The habit of rivers : reflections on trout streams and fly fishing

Originally published in 1994, this book was a fly-fishing phenomenon in the way Howell Raines's __Fly Fishing Through the Mid-Life Crisis__ was. Taking his fishing hobby to near metaphysical levels, Ted Leeson tells about his passions: rivers, trout, and fly fishing. With wry humor and rare insight, he explores questions that engage most fishermen: What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response? Above all, **The Habit of Rivers** is about ways of seeing the wonderfully textured world that emanates from a river. There was a time that I didn't fish, writes Ted Leeson in his introduction to this stunning first book, 'but I cannot remember it. Thirty-five years ago I toddled off to Turtle Creek with a cane pole and worms and returned with a six-inch smallmouth and a monkey on my back. I ate the bass and have been feeding the monkey ever since.' With wry humor and rare insight, The Habit of Rivers tells the story of Leeson's passion for rivers, trout, and fly fishing, and his experiences as a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest - 'the land of unceasing seasons' - he looks beneath the surface of fly fishing to explore questions that engage most fishermen: 'What is the strange gravity of a trout stream? What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response?' Above all, The Habit of Rivers is a book about ways of seeing the wonderfully textured world that emanates from a river. 'Despite its reliance on the line,' Leeson writes, 'fly fishing is not linear. It is radial and weblike. At the center is a rising trout, and millimeters above his nose is the fly. From it, paths trace outward . . . just as far as you wish to go.' In pursuing these paths, Leeson finds everything from salmon, steelhead, and trout, to driftboats, art, insects, gravity, death, philosophy, books, fly tying, and microbreweries - and links them together with an intelligence that is provocative, witty, and illuminating. What emerges is a brilliantly original book about a certain vision of fishing, and fishing as a certain habit of vision, about seasons as spaces and landscapes as times, about rivers that express interior geographies as much as exterior ones. The Habit ofRivers begins with a deep respect for trout and trout streams, and ends in wisdom earned by hard and faithful attention to the natural world. (6 1/4 X 9 1/4, 196 pages)

Philosophy and natural history mingle in this remarkable and evocative collection of essays from an avid angler. Leeson, contributing editor to Fly Rod & Reel magazine touches on a variety of subjects: death, art, sex, fly-tying and other mysteries.

With wry humor and rare insight, The Habit of Rivers tells the story of Leeson's passion for rivers, trout, and fly fishing, and his experiences as a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest - the land of unceasing seasons.

Leeson looks beneath the surface of fly fishing to explore questions that engage most fishermen: What is the strange gravity of a trout stream? Why are we so irresistibly drawn to rivers? Why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response? Above all, The Habit of Rivers is a book about ways of seeing the wonderfully textured world that emanates from a river. In pursuing these paths, Leeson finds everything from salmon, steelhead, and trout, to drift boats, art, insects, gravity, death, philosophy, books, fly tying, and microbreweries - and links them together with an intelligence that is provocative, witty, and illuminating.  The Habit of Rivers begins with a deep respect for trout and trout streams, and ends in wisdom earned by hard and faithful attention to the natural world. 

Philosophy and natural history mingle in this remarkable and evocative collection of essays from an avid angler. Leeson, contributing editor to Fly Rod & Reel magazine touches on a variety of subjects: death, art, sex, fly-tying and other mysteries.

"There was a time that I didn't fish," writes Ted Leeson in his introduction to this stunning first book, "but I cannot remember it. Thirty-five years ago, I toddled off to Turtle Creek with a cane pole and worms and returned with a six-inch smallmouth and a monkey on my back. I ate the bass and have been feeding the monkey ever since." With wry humor and rare insight, The Habit of Rivers tells the story of Leeson's passion for rivers, trout, and fly fishing, and his attempts to understand their remarkable sustaining power. Drawing on his experiences as a newcomer to the Pacific Northwest - "the land of unceasing seasons"--He looks beneath the surface of fly fishing to explore questions that engage most fishermen: "What is the strange gravity of a trout stream? What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response?"