Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia
by David L. O'Hara (Author), Matthew T. Dickerson (Author), Nick Lyons (Foreword by)
Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia brings together nature writing, fly-fishing stories, personal reflection, memoir, and philosophical and spiritual inquiry.
Through accounts of time spent on the water and memories drawn from their own lives, David O’Hara and Matthew Dickerson examine the connection between people, rivers, and the landscapes that sustain them. The authors consider how our beliefs about nature influence the ways we fish, conserve waterways, and interact with the natural resources on which life depends.
The journey begins in Maine’s Androscoggin watershed, a river system once regarded as one of the most polluted in the United States. After decades of recovery, the watershed now supports some of the country’s finest wild brook trout fishing.
From Maine, the book travels south through the Appalachian region, passing through Kentucky and continuing into Tennessee and North Carolina. In these southern mountain waters, a native strain of brook trout faces growing pressure and an uncertain future.
The structure of the book reflects the character of the rivers it explores. Some chapters move steadily through flowing narratives, while others pause for quieter moments of observation and contemplation, much like the still water that collects behind a dam.
Each essay stands on its own as a reflection on fishing, nature, and place. Together, they form a larger portrait of Appalachia’s cold mountain streams and the native fish most closely associated with them: the brook trout.
Downstream is a thoughtful choice for readers interested in fly fishing, brook trout, Appalachian waterways, environmental conservation, and the deeper relationships that develop between anglers and the rivers they love.
About the Authors
David O’Hara
David O’Hara is an associate professor of philosophy and classics at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He studied at Middlebury College, St. John’s College, and Penn State.
His teaching includes courses on environmental thought, nature, American philosophy, religious philosophy, and the history of ideas. Whenever possible, he brings those subjects beyond the classroom through outdoor lectures, field experiences in the Badlands and Black Hills, and an annual rainforest and reef ecology course in Guatemala and Belize.
Matthew Dickerson
Matthew Dickerson is a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he has taught writing courses focused on nature, ecology, and fishing literature.
His books include the historical novel The Rood and the Torc, A Hobbit Journey, and the fly-fishing and ecology narratives A Tale of Three Rivers and Trout in the Desert.
Dickerson and O’Hara have also collaborated on Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C. S. Lewis and From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook of Myth and Fantasy.
Number of Pages: 146
Dimensions: 0.5 x 9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: August 04, 2014
