Casting a Spell

The California Literary Review discusses the book, "Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection" by George Black.


Some years ago, back in the days of its relative anonymity, fly fishing was considered an arcane art practiced by mildly addled, eccentric cranks. Few people even new what fly fishing was. Guides, the few that existed, were normally cantankerous, rarely sober and usually showed up in a battered pickup truck featuring a cracked windshield and a bed filled with empty beer and oil cans, a chainsaw and a hunting dog. Equipment was not easy to find. Graphite fly rods were far off in the technological distance and garishly-colored bonefish scrubs were not around. Rivers were uncrowded and the living was good.