A Cast in the Woods

Book excerpt: 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.