Still Life with Brook Trout Audiobook (Free)

Brilliant, witty, perceptive essays on the subject of fly-fishing, the natural world, and lifestyle in general from the acknowledged grasp of fishing writers

In Still Life with Brook Trout, John Gierach demonstrates once again that angling, when done correct, is as much a philosophical pursuit like a sport.

Gierach moves to Wyoming and Maine and points in between, searching out new fly-fishing ventures and savoring familiar waters with outdated friends. On the way he meditates within the importance of great manuals (‘ about Still Existence with Brook Trout Actually, the only thing a psychiatrist can do this a good guideline can’t is compose prescriptions’), the task of salmon angling (‘Salmon prowl. If they are not here today, they could be here in half an hour. Or tomorrow. Or following month’), and the zen of angling by itself (‘I also appreciate where my brain goes when I’m angling alone, which is normally nowhere in particular and by a predictable route’). On a far more significant note, he ponders the damaging effects of disasters both natural and man-made: drought, wildfires, as well as the politics of dam-building, amongst others.

Reflecting on a trip to a small creek near his home, Gierach creates, ‘In my brightest occasions, I think slowing . has opened large new vistas on my old home drinking water. It’s such as a companionship that not only endures, but gets better against the odds.’ Likewise, Still Existence with Brook Trout proves that Gierach, like fly-fishing itself, becomes deeper and richer as time passes.