Death Taxes And Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly Fishing Treasury [Hardcover]

John Gierach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2000

Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders collects forty of John Gierach's finest essays on fishing from six of his books. Like all his writing, these essays are seasoned by a keen sense of observation and a deep knowledge and love of fishing lore, leavened by a wonderfully wry sense of humor. Gierach often begins with an observation that soon leads to something below the surface, which he finds and successfully lands. As Gierach says, writing is a lot like fishing.

This is the first anthology of John Gierach's work, a collection that is sure to delight both diehard fans and new readers alike. To enter Gierach's world is to experience the daily wonder, challenge, and occasional absurdity of the fishing life -- from such rituals as the preparation of camp coffee (for best results, serve in a tin cup) to the random, revelatory surprises, such as the flashing beauty of a grayling leaping out of the water. Gierach offers nuggets of practical wisdom on choosing fly patterns and travel companions ("Do not go fishing with someone who is so set on being back at a certain time that he will refuse to invent a case of car trouble to keep you on the water an extra day"), vocabulary ("Expertizing means acting like an expert. Not necessarily being an expert, mind you, but acting like one"), and how to fish metaphorically ("Fly-fishing for trout is poetic; for bass it's somewhat existential; for panfish it's corny, but fun"). In rivers from Colorado to Scotland, whether alone or accompanied by his fishing buddy A.K. ("I enjoy fishing too much to risk my life at it. Death can really cut into your fishing time"), Gierach vividly captures both the subtle rhythms of the angling life and the natural world on which it depends.

In "The Purist," John Gierach says of fly-fishing that it "led you inexorably to one paradox after another. The idea was to catch fish, but the best writers made it evident that it was perfectly okay not to as long as you failed to catch them with the proper grace and style."

Whether he's catching fish or musing on the ones that got away, Gierach is always entertaining and enlightening, writing with his own inimitable blend of grace and style, passion and wit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are two things no dedicated fly-fisher can really have enough of: a decent selection of flies on the stream and a decent selection of John Gierach off of it. Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders should go a good way toward satisfying the latter. In this "greatest hits" of essays culled from Gierach's previous collections, the genial wit and astute observer behind Another Lousy Day in Paradise, Dances with Trout, and Trout Bum reels in 40 of his favorite keepers. Considering the quality of Gierach's writing, calling Headwaters a "treasury" is no fish tale at all.

Reading Leaky Waders is like recalling some memorably productive afternoons on the stream with an old fishing buddy. Writing about his sport and his adventures, Gierach is naturally writing about much more: "I've always tried to figure out what a story is about," he'll admit readily. "It's something other than the fishing but that wouldn't have come up without the fishing." As in "The Purist," an essay from The View from Rat Lake: it's vintage Gierach, an excuse to use fishing to open a window onto human nature. "What is it about fly-fishing," he asks,

that attracts ... those people who must engineer a corner of their lives--sometimes a pretty large corner--where things have to be done properly? I'm not sure I know, but whatever it is, it's why the sport can be used to define the very existence of the practitioner.

From there, he connects, with deft precision, the seemingly diverse strands of his own experience as a plumber's helper, a fire on the Cuyahoga River, Zen, a little fishing history, a brief meditation on the dry fly, B.B. King, such noted anglers as G.E.M. Skues and Gierach's own great fishing accomplice A.K. Best, Idaho's Three Rivers Ranch on the Henry's Fork, and a graceful dismissal of snootiness and pretension. It's a skillful performance. Before you're finished with Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders, you'll find 39 more that are just as good. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly

Gierach, perhaps the most original, entertaining and keen outdoors writer working today, is in fine form in this anthology of 40 stories, which the author has selected from his past books. In pursuit of noble trout, scrappy bluegill and other fish, Gierach (Trout Bum, Fishing Bamboo, etc.) has traveled from Texas to Scotland and back again. Here he treats readers to observations compassionate, scathing and frequently hilarious. Though once a philosophy major who harbored more serious literary ambitions, Gierach writes without a trace of pretension, a trait that sets him refreshingly apart from other fly fishermen, whose disdain for spin casters is mostly unwarranted and always tiresome. Gierach dissects the issue with his usual wit in one of the book's finer essays, "The Purist." Speaking of the fly-fishing elite, he writes, "To do it right you'd have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each." As the stories are all culled from past works, longtime fans will find nothing new except the largely unremarkable illustrations that introduce each chapter. But for those lovers of outdoors writing who are uninitiated to Gierach's style, a finer collection of the author's work could scarcely be found. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (June 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068486858X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684868585
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #368,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Gierach is the author of several previous books, including At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman, Standing in a River Waving a Stick, and Dances with Trout. His work has appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal, Field & Stream, where he is a contributing writer, and Fly Rod & Reel, where he is a columnist. He also writes columns for the Longmont (CO) Daily Times-Call and the monthly Redstone Review. He lives in Lyons, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Outdoor Book, April 9, 2008

