Dances With Trout [Paperback]

John Gierach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 1995

With the wry humor and wit that have become his trademark, John Gierach writes about his travels in search of good fishing and even better fish stories. In this new collection of essays on fishing -- and hunting -- Gierach discusses fishing for trout in Alaska, for salmon in Scotland and for almost anything in Texas. He offers his perceptive observations on the subject of ice-fishing, getting lost, fishing at night, tournaments and the fine art of tying flies. Gierach also shares his hunting technique, which involves reading a good book and looking up occasionally to see if any deer have wandered by.

Always entertaining, often irreverent and illuminating, Gierach invites readers into his enviable way of life, and effortlessly sweeps them along.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The latest paperback offering from Geirach includes a healthy dose of his trademark antidotes to civilization--sly, knowing essays on sport (read: life) wrapped in humor and empathy.

From Publishers Weekly

The steps of this dance will be familiar to Gierach fans: wry, just-might-be-true fishing reports from road trips, river floats and Rocky Mountain hikes, set to the rhythms of a restrained, good-natured polka. This collection of 18 witty pieces, most of which appeared originally in his column for Sports Afield , could have been titled "Dances with Salmon, Deer and Texas Bass and Cha-Chas with Grouse All Over the Place." Gierach relates more hunting adventures here than in such earlier collections as Sex, Death and Fly-Fishing ; the salmon story relates a full-dress British ritual expedition in Scotland, in which Gierach comes across a little like Ralph Cramden on a PGA tour. Most of these pieces demonstrate the author's low-key storytelling style, which occasionally strains, perhaps under the pressure of producing a regular column. Fans will rate this collection somewhere below his classic Where the Trout Are All as Long as Your Leg.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Fireside Ed., 1995 edition (April 19, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671779206
• ISBN-13: 978-0671779207
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #549,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ANother gem from the best fishing writer today, May 11, 2000

By 

Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dances With Trout (Paperback)

You don't have to be a fly fisherman to enjoy Gierach, though it does help. When he waxes ecstatic over bamboo rods, or explains how the Green Drake mayfly (Ephemerella grandis) is differentiated from its cousins, E. doddsi and E. flavilinea, perhaps only a fisherman can understand exactly why this is so important.

But reading Gierach isn't something you do to learn about the technique or the science of fishing, or how to select a rod, or how to cast. He's more about the philosophy of fishing, about why we are willing to stand in the middle of a cold stream wearing silly clothes and waving a stick over our heads. He's the ultimate Trout Bum, to quote an earlier book, a man for whom there really is no other life, and who has made a modest living for years just celebrating this life. And of course he does this in a wonderfully witty way; no jokes, just a lot of observations that will still make you smile the umpteenth time you read them.

"Dances with Trout" is not just about trout fishing, or about fishing, for that matter. The "Scotland" chapter doesn't have much to say about how to fish for salmon; "Fool Hen" is about grouse hunting, and "In the Woods" is about still hunting for deer.

What ties all these stories together is Gierach's feeling of comradery with his hunting and fishing pals, and even more so, a real connection with the outdoors. In a time when for many, "outdoor sports" means something like racing through the woods in a snowmobile, tearing up the peace and quiet of a lake in a jetski or "four wheeling", Gierach writes about the simple pleasures of being outdoors and absorbing the world around you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winter time fishing blues? Read Gierach, November 21, 2000

By 

"rlowery78" (APO, AE USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dances With Trout (Paperback)

Eyes getting tired from tying those #18 cahills? Too Cold to fish? Sit back and go fishing with Geirach. Great Book, great stories!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't flyfish? Don't fish at all? It doesn't matter!, May 15, 2001

By 

troeb (the SF Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dances With Trout (Paperback)

I'm an avid bass angler who has never done much flyfishing, but after reading a good Gierach,(they're all great,) I'm ready to head out to that little creek in Montana, or that bass pond in Texas, or even Scotland with a fly rod and join him. This was the first book of his I read and now I'm on my fourth. I love how relaxed and fun his writing is, and I, personally, can relate to a lot of his views and feelings about things. Even for the non-angler, John Gierach is alot of fun, even if you have no idea what the heck a #14 Royal Wulff is. If you're looking for some great reading, go with Gierach.