Description
Tideline is, at once, an entertaining, enlightening, and honest look at the diversity of the sea¹s human and natural life. From the solitude and serenity of the flats to the spirited adventure and adrenaline of blue water, this book captures the rugged and beautiful stories of fish and men.
CAPTAINS & LOCATIONSB/b>
Bill Curtis, Miami, Florida
Chuck Naiser, Rockport, Texas
Amanda Switzer, East Hampton, New York
Steve "Creature" Coulter, Halteras, North Carolina
Rick Murphy, Homestead, Florida
Gary Taylor, Slidell, Louisiana
Jeff Heyer, Nantucket, Massachusetts
Al Keller, Naples, Florida
Conway Bowman, San Diego, California
Review from the Denver Post - May 25, 2004
When a couple of Denver-area trout fishermen close their eyes these days, they see visions of leaping tarpon, tailing redfish, fingers of mangrove reaching out to sea.
Should they ever lose these images, they need only reach to a bedside table to refresh themselves with the words and photographs of a remarkable book that, perhaps better than any in recent years, captures the essence of fly-fishing in salt.
That this book, titled "Tideline: Captains, Fly-Fishing and the American Coast," is their own, researched during a six-month window last year and then written during autumn and winter, makes the reflections all the more cherished.
For Kirk Deeter of Pine and Andrew Steketee of Lakewood, "Tideline" represents an odyssey of renewal and exploration, an adventure into what largely had been unknown.
As a natural sequel to the critically acclaimed "Castworks: Reflections of Fly Fishing Guides and the American West," published in 2002, this new offering traces an innovative format that examines diverse - and often famous - locations through the expert eyes of the veteran guides who work and play there.
The result is an intimate and novel way to vicariously sample places near and far, all the while building an overwhelming urge to visit each and all. Entertaining and seductive, the text sprinkles in the wisdom of the fly-fishing ages in a way that reaches beyond the boundary of mere entertainment.
Whether from the sheer spectacle of the fish and seascape or the bright wonderment of angler/authors in the thrall of discovery, "Tideline" carries the greater drama, a fact not lost on the players themselves.
"When that first tarpon flashed, it looked like a Grumman canoe sideways in the water," marveled Steketee, making his first foray into saltwater fishing. "Saltwater is a lot tougher; there's a certain amount of danger."
Deeter, who had tasted salt on a few occasions, offered a slightly different perspective.
"We went into this thinking it was a softball-baseball kind of thing, just a bigger playing field. Instead, it turned out more like golf compared to hockey."
That playing field quickly mushroomed beyond their wildest imagining. Instead of lazy auto trips to western rivers, they scrambled to arrange nine separate flights to places as diverse as San Diego and Nantucket (Mass.), with forays to Texas, New York, North Carolina, Louisiana and three to Florida in between.
As frequent-flier miles began to mount, they developed an increasing admiration for the demands of ocean fishing and the ruggedly colorful men who make it their life.
"No one just dabbles in saltwater. There's too much commitment," Steketee said.
Steketee's most memorable experience was his first tarpon, a 120-pounder that raced across the tidal water of Florida's Everglades "like it never was going to stop."
For Deeter, it was landing two blue marlin, plus a 54-pound bull dorado the same day off Cape Hatteras, N.C. For a favorite place, Deeter chooses the Louisiana marsh southeast of Lake Pontchartrain.
"That was the biggest surprise, mostly because it was so pristine," he said. "Nothing approached that fishing in a place so untouched."
These people and places leap to life in the photography of Marco Lorenzetti, all the more striking in black and white.
Charlie Meyers
Denver Post Outdoor Editor
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