Full Description
Every Cast - Stephen Sautner's New Book Chronicles the Obsession of Angling
From trout to bonefish to striped bass, more than 60 stories written by a master storyteller
For more than three decades, Stephen Sautner has quietly pursued a fishing addiction while writing about it for The New York Times,The FlyFish Journal, The Drake, Hatch, Anglers Journal, Patagonia, and other publications. His latest book, Every Cast: Stories from a Deeply Hooked Angler gathers more than 60 essays, blending previously published work with more than a dozen new stories. Whether fly fishing for trout, salmon, or bonefish, surfcasting for striped bass, ice fishing for perch, or remembering lost fishing friends, Sautner's insightful, sometimes poignant, and often humorous observations underscore what Thoreau meant when he wrote: "Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."
Sautner freely embraces his compulsion. As he writes in the book's introduction: "They are out there, right now, casting in plain view. . . These are the fish-junkies—angling's version of meth heads. They are forever chasing the dopamine jolt that comes from the perfect cast, the perfect rise, the perfect release. The perfect . . . I know because I am one of them."
The far-reaching stories in Every Cast include casting for wild trout in the familiar Catskill Mountains—the birthplace of American fly fishing—to more exotic locations such as the Alaskan backcountry, Canadian Rockies, and even the Panama Canal. Sautner casts and writes with equal enthusiasm, whether stalking bonefish on a lonely Bahamian flat or chasing schools of striped bass on a beach crowded with scores of his fellow anglers. His stories are not only about angling adventure, but also what can happen between casts: dealing with a surly fishing guide, insect hatches declining on a favorite stream, even witnessing a drowning on a river.
The essays in Every Cast will resonate not only with fellow anglers, but anyone who appreciates well-crafted writing by a master storyteller.
Contents
Introduction
I. Sweet
Carpe May 12th
Gone Trout Fishing with Some Clown
When Things Go Right
Alone on a Catskill Headwater
Trash Talking Trout
River of Sinners
The Bomber and the Brook Trout
Rocking the Eastern Stonefly Hatch
Halftime at the Cabin
II. In Home Waters
Bluelining Dirty Jersey
Why I Dig Stockers
A Winter Afternoon
The Giving Stump
Suckers in a Pool
The Neighborhood Brookie
Tales from the Dark Side
III. Between Casts
It's Time for a Slow Fish Movement
Dude, Where's My Hatch?
Mountain Badass
Two Flies
One Angler's Junk
Low Water
IV. Shad and Friends
Casting for Sapidissima
The Mid-March Delaware Watershed Slam
April Madness
The Boys and Bass of Summer
Bass in the Nick of Time
The Fish of 43 Casts
Anglers of Winter, Chisel in Hand
V. Salty
Waiting for Albert
The Surfmen of Montauk
Queens Bluefish are Kings
We'll Always Have Herring
The Surf Kings of the Jersey Shore
Holy Mackerel, It's Another Herring
Back in Block
Block and Blue
Block Seal's and a Surfcaster's Lament
VI. Chasing the Blitz
The De-Evolution of an Angler
A November Blitz
Three Fishing Journal Entries
A Blitz in Four Acts
Max and Me
The Kid's First Striper
Sweeps Week
We are Gulls
VII. With Rod Tube in Hand
A Port of Call Snags an Angler
Fishing in the Panama Canal is Kind of Weird
Some Casts in Gated Florida
A Singular Red
Phoneless on a Flat
A Char by any Other Name
Faith and Time and Atlantic Salmon
Pile of Fish
Discovering Limits on an Alaskan Stream
VIII. Final Casts
Eric and the Jetty
The Drowning
The Ghost of Dave Palmer
Dead Stuff in the Water
An Island in Time
Acknowledgements
