Sport Fishing

Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays about fly-fishing, the natural world, and life in general by the acknowledged master of fishing writers.

In Casting Forward, naturalist, educator, and writer Steve Ramirez takes the listener on a yearlong journey fly fishing all of the major rivers of the Texas Hill Country.

Nature provides us with many examples of the best ways to set goals, solve problems and set ourselves up for success. “Winning With The Wild Life” is a compilation of true stories of hunting and outdoor adventures that are each told to make a point about living a good and positive life. A case is made for the hunter-provider as a conservationist with specific historical and modern examples of the positive impacts outdoorsmen and women are making on our wildlife and our wild lands.

J. W. Schultz (1859-1947) was an author, explorer, and historian who lived among the Blackfeet as a fur trader. In his famous book Rising Wolf, Schultz tells the story of Hugh Monroe who came to the Blackfoot country when he was 16 and was adopted into the Blackfeet tribe. He accompanied war parties, took part in buffalo hunts, and helped to make peace between the Crows and Blackfeet.

Often just one tip or tactic makes the difference in whether you take an elk home to dinner or have to hike back to the truck by yourself. In John E. Phillips’ latest elk book, Elk: Keys to 25 Hunters’ Success, you’ll learn from successful elk hunters the strategies they use to find and take elk.

Anyone who tells you that he or she knows everything there is to know about hunting elk will lie to you about something else. That’s why I’ve written this book, Elk: Keys to 23 More Hunters’ Success, and included more information to follow my highly-successful earlier book, Elk: Keys to 25 Hunters’ Success. The first two men in this new book, Ronnie Strickland and Will Primos, have a combined total of 78 years of elk hunting experience, often calling in several bulls in numerous states for other hunters each year. Not all these bulls have been taken.

Paradise, Gierach shows us, is relative; it can be found in the guilty luxury of fishing private waters or when one is soaked to the skin, in a small canoe on a big lake in a storm a hundred miles from anywhere, exhilarated after a day's fishing. There are also pleasures to be found in unexpected places: solitary fishing trips, fishing for less-appreciated fish like carp, or meeting a guide who at first seems like an inarticulate ax murderer but who proves to be a "Zen master among fishing guides."

Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, long considered the bible of fishing, is a joyful celebration of the English countryside and the relaxed and reflective lifestyle of the devoted fisherman. Through dialogue between teacher and student, the book sheds a unique light on fishing, baiting, and cooking, including an original recipe for trout. Its music, rhymes, poetry, and humor are all brought to life by a full cast.

Once an angler masters a graphite rod, his interests often move on to the original fly rod, pliant bamboo. Until the mid-twentieth century, nearly all fly rods were bamboo. By the 1970s, fiberglass and graphite changed the world of fly-fishing. But more and more anglers are seeing bamboo rods in retail outlets, and want to give them a try.

An end to Roderick L. Haig-Brown’s seasons cycle, Fisherman’s Summer is a book that can be listened to again and again, for both knowledge and pleasure. In this installment, he focuses again on the rivers of his native British Columbia such as the Campbell, the Columbia, and the Nimpkish. Among his vast wealth of knowledge concerning fly fishing, listeners are also exposed to his wise reflections.

Hunting has a rich history and many modern uses. For some, it is a thrilling sport; for others, it is a chance to challenge nature; and then for those like me, it is a way to provide food and other necessities. Wild game meat is free from hormones and harmful chemicals, is organic, and is really good for you. If you can catch it yourself, then you will literally know where your meat comes from. You can prepare the meat yourself too. My book will teach you how. In this book, I’m going to discuss everything you need to know about wild game hunting if you are a beginner.

Fishing was Mark Hume’s passion since he was a young boy, a lifeline through a childhood marked by his family’s frequent moves. When he became a father, he knew he wanted to pass on his love of water, fishing, and the natural world to his daughters. Most of all, he wanted to give them hope for their future. As soon as they were old enough, Mark taught his girls how to read the water and see the patterns in nature. He discovered that fly fishing and fatherhood require many of the same skills: patience, flexibility, and the knowledge of when to reel in and when to let go.

A fourth-generation fisherman, Jake Anderson, grew up in the rich fishing environment of Anacortes, Washington. At age 17, Jake began salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and by the age of 25 he was crab fishing in the Bering Sea. Soon after, Jake became a deckhand on the F/V Northwestern and joined the popular television series Deadliest Catch. Aside from fishing, Jake has a harrowing story that has yet to be told. As an avid skateboarder, Jake aspired to become a professional until he was sidelined by injury, addiction, and homelessness.

Though he made his name and fortune as an author of Western novels, Zane Grey's best writing has to do with fishing. There, he was free from the conventions of the Western genre and the market's expectations, and was able to blend his talent for narrative with his keen eye for detail and sense of humor (much of it self-deprecating) into his books and articles.

It can take a lifetime to learn the intricacies and minutia of firearms, but law enforcement officers are expected to possess this knowledge their first day on the job. What is the solution to this problem? The easiest method is to cheat and get the knowledge in bulk from someone who has already spent a lifetime learning about guns. Beyond Basic Firearms Safety gives the listener all the tips and tricks that Robert Ryan has picked up over the decades while working with guns as a firearms journalist, hunter, and all-around gun troubleshooter.

These essays recount his adventures alone and with friends, taking listeners through the seasons. In Paulsen’s north country, every expedition is a major one, and often hilarious. Once again Gary Paulsen demonstrates why he is one of America’s most beloved writers, for he shows us fishing and hunting as pleasure, as art, as companionship, and as source of life’s deepest lessons.

So, you're interested in hunting but you've never done it, and you don't know where to start. Well for starters, welcome, and relax - it is not as daunting as you may think. It used to be that you knew when someone was going to be busy with hunting, there was a definite season, but you may be surprised to learn that hunting has now become a four-season sport. This book is going to lay out some of the basics and make it easy and fun.

The time is ripe to learn the proper way to train the mind, using Bob Palmer’s revolutionary high-performance system that utilizes the state of mind called the Zone. Bob has been teaching world-class shooters to get into the Zone for more than two decades, and now he has written the ultimate book for winning. Bob holds nothing back in his quest to give you a step-by-step approach to winning that is understandable and easy to learn and literally takes your moments of brilliance to your whole game.

Originally published in 1994, this book was a fly-fishing phenomenon in the way Howell Raines' Fly Fishing Through the Mid-Life Crisis was. Taking his fishing hobby to near metaphysical levels, Ted Leeson tells about his passions: rivers, trout, and fly fishing. With wry humor and rare insight, he explores questions that engage most fishermen: What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response?

In 2022 I drew one of Colorado’s coveted Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep hunting permits. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew little to nothing about hunting Bighorn sheep, or the high alpine country they inhabit. Knowing that I was unprepared, I solicited the help of a couple of friends to join me. This is the story of what it took to get there and what happened when we did. Through triumph and loss, I got a better understanding of one of the animals that are one of America’s conservation success stories.