The Catch of a Lifetime: Moments of Flyfishing Glory

A gorgeously illustrated collection of first-person stories on the sublime joy of flyfishing

Every fly fisher has one: that moment--that ineffable, transcendent moment--they can point to and say, That’s it. That was when time seemed to stop and I felt fully alive. That’s why I fish.
Collected and framed by the award-winning writer Peter Kaminsky, The Catch of a Lifetime presents the moving first-person stories of more than seventy anglers recounting their catch of a lifetime. With its tales of brown trout in Montana and bluefish at Montauk Point, smallmouth in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and unforgettable adventures with giant taimen on the steppes of central Asia, bonefish in New Caledonia, white marlin in the Baja, and golden dorado in the tribal lands along the Amazon’s headwaters, this gorgeously illustrated anthology is a transporting testament to the call that all anglers heed--to get out there and be one with the water. It distills perfectly the magic of the sport; you can’t read it and not want to go fishing.
The contributor list is a diverse who’s who of writers, artists, sportspeople, and others who’ve made flyfishing a singular passion, including Carl Hiaasen, Joan Wulff, Tom Colicchio, Charles Gaines, Rachel Maddow, Mark Kurlansky, Brittany Howard, John McPhee, Verlyn Klinkenborg, and Jared Zissu. Their encounters, their memories, the words they use to describe, say, a forty-pound salmon leaping into the air or the sight of a great blue heron soaring down the creek to steal a catch make this the book of a lifetime for any fly fisher.

Peter Kaminsky is one of America’s leading angling writers. His Outdoors Column has appeared in the New York Times for 35 years. He has been a contributing editor at Field & Stream, Sports Afield, and Outdoor Life. His angling writing has been widely anthologized and also appeared in Fly Fisherman, Conde Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, GQ, and Angler’s Journal. He is the author of The Moon Pulled Up An Acre Of Bass, American Waters: Flyfishing Journeys Of A Native Son, The Flyfisherman’s Guide To The Meaning Of Life, Fishing for Dummies, and Flyfishing For Dummies. He was the first recipient of the C.F. Orvis Outdoor Writing Award. He has also written 18 cookbooks with renowned chefs, including three with Francis Mallmann. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.