PRE-SALE
Calling After Water: Dispatches from a Fishing Life (SIGNED EDITION)
Free shipping during pre-sale // This title will be released on October 15, 2024
Dave Karczynski fishes—and writes—with both eyes wide open to the magic of water. With the trademark blend of adventure, humor, and insight that has made him one fly fishing’s most widely published authors, this collection of nineteen essays charts Dave’s journey as he casts his way from the quiet streams of the Upper Midwest to the far corners of the earth—and back again. Readers will tramp across Patagonia with a shamanic brook trout whisperer, raft through the Himalayas in search of golden mahseer, hunt native brown trout in the Bohemian highlands, and revel in the promise of a Northern Michigan spinner fall.
But Calling After Water is more than just a travelogue or memoir. It’s also a book-long effort to plumb fishing’s deepest experiences, and in doing so to probe its many questions. What is the line that separates sanity from madness when it comes to winter steelheading? How does time behave differently for an angler tied tight to a raging muskie? And how would one go about quantifying, with the utmost philosophical rigor, the joy of catching smallmouth in the springtime? With prose that alternately flashes like the sides of a leaping salmon and glitters like riffle water on a summer morning, Calling After Water is one of those rare books that delights its readers as much as it invites them to reflect on their own love of fly fishing.
Hardcover
9 x 6 inches
224 pages
"Calling After Water means it's time to spark that Fuente, take words to the porch, and enjoy a fly fishing stoke reel for the soul."
—Greg Thomas
"I'm not a big fan of fly fishing essays because I'm often disappointed that they just don't capture what a river at sunrise is like. But I'll read anything Dave Karczynski writes, about any subject. He always tells a great story that never falls flat, and is possibly the best young voice in fly fishing today."
—Tom Rosenbauer
"Karczynski has always been one of my favorite writers, and this book takes the game to another level. His prose is very much like my favorite little trout stream—cool, crystal clear, flowing with purpose, and most of all... pure."
—Kirk Deeter
About the Author
Dave Karczynski has cast to fish on four continents and written for just about every fly fishing publication under the sun. His first book, From Lure to Fly, introduced spinning and baitcast anglers to the joy of chasing fish on the fly rod, while his second book, Smallmouth, explored modern techniques and tactics for hunting the bronze bass.
In Calling After Water, his third book and first essay collection, Dave brings together the very best narratives from his time as a contributor to such iconic magazines as Outdoor Life, The Drake, American Angler, The Flyfish Journal, and many others. Dave is the recipient of the Robert Traver Award in fly fishing writing as well as a Zell Fellowship in creative writing. He lives with his wife and daughter on a farm in southern Michigan and teaches writing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
