edition for $4.95 that seems just about right. (Even if you don’t own a Kindle, you can get the Kindle reader for free so you can purchase books like this and read it on your computer.)

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When I first saw Nick Mayer’s work at his Escape Studio, one of the first things I was drawn to was his small sketchbook pages (look at the bottom) he included. Now, I imagine Nick didn’t think these little sketchbook images were all that important when he was designing his website (maybe he did), but they are fascinating to me. I could look at those type of sketchbooks all day, especially the ones with technical notes worked around the sketches.

However, the “real” artwork is some pretty amazing stuff. Nick’s pieces have that “technical” feel to them, with a clean, precise look, but the watercoloring softens them, bringing a warmth and aliveness to each piece. Of most interest, I imagine, to you, would be his collection of fish. He has both saltwater and freshwater fish collections.

Here’s a sneak peek at his latest piece, rainbow trout:

Rainbow Trout - Nick Mayer

and here’s a close-up (click on it to check out the detail, then click on the little green arrow that points down and to the right for an even closer look – wow!):

Rainbow Detail - Nick Mayer

It looks like the majority of his originals are sold, but they do have a note saying “available for commission $1500.” There are some nice looking unframed giclee prints running in size from about 14″ wide ($50) to 40″ wide ($250). They can also be purchased framed. For those with a smaller budget, he has notecards for purchasing.

There are also some great pieces on insects, but I didn’t see any that would be of special interest to the fly fisher with maybe the exception of the dragonfly. I could definitely see some mayflies lending themselves to his style (Nick: hint, hint).

A very cool side note here, something that I think is unique is his Faux Moths Project. This is a collection of moths that he watercolors, then cuts out and mounts in boxes to look like real moths. You can read his detailed description on that page of how he started the project.

He runs Escape Studio apparel store selling shirts, mugs, hats, bags, etc.

You can follow Nick on his Fresh Art Blog.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sometime within the past ten years or so I became interested in native fish. I have nothing against any species, I just like to see fish that are “supposed” to be in a watershed, in that watershed, not some other species occupying that water. This desire to find native species in their native range has taken my fishing buddy and me to some out-of-the-way little creeks—we’re talking about places in the middle of the desert 100 miles from the nearest town. Creeks whose widths are measured in inches, not feet. But it doesn’t seem to matter where we go, how far away from “civilization” we get, we still come across water stocked with non-native species. Many of these places were stocked long before motorized travel was possible. And I’ve wondered what possessed people to stock fish in such places.

Anders Halverson’s new book, An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World, answers that question for me. In a fascinating look at the social and political maneuverings of the late nineteenth century through the present, Anders’ meticulous research lays bare some interesting tidbits of the stocking policies of the United States.

One such gem is that the government was worried about the strength of the nation’s men: that they had “notoriously less hardihood and endurance than the generation which preceded [their:] own” (George Perkins Marsh, congressman and diplomat from the mid-1800’s). This description was given in a report by Marsh under the auspices of the Legislature of Vermont on the Artificial Propagation of Fish. He further stated that “the sports of the chase” (angling being one of them) was a way to increase the hardiness of the Americans. At this time, many waterways were already seeing a decline in fish numbers and the artificial propagation of fish was seen as a way to increase those numbers. With the urge to increase the robustness of its men, and the decline fish population the underpinnings were there for the introduction of non-native species.

Last year Eccles (from the Turning Over Small Stones blog) and I had a discussion about the terms “Fish and Game” and “Fish and Wildlife” as used in various agencies: Why were the terms “fish” and “game” separate? Shouldn’t it just be Game or Wildlife, as in “Utah Game” or “US Wildlife Service” since fish are a type of game and fish are a type of wildlife? Anders informs us that by the 1870s congress formed the United States Fish Commission to help tackle the problem of declining fish stocks, thus becoming the first governmental agency involved with animal husbandry in the US. At a later time, the “game” and “wildlife” were added as the agency expanded. So, in my mind at least, this solves the mystery.

