Stephen Sautner – författare

Upriver and Downstream gathers seventy columns about fishing—from freshwater to saltwater, from small ponds to the Great Lakes, from the Pacific Northwest to post-Soviet Russia—written for the “Outdoors” column of the New York Times. Contributors include such celebrated names as Nick Lyons, Thomas McGuane, Nelson Bryant, Peter Kaminsky, Ernest Schweibert, and Robert H. Boyle. Short, evocative, informative, and entertaining, here are pieces about fly-fishing for wild brook trout, bait-fishing for striped bass, casting into tailwaters, or angling in midwinter. The settings range from Hudson River piers to the Florida Everglades, from Iceland to the Amazon, and the fish include everything from the common sunfish to the esoteric paddlefish. These engaging essays remind us of what fishing is all about: companionship and solitude, challenge and relaxation, nature and technology, from coast-to-coast to around the globe.Rich with the particulars of water, light, and air, as well as a keen awareness of, as Verlyn Klinkenborg puts it in his introduction, “what is happening out there—in the deep, in the shallows, at the end of the line,” these reflections and recollections beautifully capture the natural world and one of life’s most challenging, perennial pursuits.From the Hardcover edition.

Fish On, Fish Off is the angling version of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Through a series of nearly 50 personal essays, the author explores what happens when the self-taught, DIY angler sets out to fish the world – and winds up stumbling into every possible pitfall and danger along the way. These include: getting chased from a river by an elephant, surviving a terrifying helicopter ride over the Straits of Magellan, and breaking his only rod on the second cast in Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.Closer to home, he is swept off a jetty on Block Island by a rogue wave, winds up in an emergency room more than once with fishing lures hanging from various parts of his anatomy, and perhaps most daunting, surviving 30 years of the scrum better known as opening day of trout season in his crowded home state of New Jersey.If Upriver and Downstream showed the poetry of angling, Fish On, Fish Off shows the scars.

When angler and author Stephen Sautner bought a streamside cabin and some land in the heart of fly fishing country in the Catskill Mountains, he thought he had finally reached angling nirvana. Little did he know what loomed: a series of historical floods, a land rush over fracking for natural gas, and constant battles with invasive species, plagues of insects, and other pests. He takes on all of these threats – between casts for wild trout and other gamefish – and along the way gains a better understanding of stewardship and the interconnectedness between angling and the natural world. Praise for A Cast in the Woods:“New York State's ban on fracking was one of the great triumphs of modern environmentalism, and behind it lay a thousand individual stories of resistance. None has been better told than this one, by a worthy Catskills heir to the literary tradition of John Burroughs and a man who has earned his fishing.”--Bill McKibben, author Radio Free Vermont“If you love wild woods and wild trout, Sautner’s word magic will transport you to the best of both. His battle to preserve them from a daunting array of natural and unnatural forces amuses even as it instructs and inspires.” --Ted Williams, outdoor writer and environmental journalist

When angler and author Stephen Sautner bought a streamside cabin and some land in the heart of fly fishing country in the Catskill Mountains, he thought he had finally reached angling nirvana and would be able to fish whenever he felt like it. Little did he know what loomed: a series of historical floods, a land rush over fracking for natural gas, and constant battles with invasive species, plagues of caterpillars, and other pests. He takes on all of these threats – between casts for wild trout and other gamefish – and along the way gains a better understanding of stewardship and the interconnectedness between angling and the natural world.

Fish On, Fish Off is the angling version of Bill Bryson’s 'A Walk in the Woods'. Through a series of nearly 50 personal essays, the author explores what happens when the self-taught, DIY angler sets out to fish the world – and winds up stumbling into every possible pitfall and danger along the way. These include: getting chased from a river by an elephant, surviving a terrifying helicopter ride over the Straits of Magellan, and breaking his only rod on the second cast in Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. Closer to home, he is swept off a jetty on Block Island by a rogue wave, winds up in an emergency room more than once with fishing lures hanging from various parts of his anatomy, and perhaps most daunting, surviving 30 years of the scrum better known as opening day of trout season in his crowded home state of New Jersey. If Upriver and Downstream showed the poetry of angling, Fish On, Fish Off shows the scars.

Every Cast – Stephen Sautner’s New Book Chronicles the Obsession of AnglingFrom trout to bonefish to striped bass, more than 60 stories written by a master storytellerFor more than three decades, Stephen Sautner has quietly pursued a fishing addiction while writing about it for The New York Times,The FlyFish Journal, The Drake, Hatch, Anglers Journal, Patagonia, and other publications. His latest book, Every Cast: Stories from a Deeply Hooked Angler gathers more than 60 essays, blending previously published work with more than a dozen new stories. Whether fly fishing for trout, salmon, or bonefish, surfcasting for striped bass, ice fishing for perch, or remembering lost fishing friends, Sautner’s insightful, sometimes poignant, and often humorous observations underscore what Thoreau meant when he wrote: “Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”Sautner freely embraces his compulsion. As he writes in the book’s introduction: “They are out there, right now, casting in plain view. . . These are the fish-junkies—angling’s version of meth heads. They are forever chasing the dopamine jolt that comes from the perfect cast, the perfect rise, the perfect release. The perfect . . . I know because I am one of them.”The far-reaching stories in Every Cast include casting for wild trout in the familiar Catskill Mountains—the birthplace of American fly fishing—to more exotic locations such as the Alaskan backcountry, Canadian Rockies, and even the Panama Canal. Sautner casts and writes with equal enthusiasm, whether stalking bonefish on a lonely Bahamian flat or chasing schools of striped bass on a beach crowded with scores of his fellow anglers. His stories are not only about angling adventure, but also what can happen between casts: dealing with a surly fishing guide, insect hatches declining on a favorite stream, even witnessing a drowning on a river.The essays in Every Cast will resonate not only with fellow anglers, but anyone who appreciates well-crafted writing by a master storyteller.

Every Cast Stephen Sautners New Book Chronicles the Obsession of AnglingFrom trout to bonefish to striped bass, more than 60 stories written by a master storytellerFor more than three decades, Stephen Sautner has quietly pursued a fishing addiction while writing about it for The New York Times,The FlyFish Journal, The Drake, Hatch, Anglers Journal, Patagonia, and other publications. His latest book, Every Cast: Stories from a Deeply Hooked Angler gathers more than 60 essays, blending previously published work with more than a dozen new stories. Whether fly fishing for trout, salmon, or bonefish, surfcasting for striped bass, ice fishing for perch, or remembering lost fishing friends, Sautners insightful, sometimes poignant, and often humorous observations underscore what Thoreau meant when he wrote: Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.Sautner freely embraces his compulsion. As he writes in the books introduction: They are out there, right now, casting in plain view. . . These are the fish-junkiesanglings version of meth heads. They are forever chasing the dopamine jolt that comes from the perfect cast, the perfect rise, the perfect release. The perfect . . . I know because I am one of them.The far-reaching stories in Every Cast include casting for wild trout in the familiar Catskill Mountainsthe birthplace of American fly fishingto more exotic locations such as the Alaskan backcountry, Canadian Rockies, and even the Panama Canal. Sautner casts and writes with equal enthusiasm, whether stalking bonefish on a lonely Bahamian flat or chasing schools of striped bass on a beach crowded with scores of his fellow anglers. His stories are not only about angling adventure, but also what can happen between casts: dealing with a surly fishing guide, insect hatches declining on a favorite stream, even witnessing a drowning on a river.The essays in Every Cast will resonate not only with fellow anglers, but anyone who appreciates well-crafted writing by a master storyteller.