Description

In The Best Fly Fishing Is Everywhere, Jesse Lance Robbins invites readers into a contemplative journey through water and time. This collection of essays, stories, and meditations moves beyond the pursuit of the perfect cast or the biggest catch. Instead, it explores fly fishing as a dialogue between human and nature, solitude and connection, movement and stillness.

From the misty rivers of Oregon to the urban waters of Tokyo, the windswept flats of Key West to the trout-laced waters of New Zealand, Robbins captures the essence of place and the spirit of the angler. Each chapter is a moment suspended—sometimes triumphant, sometimes humbling, always honest.

Books are signed by the author, and a dedication/personalization (i.e. “To Mom”, “Happy Birthday Dad”, etc.) is available by including requests in the comments on the checkout webpage. Please check spelling of names carefully.

Whether fishing alone or with companions, chasing trout or tarpon, steelhead or smallmouth, Robbins reminds us that the best fishing isn't found on a map. It's found in the way we show up—in reverence, in curiosity, in love for the wild. Because the best fishing isn't about where you go. It's about what you find along the way, and when you get there. This is a book for is a book for any angler, for anyone moved by waters and the pursuit of what resides within. It's for anyone who has ever stood beside a river and felt something ancient stir. With prose that is both poetic and grounded in experience, The Best Fly Fishing Is Everywhere is a meditation on nature, memory, and the quiet joy of being present. Features one-of-a-kind interior artwork from Bre Drake, and cover photography by Chase White.

About the Author: Jesse Lance Robbins is an essayist, creative writer, and journalist whose work has appeared in The Drake Magazine, The Flyfish Journal, Swing the Fly, Modern Huntsman, TROUT, and Atlantic Salmon Journal, as well as online. Jesse has worked in and lived various facets of fly fishing since high school—from fly shop staff, trout bum, guide, casting instructor, trip host, and writer to tackle design and development, marketing, travel, and sales; for over a decade, he worked in-house at Sage, Redington, RIO Products, and Fly Water Travel. He is a frequent reader at the Writers on the Fly event series, and now works in nonprofit fisheries, river, and water conservation, connecting people with the places they love, and the work being done to protect and restore them. A native of midcoast Maine, Jesse and his partner live near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers in Oregon with their cache of old boats, timeless books, acoustic guitars, and always-strung fly rods. For more on Jesse, see: www.jesselancerobbins.com and @jesse.lance.robbins.

Reviews & Praise:

“Robbins stands out for his ability to convey detail and abstractly riff and reflect on the broader fly fishing experience. This earnest, well-crafted collection of stories brings light to the fact that the people we fish with and the moments we share are often more memorable and important than the fish we catch.” —Ken Morrish, co-founder of Fly Water Travel, fly fishing photographer and writer

“Jesse Lance Robbins writes with the patience and precision of a seasoned angler. His sentences are clean, without wasted motion, and his stories linger in that liminal space between solitude and connection—where rolling a cigarette or changing a fly opens into something much larger. In The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere, he finds grace in impermanence and meaning in what others might overlook. Don’t expect answers. Expect company.” —Steve Duda, author of River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing, head of Fish Tales at Patagonia, and former editor of The Flyfish Journal

“Jesse Lance Robbins has an eye for the unusual, the intriguing, and the downright surprising. Whether cataloguing obscene quantities of flies, delineating the precise qualities of a good cast, or simply sharing an old fashioned fishing tale, his eye for the unsung details that make fly fishing such a distinctive and special obsession is unmatched. The best fly fishing is indeed everywhere, because, as Robbins so artfully shows, the great thing about fly fishing is that it stays with us long after the flies have dried and we’ve stowed our rods.” —Jason Rolfe, editor of The Flyfish Journal

“It’s obvious that fly fishing lives in Jesse’s head just as much as it lives in his heart. Fly fishing stories from chasing big browns in New Zealand to tarpon in Florida and anadromous fish near the coasts, make it clear that yes, the best fly fishing is everywhere and Jesse joyously takes you along for the journey. Reading through each essay, you’ll see his head and heart awake, alive, and anticipating his next encounter on a solo adventure or shared with loved ones. Sit down, grab a coffee, and enjoy this escape before planning your next adventure…everywhere.” —Kara Armano, editor of TROUT Weekly

“From Scotland to New Zealand, Bainbridge Island to Key West—Jesse Robbins’ debut transports its reader as surely as a mountain stream carries an elk-hair caddis. Thanks to sharp detail and surprising turns of phrase, we’re right on his shoulder as he casts for musky, Atlantic salmon, permit, Japanese seabass, cutthroat trout, Dean River steelhead, and so many others of this planet’s most intriguing fish. In the end, you might just be persuaded: the world’s best fly fishing exists everywhere that good friends, high adventure, and unflappable optimism converge.” —John Larison, bestselling author of Whiskey When We’re Dry and The Ancients