How the rainbow trout became the darling of the US Fish Commission, and just about every other angling agency in the world, is an interesting tale that Anders starts in San Francisco in 1872 with Livingston Stone looking for spawning salmon. He eventually found the McCloud River and began propagating salmon. By 1879 they were looking for a place on the McCloud to begin propagating trout as well. And they did, with astounding success.

Besides the historical ventures Anders skillfully and delightfully takes the reader on, he also dissects the biology of the stocking programs, covering the hardiness of a stock that is constantly used for breeding to whirling disease. He discusses the loss of native species and the response (or lack of it) of individual state fish and game departments, how some of them have switched from stocking to conservation.

This brings up an interesting problem that many fish and game departments need to tackle: what is their responsibility when sportsmen (who pay for licenses whose money is then possibly used to bankroll conservation and restoration instead of stocking), clamor for more catchable fish?

Through all of these topics Anders uses a reporters zeal for facts (there are approximately 475 sources listed in the bibliography) and detachment, thereby keeping an even keel on reporting the facts and not stepping on a soapbox to expound one particular side over another. Even with this professional detachment, there is a keen sense of understanding and compassion shown for the stories he tells. For, if nothing else (but there is a lot of “else”), the book is full of stories told with the storyteller’s art.

Full Disclosure: I have corresponded with Anders a few times by email. I was one of the first couple of anglers to join his new website (*). And when he said he had a book available to be reviewed, I asked for a copy. I don’t have anything to profit from this review except getting a free book. Which I already have.

Purchase the book (links from Anders’ website).

Check out the “Additional Materials” on Anders’ website.

Here is a review from Dave B at Native Trout Angler.

Another review, this one from Sam Snyder and posted on MidCurrent.

Newspaper piece from ColoradoDaily.com.

Information from Yale University Press (publishers of the book).

* This website is Angler’s Life List and Native Fish Network (ALLNFN). A big congratulations to the site for making it into the March 2010 edition of Outside Magazine’s Editors’ Choice top 51 things to do (“For our inaugural list, we’ve gathered 51 of our favorite things into a rollicking compendium of capital ideas, sublime destinations, brilliant equipment, and more.”). ALLNFN came in at #42!

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ted Leeson has been one of my favorite authors since his first book in 1994, The Habit of Rivers. That book contained essays concerning his trip throughout the western United States mostly fishing for native trout. Since then he has written a fair number of books on flies and fly tying. I rarely buy those types of books, preferring the literary over the practical (let’s not think what that might say about me), but it is his essays that I look forward to reading. Two years after his debut book he edited a volume of essays titled The Gift of Trout. That was a good book, but I was really looking forward to his next volume containing only his work. I had to wait eight years from The Habit of Rivers until publication of Jerusalem Creek, another exceptional book of essays, centered in the Driftless area.

In those first two books, I found Leeson to be a bit more weighty…maybe “academic” is the word I’m looking for. I loved those books, but from what I remember, they seemed to be filled with lots of thought-provoking, introspective pieces. Maybe the word “serious” is what I’m thinking. Seven years after Jerusalem Creek, Leeson published Inventing Montana. This book contains the classic Leeson writing consisting of “academic” language, such as this sentence from Chapter 7, The Most of It: “Given its encumbrance with conditions and qualifications, many people might dismiss the question as invalid or meaningless to begin with.” But, unlike (to my memory at least) his other two volumes of essays, Inventing Montana has a lot more personal feel. I believe one of the reasons it does so is because of the humor he injects into most of the pieces. This is a welcome element to Leeson’s writing that I think makes this book his most reader-friendly volume yet.

His chapter titled, Local Semiotics, contains a side-splitting discussion among his friends when they happened upon the only open campsite, but it hand an ice scraper in the middle of the picnic table. They tossed around their theories on the plausibility of an ice scraper being used to hold a tent site in a Yellowstone campground (for those of you who visit the Park with any regularity, you’ll understand the importance of finding, and then holding, a campsite). Two of the party

“took up the question from a more or less epistemological standpoint: What constitutes value? How do we know value, and wherein does it reside? And for whom? Is value intrinsic.”

