Stream Feathers: Fly Fishing with a Naturalist

If you have ever fly-fished or wished you had, "Stream Feathers" is a must read book to experience the mystique of fly-fishing in the wild Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania. Something quite unexpected happens to those who fish downstream for two miles in the company of the naturalist, Hoxie. There are adventures and unexpected encounters with wildlife around each bend. All combined with the thrill of fighting a pugnacious trout. In a sequence of 16 episodes, each farther down stream from the other, we follow Hoxie in his valiant quest to catch a trout larger than his dads 24 inch Brown Trout. In the end - through deep truths found - beating his dad's trout becomes inconsequential. Photographs and Haiku reveal Hoxie's adventures and chance discoveries in each chapter.

Wally became a naturalist and fly-fisher when his parents moved to a forested hillside bungalow; he was in the third grade. Two nearby streams and a pond became his playmates and source of his lifetime interests culminating in a PhD from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. He retired as Director of Environmental Studies, Montclair (NJ) State University. Wally keeps busy writing and as docent at Muir Woods as well as in three Trout Unlimited "Trout in the Classroom" programs. Wally has written two books of poems "The Angler Poet" and "Shimmy a Birch: Haiku" He has filmed two 16mm films for the National Audubon Society's "Wildlife Screen Tours" "The Water's Edge" and "South of (lake) Superior" Wally believes it is through fly-fishing the deep truths can make themselves known and anglers might find their inner essence and a sense of place.