By 

A. D. Cox (northern PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders : A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury (Paperback)

Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders

Time, little pieces of forever crumbling into tomorrow, so fleeting so fast, so damn close to April 15th and tax day. I received a letter from the IRS, and after a big breath, and popping a fresh load of buckshot into the old 12 gauge, I decided to read it. Appears the government is giving me $600 of my own money back in order to stimulate the economy. They could have saved a stamp and given me $600.41 cents back, or better yet, left it in my pocket. I would have tickled the economy by buying food, books, and of course, fishing gear. Yep, the first true sign of spring isn't robins or dandelions or even April showers, but that first tug at the end of a fishing line. The first day of trout season is always about more than the fish, and no one knows that better than outdoor writer John Gierach.

John Gierach is a free-lance writer and author of several fly-fishing themed books with titles such as Still Life With Brook Trout; Sex, Death and Fly-Fishing; and the cult classic, Trout Bum. His work has appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal, Field & Stream and Fly, Rod and Reel. His writing is not purely instructional, though there's plenty of useful information, nor merely adventurous, though he travels from the Arctic to Scotland to the Rockies, and it's not the purist philosophy of an elite fly fisherman, though there's a witty thinker with a wry sense of humor wearing that patched-up pair of waders. What he does manage to do is explain the peculiarities of the fishing life in a way that will amuse novices and seasoned fly fishers alike.

Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders collects forty of John Gierach's finest essays on fishing from six of his earlier books. Gierach is perhaps one of the most entertaining outdoor writers working today. Like all his writing, these essays are about more than fishing, but about nature, friendship, and observations of life. Gierach often begins with a keen observation that soon leads to something below the surface, which he coaxes out, and successfully lands. As Gierach says, "Writing is a lot like fishing."

Writing is a lot like fishing. Both take patience, persistence, lots of time, an appreciation of the process, and both are harder than they appear. This anthology of Gierach's work is sure to comfort the angler who stands in a cold river for hours and brings home nothing to show for it. As any fisherman knows, there's more to fishing than the fish, and like any good writing, this collection of essays is about more the preparation of camp coffee or catching arctic graylings, but ultimately about life, death and of course, fly fishing...

If you love this book, check out "Of A Predatory Heart" by Joe Parry and "Of Woods and Wild Things" by Don Knauss

Fish or cut bait? Trout or Bass? Drop me an email at [e-mail] Trolling for past columns? Cast your line at www.frommyshelf.blogspot.com Be sure to catch "Hobo Finds A Home" a children's book about a cat who wanted more out of life than to be a barn cat. This column approved by the committee to elect Hobo for President

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death, Taxes and Leaky Waders, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Death Taxes And Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly Fishing Treasury (Hardcover)

I splurged on this book without knowing anything about John Gierach (sacrilege?), and felt like I'd discovered America. As an inchoate fly-fisher, I found his stories so exciting that every time I sat down to read it I wanted to rush out to practice my casting in the hope that one day, I too would have stories like these to tell. I've found that many books by veteran fishermen discourage me from trying to get my waders wet--this book does the opposite (and I wonder if the author regrets this response!) Huzzah huzzah.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quaint it ain't, September 22, 2000

By 

Gerald W. Buckley (Tulsa, Ok United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Taxes And Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly Fishing Treasury (Hardcover)

John's writing is in one of those styles you look forward to crummy weather so you can justify sitting down and getting a kick out of his antics. To do otherwise, well heck, you'd feel like he'd wag a finger at you and ask, "Why the hell aren't you fishing you dolt!? See that hatch? See that rise? Drop my book and tie into those beautiful little torpedos!"

The stories are marvelous. John's fishing and hunting partners are a hoot. And I can't help but think that there's some cryptic means of deciphering his secret fishing spots by selecting every third letter of every ninth word of every other paragraph... or something like that.

The illustrations are GREAT! Hope I can find a garage sale edition of the book so I can demolish it for the pictures.

John, great job and hope your St. Vrain is chugging along for you.

GB in Tulsa