Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters [Paperback]

Paul Schullery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

Fly fishing intersects western history in so many ways that it is surprising that more writers--besides historians--have not sensed its rhetorical and scholarly opportunities. As fly fishing's practitioners grow in economic power, political reach, ecological awareness, and clarity of need, those intersections will only become more compelling.

In the fine tradition of angling books that celebrate fly fishing for the way it invites readers into unfettered ecological settings and connects them to the wonder of rivers, Paul Schullery's masterful Cowboy Trout raises to a new level of power the old saying that there is more to fishing than the catching of fish. The heightened sense of a wild place--not merely of the water but of a whole landscape-has turned out to be fly fishing's greatest gift to the West and to those who pursue fish in its rugged embrace.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Schullery, a former director of The American Museum of Fly Fishing, is the author, co-author, or editor of more than thirty books on natural history, conservation, and sport. His previous fly-fishing related books include American Fly Fishing: A History (1987); Royal Coachman: The Lore and Legends of Fly Fishing (1998); and Shupton's Fancy: A Tale of the Fly Fishing Obsession (1995). Paul has received numerous awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate of letters from Montana State University, and the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Center of the American West. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

On July 3, 1889, a young Rudyard Kipling, just then observing, writing, and fishing his way across the United States, stepped from the train in Livingston, Montana, which he quickly judged to be "a grubby little hamlet full of men without clean collars and perfectly unable to get through one sentence unadorned by three oaths." But he loved the countryside, especially the Yellowstone River, which, "hidden by the water willows, lifted up its voice and sang a little song to the mountains." Later that day, as he was riding the park branch line south through Paradise Valley, a sympathetic stranger saw him eyeing the river and told him to "Lie off at Yankee Jim's if you want good fishing." Kipling could not resist.
"Yankee Jim" George ran a toll road through the canyon now named for him, at the south end of Paradise Valley, and did a brisk business with tourists on their way to and from Yellowstone Park. He also took in the occasional guest at his "log hut" overlooking the river. Kipling described him as "a picturesque old man with a talent for yarns that Ananias might have envied," but happily announced that he did not exaggerate the qualities of the river on those hot, sunny days.
Rudyard Kipling was on his way from India to England and was soon to become one of the planet's most celebrated figures. He may seem anything but a typical man of his time, but in one way he was. Among serious fly fishers, he would have pretty much represented the average guy, and his tackle would have revealed just how cosmopolitan that average guy was.
His rod was probably made of "Calcutta" bamboo from India, split and glued into an excellent casting instrument by one of many British or American rodmakers. His line was almost certainly silk from India or Persia, plaited to perfection in some European or American tackle factory. His leaders would have been silkworm gut from Italy, Sicily, Portugal, or (most likely) Spain. His flies could have contained feathers and furs from six continents, tied on Irish, English, or Norwegian hooks, in patterns representing several centuries of British fly-pattern theorizing.
Kipling demonstrated that quite early in what we now might think of as the "frontier days," fly fishing in the "Wild West" was facilitated by a global trade, numerous multinational industries, and the efforts of individual laborers, craftsmen, and artisans in a dozen or more countries. Even in Kipling's time, when you fly fished the West, you brought the world with you.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Montana Historical Society Press; 1st edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097215227X
• ISBN-13: 978-0972152273
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #922,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Schullery writes about nature, especially about the history of our relationship with it and the wonder it still holds for us today. He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than forty books and hundreds of articles. Paul was born in Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1948. He has an M.A. in American History from Wittenberg University, a B.A. in American History from Ohio University, and an honorary doctorate of letters from Montana State University.
At various times since 1972, Paul has worked for the National Park Service in Yellowstone as a ranger-naturalist, historian-archivist, environmental protection specialist, senior editor in the Yellowstone Center for Resources, and chief of cultural resources. He retired from the National Park Service in 2008, but continues to write, publish, and speak on a variety of topics.
Paul and his spouse, the artist Marsha Karle, have collaborated as author and illustrator on five of his books, most recently This High Wild Country: A Celebration of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
Paul's other books about nature include The Bears of Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, American Bears, Mountain Time, Searching for Yellowstone, America's National Parks, Real Alaska, and Lewis and Clark Among the Grizzlies. He has written for dozens of popular and technical publications, ranging from the Encyclopedia Brittanica Yearbook of Science and the Future and BioScience to The New York Times and Outdoor Life.
During one of the times when he was not working in Yellowstone, Paul was executive director of The American Museum of Fly Fishing, in Manchester, Vermont, from 1977 to 1982. His series of books on the history and culture of fly fishing includes American Fly Fishing, Shupton's Fancy, Royal Coachman, Cowboy Trout, The Rise, If Fish Could Scream, and Fly-Fishing Secrets of the Ancients. He has received several honors for this work, including the Federation of Fly Fishers' Roderick Haig-Brown Award.
Among other awards, Paul is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of letters from Montana State University, the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Center of the American West, a Panda Award for scriptwriting from Wildscreen International, and the Communications Award from the George Wright Society.
Paul wrote and narrated the 2002 PBS film "Yellowstone: America's Sacred Wilderness." He served as an advisor and interviewee for the Ken Burns film "The National Parks," broadcast in 2009.
Since 2009, Paul has been scholar-in-residence at the Montana State University Library.
For a recent interview, see Dayton Duncan's book The National Parks: America's Best Idea (Knopf, 2009), pages 252-255.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cowboy Trout will "hook" any reader, July 19, 2006

