Book

Barilla, James, 1967-

West with the rise : fly-fishing across America / James Barilla.

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2006.

viii, 215 pages ; 23 cm

"West with the Rise is James Barilla's account of an epic, solitary fishing trip that begins in New England and ends in northern California. With little more to keep him company than a graphite rod, a secondhand pickup truck bought for the occasion, and a pair of Nikes he cannot seem to keep dry (they're literally decomposing before his eyes), the author journeys from the spring creeks of the East to Big Sky country and its storied trout streams, along a path that parallels his trajectory from the Massachusetts of his childhood to his adult home in the American West."

"His days on the water are shaped by meditations on family - specifically, the family he and his wife are planning. More than a preoccupation, the topic is to some extent the inspiration for the trip itself. The couple's years-long quest to have a child has brought them to a variety of fertility specialists and the options they offer, including in vitro fertilization. The author takes up and deliberates on these sensitive matters with the same intelligent and low-key attention to detail with which he describes the water's clarity and the coolness of a newfound fishing ground. The question on his mind is not only one of successful treatment but also of why he should desire a child to begin with and of what he would have to offer as a father."

"It is to fly-fishing that Barilla turns for answers. No one would mistake the modern world he travels through for that of the river-going Huck Finn: Barilla drives past strip malls, falls asleep to Dirty Harry playing on his motel-room television, and reads in a trout magazine of a familiar stream now degraded by urban sprawl. But then, as one fishing shop proprietor observes, "No place is what it was." And along his way, the author encounters many settings of uncommon beauty, from Yellow Breeches Creek in Pennsylvania to the Grand Deschutes River in Oregon, each with a singular fishing experience to offer."--Jacket.

Barilla, James, 1967-

Fly fishing -- United States -- Anecdotes.

Anecdotes.

Setting out. -- The biting kind of fly: Mormon Hollow Brook, Wendell, Massachusetts. -- The old party spot: Fish Creek, Taberg, New York. -- Getting intimate with the truck: East Branch of the Delaware River, Shinhopple, New York. -- Beetlemania: Yellow Breeches Creek, Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. -- Green rage: Letort Spring Run, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. -- Off the wagon: Penns Creek, Poe Paddy Campground, Pennsylvania. -- The end of the East: Spring Creek, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. -- The puzzle of an eccentric friend: South Bend, Indiana. -- Troutarama: Pere Marquette River, Baldwin, Michigan. -- Baptism of the Smolt fisherman: Little Manistee River, Irons, Michigan. -- Smolt killer: East Branch Ontonagon River, Kenton, Michigan. -- The road warrior: St. Paul, Minnesota. -- Regrets to the Midwest: Whitewater River, St. Charles, Minnesota. -- Firestorm on the horizon: Bighorn River, Fort Smith, Montana. -- Alone in the dark: Missouri River, Craig, Montana. -- Smoke on the water: Missoula, Montana. -- Nessie: Deschutes River, Maupin, Oregon. -- Ice cube: Williamson River, Collier Springs, Oregon. -- Angling for invertebrates: Annie Creek, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. -- Good-byes: Upper Sacramento River, Dunsmuir, California. -- Searching for holy water: Hat Creek, Cassel, California. -- A last pair of sirens: Pit River, Cassel, California. -- Little fish finale: Yuba River, Penn Valley, California.

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