The Next Valley Over : An Angler's Progress

Acclaimed sporting and adventure writer Charles Gaines has spent much of his life on the water, around the world, fishing rod in hand, angling for trout, redfish, salmon, bonefish, bass, marlin, tuna, and practically everything else that swims. Just about any place where there's water to fish and eccentrics to keep him company, Charles has been.

The Next Valley Over, a collection of his best writing on fishing over the years, culled from the pages of Men's Journal, Forbes FYI, Sports Afield, and other journals, is about the heart of the sport. While his stories are lined with the accoutrement of angling--the art of technique, the equipment, the lodges, the fish themselves--they're really about why we love to fish and what it means to our culture. As Thoreau once said: "Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." What "they are after" is what Charles is curious about, and he has devoted a better part of his life and sanity to coming up with answers.

His pilgrimage is divided into three parts. "Striking the Tent" sets the tone--the spark is ignited on Lake Tadpole when Charles can start to see the design of his life as a fisherman, the stillness and perfect solitude of a day starting at 3:45 a.m. casting to cruising brown trout in Tasmania; a Montana guide who has given up all material possessions to spend his life fishing; a day in the life of the world's greatest fishing lodge. Part Two, "Gone Fishing," is the relentless pursuit of "the next valley over." Charles takes us around the world (seventeen countries) to fish for just about every species known to man. Here is the essence of fishing stories, with exotic locales, a wide cast of characters, and a lot of partying. In the process, Charles almost "wanders off the edge of his own map." The final part, "Rounding Third," finds Charles turning fifty and putting things into perspective: gaining an understanding for the fragility of the wild environments he loves; taking more care and time with his fishing; and completing the circle of his angler's progress back to the home water where he started and which he comes to know truly for the first time.

Charles gaines is the author of Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry, and A Family Place. He divides his time between Nova Scotia and Alabama.