By 

Patrick Cross - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters (Paperback)

Paul Schullery's Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing as if it Matters is not another fishing story about the big one hanging on the wall or the even bigger one that got away. Rather, this collection of essays explores how fly-fishing shaped the attitudes, identity, and culture of the West, especially in Montana and the Greater Yellowstone region. Fly-fishing was not a new sport when it arrived in the West in the mid-nineteenth century, but since then, according to Schullery, a distinctive western style has emerged. Cowboy Trout demonstrates how westerners made fly-fishing their own without abandoning angling's traditions.

The first essay examines our ideas of "sport," comparing modern catch-and-release fishing with the seventeenth-century practice of tying a pike to a goose (both alive and both very unhappy) for the entertainment of English noblemen. Two essays describe the fishing in early-day Yellowstone National Park--from the time visitors fished to avoid the threat of starvation to the time when the visitors themselves became a threat to Yellowstone's fisheries. Another essay, titled "A River Runs Through It as Folklore and History," features Schullery's somewhat controversial reactions to Norman Maclean's fly-fishing classic.

The essay "Dark Stones and Devil Scratchers" describes the evolution of the artificial salmonfly. This giant, orange-bodied flying bug hatches in early summer out of western rivers and causes a trout feeding frenzy, yet because the salmonfly was unknown in the East, early anglers had to imitate the bug using traditional patterns tied on big hooks. But fly tiers in western Montana began crafting their own imitations, like the "Bunyan Bug" with its hand-carved and -painted wood body (made popular by Maclean's A River Runs Through It after its original popularity among Montana anglers), the "Mite" series of woven hair flies developed by a Missoula wigmaker, or the "Black Creeper" tied to imitate the aquatic salmonfly nymph. Today, some of these flies can still be found in flyshops alongside more recent attempts to imitate the same bug. The newer flies often combine natural materials with the latest in fly-tying technology, like rubber, foam, and shiny plastic, yet the classics still seem to catch fish just fine.

In this and other essays, Schullery's extensive research and witty writing style convey the tales, tricks, tackle, and techniques of legendary western fisherman like George Grant and Warren Gillette. This history helps today's fisherman connect to local traditions whether he is floating past the rain-spattered rocks from the basement of time that line the Big Blackfoot, stripping a streamer along the undercut banks of the Big Hole, or tossing a salmonfly imitation behind the pier at Varney Bridge on the Madison.

Cowboy Trout's message that fly-fishing has influenced western identity as much as westerners have influenced fly-fishing satisfies those seeking a greater role than mere sport for fly-fishing or those who need justification for the disproportionately large amount of their life spent fishing. But if this latter group shares Schullery's great love of fly-fishing, they should need no justification.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can fly fishing make you a Western?, August 8, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters (Paperback)

Enhanced with 30 illustrations, a bibliography and an index, Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters by Paul Schullery (former director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing) is a 288-page book that is basically devoted to answering the question posed by the author in his introduction: "Can fly fishing make you a Western?". Schullery writes with an articulate flair about flying fishing in western culture; fly fishing in the Yellowstone country in 1870; fly fishing in the Yellowstone country in the 20th century, fly fishing rivers in folklore and history, fly fishing as sport and to put food on the table; spiritual aspects of fly fishing; demystifying some "sacred cows" of fly fishing, and how the life lessons of fly fishing have historical reached far beyond casting a line in a pond, stream, lake or river. Cowboy Trout should be considered "must" reading for anyone who ever threw in a line off the back of their boat, waded hip deep in a stream, or just sat on a river bank and waited for a nibble.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cowboy Trout, September 24, 2007

By 

D. Houdeshell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cowboy Trout: Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters (Paperback)

Schullery's review of the historical development of fly fishing in the West and the unique contribution of Westerners is a valuable and needed contribution to literature. It is well written and adds to the body of knowledge about Western fly fishing. Up until the past few decades, most writing has been about Eastern fly fishing.