Details
Fishing Adventures in Search of America’s Native Gamefish
Signed by the author
Illustrations by Bob White
Hardcover, 320 pages
6.2 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
Lyons Press (May 1, 2022)
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In writing this book, author, naturalist, and educator Steve Ramirez traveled thousands of miles by plane, motor vehicle, boat, and foot. Each chapter includes his fishing with a notable person in the worlds of fishing and conservation. His fishing partners in this book include Bob White, Chris Wood, Kirk Deeter (and many other leaders within Trout Unlimited), Ted Williams of The Native Fish Coalition, Matthew Miller, and John Karges of The Nature Conservancy, and many more.
In the course of this journey, Ramirez explores and fishes mountain streams, alpine lakes, National Wild and Scenic Rivers, desert canyons, brackish water estuaries, and the rolling ocean off the coast of Cape Cod. About half of this book was written while traveling through the COVID-19 pandemic and it touches on the lessons that COVID can teach us about nature and human nature.
In Casting Onward, the author expands beyond the geographical scope of Casting Forward by fishing for native fish within their original habitats across American. Each story is told in part through the eyes of the people who have lived alongside and come to love, these waters and fish. Woven throughout these adventures are the stories of the people he meets and befriends while pursuing a mutual love of nature and the best of human nature, as the first criterion for finding common ground.
This is a hopeful story, in an all-too-often seemingly hopeless time. It is a story of fishing and friendship. It is a story of humanity’s impact on nature, and nature’s impact on humanity.
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Editorial Reviews
“With Casting Onward, Steve Ramirez has crafted a beautiful meditation on the natural world and our relationship to it. Though Steve describes the various perils of neglecting either, he is, like all anglers, an optimist. By the time you reach the end of this splendid, heartfelt book, you’ll be one, too.”
~Monte Burke, author of Lords of the Fly and Saban
“In an era of social media ‘influencers’ and pan-flashed digital commentary on fly fishing, it’s easy for anglers to lose context… even hope. Thank God Steve Ramirez is willing and able to give us some real, hard-earned, and eloquent words on “why” we all care to flyfish in the first place. His prose is sharp, honest, and deeply meaningful. Casting Onward reinforces the spirit and soul of angling, and it underscores the importance of community, place and species in ways that has seldom been touched with such respect and eloquence.”
~ Kirk Deeter, Editor-in-Chief, Trout Unlimited/Trout Magazine
“I wish there were more anglers, writers, and Americans like Steve Ramirez. He understands what most don’t — that fish are wildlife, too. And he understands that our remnant native fish — genetically undefiled by aliens flung confetti-like around the waterscape in the age of ecological illiteracy — are national treasures. This book contains some of the finest angling writing I’ve seen. But it’s not just for anglers. It’s for all who delight in wild things, wild land, and wild water.”
~ Ted Williams, National Chair, Native Fish Coalition
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About the Author
Steve Ramirez is a writer, educator, master naturalist, philosopher, and outdoor adventurer who lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country. He has lived in and traveled across four continents chronicling the unique historical landscapes, human cultures, and natural worlds that are in danger of vanishing.
Steve’s stories have been published in various magazines and journals, including but not limited to: Fly Fisherman Magazine, Hallowed Waters Journal, Trout Magazine, The Flyfish Journal, American Angler, Tail Magazine, Under Wild Skies, Explore, Texas Sporting Journal, Texas Trophy Hunters, The Houston Literary Review, Cutthroat: Journal of the Arts, and The Pecan Grove Review. He is an avid fly-fisher, hiker, naturalist, hunter, and outdoor educator who lives in a house in the hills, surrounded by trees. He lives in Boerne, Texas.