And of course, others in the group

“considered the scraper from the perspective of intentionality. Had it been left deliberately or accidentally? Was it a sign of something other than forgetfulness?”

A park ranger happened upon them in the middle of their conundrum, but refused to weigh in one way or the other.

Leeson has spent the last 20 or so years visiting Montana for about a month with a handful of friends. The group is an eclectic bunch, which creates the backdrop for many of the essays. These essays take place in a relatively small area, the Madison Valley. Focusing on such a small area, with a group of close friends, helps bring an intimacy to the book, an almost folksy feel to it. Such as his essay about Ennis.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ennis, Montana, it is the quintessential cow town, with the added feature of being the quintessential fly fishing town as well (which is an odd dichotomy considering the occasional conflict between cattlemen and anglers). He points out that one thing among small towns is the inhabitants’ penchant for waving to passing automobiles. As a motorcyclist, I’ve grown accustomed to waving to other motorcyclists, but there is always a question of which motorcyclists do you wave to: only the ones riding the same type of bike? Ones with helmets? In town? At a stoplight? Leeson analyzes the problems associated with waving when your license plate clearly shows you are an outsider.

“Mindful of how visitors like myself invade the place each summer, I worry that initiating a wave might be perceived as the overeager ingratiations of a tourist on holiday. Such people presume to a familiarity that does not exist and may force a return wave in a kind of extorted intimacy that leaves the other driver feeling he’s been compelled to engage in a nonconsensual act.”

And of course, what would a Leeson book be without soaring paragraphs of magical prose?

“Some years bring as well, however, a season within this season, a smoldering, incandescent stretch of days when the mercury flirts with triple digits and a string of nights not much cooler—the depths of the dog days and the hottest part of the hottest part of the year….in the forge of each day, the sun hammers the landscape to the same hard and brittle sheet of earth.”

For those of you who might have tried Leeson before but didn’t quite get into it, give this one a try. For those who already enjoy Leeson, you’ll love the extra dimensions this book adds to his repertoire.

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First up is Jared Miller from Streamside Illustrations. He has some fish illustrations that he says he was inspired to draw because of Joseph Tomelleri’s work. He uses the same colored pencil style as Tomelleri, and from what I can see from the web pictures, they’re pretty good quality too (he has close-ups of some of the fish, and you can really see some nice detail). You can view several of his illustrations at his website. I don’t think he has any prints for sale, but what he seems to specialize in is illustrating your fish. Send him a picture and he’ll illustrate it for you. Jared has a blog, but it doesn’t look like he’s updated it in some time. Too bad, because I enjoyed glancing through the posts he does have.

Scott Hale over at Art Creel sent me an email the other day letting me know of his new “90 Fly Fishing Paintings in 90 Seconds” video. This is a great way to see some of the excellent artwork of the nine artists showing and selling work at Art Creel. Once you’ve seen the video, get over to Art Creel and check out your favorites. I love art, but often find it too pricey. There are some very reasonably priced pieces available art Art Creel. (My New Year’s Resolution #27: buy at least one piece of art this year.) A little tucked away section at Art Creel is their blog. I love woodcuts (I’ve tinkered with making a couple myself), and there is an excellent three part post on John Koch’s woodcut “Four Seasons” that goes into some nice depth concerning that woodcut. You should really read it (scroll down a bit until you get to the November 19, post, that’s the first one). John runs his own blog called Trout Lily Studios that I quite admire. If you like reading more in-depth pieces about how an artist thinks and works, subscribe to his blog.

Many of you are probably familiar with Jason Borger’s work at Fish, Flies & Water (art and casting) and Jeff Kennedy of Drawing Flies 365 (painting a new fly every for one year – he does have his book available too). They are collaborating this year on a new project called Drawing Flies 52. Yep, they each draw/paint a new fly once a week for a year. It looks like a fun collaborative in which they each draw/paint the same fly pattern, without knowing what the other is doing. A great wrinkle to this is that they only give themselves 30 minutes to complete the art. (If I had half the talent in ten times the time, I’d be very pleased with myself). They both do a nice job of talking about the technical aspects of their work. Jason also puts up some nice pieces that aren’t art related.

