208: And A River Runs Through It
What the literature of fly fishing can teach us about leading ourselves and interacting with the world around us.
“I don't think I'm stretching the matter at all to say that given half a chance, a trout stream can make you a better person.“
— Ted Leeson, The Habit of Rivers: Reflections on Trout Streams and Fishing
Steve with a beautiful rainbow that he’s about to release back into the water.
Today’s guest is Steve Ehrlich. Steve is an avid fly fisher. (Is there any other kind?)
Continuing his role as a life-long educator, Steve is now applying his experience and interests in adult learning, psychology, and literature toward a new chapter — sharing fly fishing’s transformative stories and lessons to support personal and professional growth.
Let me say from the outset that our conversation is not about the technical literature on fly fishing: how to tie your own flies, improve your casting techniques, read the water for where trout are feeding or resting, etc. There are scores of books on the technical aspects of the sport, but that’s not the type of fly fishing literature we’re talking about.
We’re talking about the genre of fly fishing literature that speaks to what it feels like
> to stand in a body of fast-moving water and become one with it and the fish it holds;
> to hear the symphony that nature provides through its orchestra of trees rustling in the wind, birds singing, and water running over rocks and partially submerged trees; and
> to gently hold a just-caught fish in the current as it catches its breath and then watch it as it flashes away.
Perhaps most important, we’re talking about the genre of fly fishing literature that speaks to nature and our role in it; about nature’s request that we pause and reflect on how we’re living, interacting with, and leading others. It’s fly fishing as a metaphor for leading an examined and emotionally intelligent life.
“Fly fishing literature is fundamentally an investigation into what it means to be a human being.”
— Mark Browning, Haunted by Waters: Fly Fishing in North American Literature
Connect with Steve
email - steveehrlich76@gmail.com
Linkedin profile
LinkedIn article
Referenced
>Steve’s fall retreat: “Waters of Wisdom, Healing and Hope: The Transformative Power of Fly Fishing and Nature” (for information, contact Steve at homewatersguiding.com
>The Complete Fisherman
“Fishing is living in an environment in which water tells you its stories, and it passes them on to you.”
“Trout streams are conduits for human relations.”
Quinn Grover, Wilderness of Hope, Fly Fishing and Public Lands in the American West
>A sampling of fly fishing literature (highlighted titles are starter recommendations)
The Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle, Dame Juliana Berners
The Complete Angler, Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton
A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean
Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River, John N. Maclean
The River Why, David James Duncan
My Moby Dick, William Humphrey
The Habit of Rivers: Reflections on Trout Streams and Fly Fishing, Ted Leeson
Jerusalem Creek: Journeys into Driftless Country, Ted Leeson
The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing, Thomas McGuane
Halcyon Days: The Nature of Trout Fishing and Fishermen, Bryn Hammond
On the Spine of Time: An Angler’s Love of the Smokies, Harry Middleton
The Earth is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Fly Fishing, Trout, and Old Men, Harry Middleton
The Bright Country: A Fisherman’s Return to Trout, Wild Water, and Himself, Harry Middleton
“Big Two-Hearted River,” Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
What the River Knows: An Angler in Midstream, Wayne Fields
Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, Howell Raines
Holy Water: Fly-fishing Reveries & Remembrances, Jerry Kustich
Around the Next Bend: A Fly Angler’s Journey, Jerry Kustich
Body of Water, Chris Dombrowski
Trout Madness, Robert Traver
“The Testament of a Fisherman,” Robert Traver
Anatomy of a Fisherman, Robert Traver
Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury, John Gierach
Spring Creek, Nick Lyons
A Fly Fisher’s World, Nick Lyons
The Seasons of a Fisherman, Roderick Haig-Brown
“The Angler,” Washington Irving
Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison
God’s Kingdom, Howard Frank Mosher
Little Rivers: Tales of a Woman Angler, Margot Page
Fishless Days, Angling Nights, Sparse Grey Hackle
Trout Tales and Other Angling Stories, Corey Ford
Astream: American Writers on Fly Fishing, Robert DeMott, ed.
Angling Days: A Fly Fisher’s Journals, Robert DeMott
Casting Forward: Fishing Tales from the Texas Hill Country, Steve Ramirez
Casting Onward: Fishing Adventures in Search of America’s Native Gamefish, Steve Ramirez
The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing, Mark Kurlansky
The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life, David Coggins
Haunted by Waters: Fly Fishing in North American Literature, Mark Browning
Fly-Fishing-The Sacred Art: Casting a Fly as a Spiritual Practice, Rabbi Eric Eisenkramer and Rev. Michael Attas
The Spirituality of Fly Fishing: An Introduction, Jody Martin
Storied Waters, David Van Wie
Fly Fishing for Leadership, John Childress and Christian Bacasa
Wilderness of Hope: Fly Fishing and Public Lands in the American West, Quinn Grover
Graced by Waters: Personal Essays on Fly Fishing and the Transformative Power of Nature, John Dietsch
The Fly Fisherman’s Guide to the Meaning of Life: What a Lifetime on the Water Has Taught Me About Love, Work, Food, Sex, and Getting Up Early, Peter Kaminsky
Show Credits
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