Title: Stippled Beauties: Seasons, Landscapes and Trout Author: Andrew Fowler Size: 250mm x 210mm, 308 pages ISBN: 978-0-986-67897-1 (print);
This book is not so much about the didactic aspects of fly fishing but is rather a warm, homely and entirely authentic account of one man’s deep and unashamed passion for the pursuit of trout. In real life, the author is a successful entrepreneur but you quickly get the sense would swap all this for that of a trout bum given half a chance. And he relishes in every moment he can escape from his office, load his truck and head for the hills and the trout waters in Kwa Zulu-Natal or the Eastern Cape Highlands. He writes lyrically about these trips, often reflecting back to his youth and to his beginnings, describing events, people, places, family and angling techniques equally well in his eternal quest to hunt trout. He even touches on the particular nuances each season in the year brings to his fishing, right down to, believe it or not – and I can – the seasonal-changes in the smell of the veld lining riverbanks.
Springing from the clear insights of an experienced fly fisher, this book provides a detailed, extremely interesting and invaluable commentary on the countless streams and lakes the author visits with his rod and line, his camera and finally, herein, his pen. Fortunately, there are times when his writing is reflective, even poetic. To my mind these are delightful additions to any serious work on fly fishing, which this book certainly is.
I ask no more of a book like this than that it soothes me in the times that I can’t get out fishing and Andrew doesn’t disappoint in achieving this! He writes about his addiction to all aspects concerning trout as enthusiastically and convincingly as you’d expect a Skid Row junkie to extol the virtues of any of Tennessee’s finest rye whiskeys. It’s a lovely work – Tom Sutcliffe.
If you are heading to South Africa to fish or not to, it doesn’t matter. As a fly angler you’ll enjoy the richly textured prose that accompanies Andrew as he travels to the rivers he calls home.
This is not a where to go, how to fish or even part autobiography it is a little of all but tied up in an interesting and thoughtful package that will appeal to any true fly angler no matter where they fish – Pete Tyjas (Eat Sleep Fish Magazine)
If you are looking for a copy of this book, you can buy a print copy (soft cover), a limited edition (hard cover) or a bulk order from the links below:
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REVIEWS:
“Some books you just want to hold in your hands and have in a place of honour on the shelf, and this is one of them” (Andrew Levy in “The Complete Fly fisherman magazine”)
“A warm, homely and entirely authentic account of one man’s deep and unashamed passion for the pursuit of trout” (Tom Sutcliffe: South African fly fishing personality)
“This well-written, captivating book is not just about fly fishing for trout. It is a delightful collection of Andrew’s personal experiences and anecdotes, his fascinating piscatorial journey, seasons, people and the places he has visited, as well as conservation and his philosophies.” (Peter Brigg, Author of “Call of the Stream”, from his foreword to this book)
