Headwaters

"What is fly fishing? Everything." Anglers will find Tomine's book a spirited defense of that thesis. -- Kirkus Reviews
Tomine delivers a work that informs and moves in equal measure. This is sure to reel in readers. --Publishers Weekly
Fisherman Tomine (Closer to the Ground) combines incandescent personal reflections and environmental advocacy in this moving paean to fly fishing. "Fishing was never a sport... for me," Tomine writes at the outset, rather, it's "who I am." What follows is a vivid portrait of a man in pursuit of a lifelong obsession. As he relates, his "steelhead jones" had its hooks in him early, during his childhood fishing for trout in Oregon in the 1970s and, later, as a teen "too busy trying to catch my first steelhead" to notice girls. Arriving at adulthood, he recounts such adventures as catching a 90-pound giant trevally bonefish, and embarking on an expedition to the Russian Arctic-where the abundance of trout was rivaled only by the region's mosquitos. Later chapters witness his evolution from acolyte to conservationist; in one section, he memorably recalls screening the conservationist documentary Artifishal to a sold-out crowd in Japan, where the "culture [is] built around the eating of fish." Mixing good-natured humor with a reverence of the world around him-"It starts with the fish itself. The sleek, chrome beauty... carrying all the strength and fecundity of the sea to inland waters"-Tomine delivers a work that informs and moves in equal measure. This is sure to reel in readers. (Apr.) -- Publishers Weekly
. . . a sparkling, elegiac book. -- The Wall Street Journal
Dylan Tomine isn't just a writer, he's a researcher, reporter, biographer, historian, humorist, essayist, and columnist. But mostly, he's just a great storyteller-one that understands a story needn't be twelve thousand words to be compelling. -- The Drake

With quick delivery, injections of humor and such
locales as Northwest steelhead country, Patagonia,
Russia and Japan, Tomine's explorations will keep you
in your chair when the river is too swollen to fish. But
after a day or two of dropping water levels, the author
will be the first to tell you to go cast a line: "It's just
that when the river's right, the river's right. -- Anglers' Journal

I belong to an informal book club on Skype with three college buddies

scattered from New England to the Pacific Northwest. Over the years, we have

discussed many elevating reads. But this is one of the best I've encountered

in a long while. I'm the only angler in the group. Still, my friends harbor

eclectic interests and love good stories in all forms. Next time it's my turn to

choose, this book gets the nod.-Scott Dailey, American Fly Fishing