The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life

by David Coggins Narrated by Stephen Graybill

Overview

An “excellent” (The New York Times) modern tribute to an ageless pastime, and a practical guide to the art, philosophy, and rituals of fly fishing, by an expert, lifelong angler.

In The Optimist, David Coggins makes a case for the skills and sensibility of an enduring sport and shares the secrets, frustrations, and triumphs of the great tradition of fly fishing, which has captivated anglers worldwide.

Written in wry, wise, and keenly observed prose, each chapter focuses on a specific place, fish, and skill. Few individuals, for example, have the visual acuity required to catch the nearly invisible bonefish of the Bahamas flats. Or the patience to land the elusive Atlantic salmon, “the fish of a thousand casts,” in eastern Canada. Pursuing these challenges, Coggins, “a confirmed obsessive,” travels to one fishing paradise after another, including the great rivers of Patagonia, private chalk streams in England, remote ponds in Maine, and New York City's Jamaica Bay. In each setting, he chronicles his fortunes and misfortunes with honesty and humor while meditating on how fishing teaches focus, inner stillness, and a connection to the natural world.

Perfect for the novice, the enthusiastic amateur, and the devoted angler alike, The Optimist offers a practical path to enlightenment while providing “a rueful, thoughtful, and very funny examination of an elegant obsession” (Jay McInerney).

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Anyone interested in fly fishing or curious how the sport could possibly be of interest to anyone should hop to David Coggins’s excellent The Optimist."
—The New York Times

“This is a wonderful book but to be honest, Coggins writes so well that he could rivet our attention to anything—cottage cheese, Ted Cruz, the Detroit Lions—and we would follow every sentence with remarkable obedience."
—Thomas McGuane, author of The Longest Silence

"Coggins' keen observations of this genteel pursuit are offered with humor, a dash of wisdom, and an enthusiasm so infectious you'll be itching to perfect your backcast between chapters."
—Fortune Magazine, "Best Books of 2021"

"Humorous and relatable. . . . A great read for fly fishing enthusiasts and novices alike."
—Flylords

“David Coggins is a pro, and his book is smart and aware and generous, the writing elegant, the humor tucked in just the right places."
—TROUT Magazine

“Immersive, true, pitch-perfect, and a soon-to-be classic. Coggins is a fresh voice in the fly-fishing canon, a wry genius, and the perfect guide for angler and non-angler alike.”
—Chris Dombrowski, author of Body of Water

“Lively, humoristic but informative. . . . [Coggins is] a talented and entertaining writer."
—Atlantic Salmon Journal

"[The Optimist] makes a nice philosophical case for fly fishing."
—GQ

"An entertaining read and intelligent resource for anglers and non-anglers alike. . . . At the height of his literary talents, the author ultimately reveals a healthy approach to angling--and to life in general."
—Virginia Sportsman

“To paraphrase an old saying: Writing about fly fishing is like dancing about architecture. It's nearly impossible to capture but David Coggins does it as well as anyone, and I thrilled to his adventures from England to Patagonia to America's great rivers.”
—Tom Rosenbauer, author of The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide

“I’ve fished many of the rivers in this book but I hadn’t seen them run and shimmer the way they do in Coggins’s lively prose. What’s more, I’d given up on fishing, I don’t know why—maybe the world was too much with me; okay, let’s just say I’ve been preoccupied with ephemera rather than the eternal, which is what fly-fishing makes one confront. I closed this last chapter and said hell or high water, I was going to get back to the rivers and streams I’ve missed. There’s much to fall in love with in this world, and this book reminded me of that.”
—Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Horse Soldiers

“The Optimist is a rueful, thoughtful and very funny examination of an elegant obsession. Coggins does a terrific job of evoking the joys of fly fishing and also the frustrations, which are inextricably linked. This is the best book I’ve read on fishing since Thomas McGuane’s The Longest Silence.”
—Jay McInerney

“Wonderfully written, consistently amusing, grand but never grandiose.”
—Lesley M.M. Blume, author of Fallout

“An excellent primer for the beginning fly angler and a lyrical reminder of all there is to love about the sport for even the most jaded of old hands.”
—Monte Burke, author of Lords of the Fly and Saban

“A wise, affectionate chronicle of a passion pursued.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Coggins is a virtuoso. He has written a modern fly fishing classic."
—Oppstrøms

“A pure and extended love letter to fishing. . . . what grows on you and ultimately stays with you while reading The Optimist is his sheer exuberance and honesty. The real brotherhood of fishing might occasionally be about fishing triumphs, but just as often if not more, it is about failures. And we get streamside seats to all of Coggins’s."
—The Washington Free Beacon

"A lovely, ruminative book about a venerable sport. . . . Coggins’s enthusiasm for fly fishing is so infectious that the book will readily hook non-fishers as well.”
—Library Journal

Library Journal

05/07/2021

Adherents of fly fishing will find much to like in this latest book by Coggins (Men and Style). He describes coming to the sport through two grandfatherly types who took him under their wings when he was a young man. Coggins's ardor for the sport has found him fishing for brown trout in England, Atlantic salmon in New Brunswick, and bonefish in the Bahamas, among others. Along the way, he shares the quiet triumphs and discoveries that he arrived at through fly fishing. This work transmits the message that success in the difficult sport of fly fishing—like in any other pursuit—requires a combination of steadfastness and a willingness to alter your techniques. In chapters that offer a meditation on both fly fishing and nature, Coggins considers the way they overlap and inform each other. In each fishing spot he visits, he contemplates the natural history of the area and how it has changed over time. VERDICT A lovely, ruminative book about a venerable sport; it bears comparison to Adrian Smith's Monsters of Rivers and Rock. Coggins's enthusiasm for fly fishing is so infectious that the book will readily hook non-fishers as well.—Brian Renvall, New Mexico State Univ. Carlsbad

Kirkus Reviews

2021-02-24
Have rod, will travel: the education of a devoted fly fisherman.

“Angling is about anticipation and planning trips far in the future, but it also has a storied history,” writes Coggins. “This sport has been practiced since Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler was published in 1653, in ways that are, to the naked eye, fairly unchanged today, like a Shakespeare play performed on a thrust stage.” Coggins, who writes about fishing for the Robb Report, adds to the canon with this reflective, leisurely travelogue about some of his favorite fishing spots. Because anglers, like gamblers, are addicted to the “chance of winning,” they must be optimists: The “angler is master of a kingdom that always threatens to crumble.” Coggins reminiscences about when he went fly-fishing for smallmouth bass in Wisconsin with his grandfather’s friends and learned the fine arts of casting and maneuvering a canoe and the vernacular of bobbers, leaders, and flies. Then the author takes us to see the cutthroat trout in the “mecca of American angling,” Montana, a state that “calls the faithful like the Louvre calls painters.” Of course, there were plenty of mistakes—e.g., a broken rod and the humiliation of losing a trout that “broke me off”—before he caught “a perfect fish.” Coggins also recounts his trip to the “wonderfully isolated and remote” flats of the Bahamas to experience saltwater fishing and to catch a fish he’s never seen before, the “silver phantom” bonefish. In Patagonia, the author sought rainbow trout, the “golden retriever of fish,” whose luminous color “mirrors the joy of catching one.” Among the author’s many other adventures: chasing striped bass in New York’s Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, running with Atlantic salmon in New Brunswick, Canada (“many shattered dreams lay at the altar of this revered fish”), and pond fishing for brook trout in the Maine North Woods, “a 3.5-million-acre wilderness that extends all the way to Canada.”

A wise, affectionate chronicle of a passion pursued.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177037981
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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