Nick Clement of Reel Escape Films has a nice trailer (4:33) of his In the Land of the Cutthroats (this is the link to the HD version on Vimeo).

This is what fly fishing for cutties is all about: the scenery and the fish. If this doesn’t get you ready for the upcoming fishing season…well, may the fishing gods take pity on your angler’s soul.

“Full Trailer for ‘In the Land of the Cutthroats’ a short film that tells the story of three native trout species that evolved along the Continental Divide in Colorado.

The film is an official selection of the 2010 Fly Fishing Film Tour”

Music by Drew Goldstone www.reeltoreelrecords.com

His art reminds me of early fish illustrations found in biology texts. I think it’s because he uses a lot of browns and there seems to be a type of stippling to his work. I think his warm water fish are especially good. All-in-all I think Thom has some nice work being offered.

Dean Bell, one of New Zealand’s premiere guides, is filmed fishing Fiordland of New Zealand’s South Island. If you aren’t familiar with this part of the world, it is truly beautiful: fjords with their lush landscape and plunging waterfalls; glaciers; the towering mountains of the Southern Alps; and lacing their way through it all are clear, pristine rivers bearing large trout.

If you are interested in a travel DVD, or in any way hope to see the natural wonders of New Zealand (with the exception of beautiful rivers), this is not the DVD for you. I was slightly disappointed because it has been over 20 years since I lived in New Zealand, and visited these places, and I really wanted to revisit them through the DVD—but that is not the purpose of this DVD. If you are planning a trip to NZ to fish, and you want that kind of DVD, there are lots of others out there for that purpose.

If you like watching large brown and rainbow trout caught on large dry flies in incredibly clear water, then pop this DVD in, turn off the volume, and watch 65 minutes of High Definition footage as Dean catches and releases over 20 of these big boys. It looked great on my 50” widescreen, putting me right into the action as if I were there, at Dean’s side.

If, however, you are interested in learning some (mostly) dry fly tactics suitable for not only New Zealand, but anywhere with clear water and picky trout, then turn up the volume and listen in as Dean instructs on not only the “dead drift,” but pre-casting analysis of the conditions of the lie, the cast, and playing the fish to bring it to hand.

He revolves each of these aspects around reading the structure of the water: the rocks and the hydrology of the water caused by those rocks. The lies created by the hydrology dictating where to cast to get the drift that is needed to 1) get the fly to the fish and 2) present the fly in the most natural way possible. And then how to best use the current to play the fish and bring it in.

Dean does an excellent job talking through his immediate thoughts right there on the water. There is the occasional voice-over done in post-processing where some additional analysis goes on as he talks through the different aspects of fishing for a particular fish he caught. (I’m not sure why, but this voice-over was done in Dean’s best “golf commentator” voice. I found this slightly bothersome because when he was on the water, he typically used his regular voice and the fish certainly would hear him better there than in post-processing. It’s not a huge issue, but a non-modulated voice would work a little better for me.)

Steve Couper’s Stealth Films Ltd. did a fine job in filming and editing the audio and video of the DVD. The only suggestions I have for future DVD’s is to change the voice-overs and to add a little extra content at the end. Dean does a nice job summarizing at the end of the DVD, but maybe another section of the DVD accessed through the menu with these points in text format (a bulleted list kind of thing), as well as some of the other salient points made throughout the DVD, would be nice.

This is an enjoyable DVD to just sit back and watch to get your fishing fix (especially during the off season). It also has excellent information to help you improve your sight-fishing skills. Dean is a delightful host who keeps things interesting and exciting without showboating his successes or haranguing his failures.

Purchase the DVD through Stealth Films http://www.stealthfilms.co.nz (go to this link to purchase directly) for $25 + shipping (I thought well worth the price). Check out the 1 minute 16 second trailer here. Steve Couper of Stealth Films was prompt in answering a couple of my questions (see previous post here). The DVD was shipped promptly and arrived quickly.

I do have to apologize to Steve: I wrote the review last August, but never typed it up (I do many of my first drafts on a yellow legal pad, and there it sat). So here it is, a bit belatedly.