Cast, catch, release Finding serenity and purpose through fly fishing

Gibson presents an engaging, vivid, and deft mix of memoir and angling recollections. Her angling life began at age eight, when she hooked her first fish, a sea trout, in a Scottish river, and led her to become a certified casting instructor, fly-fishing school owner, stream protection advocate, and founder of Cancer and Pisces, an organization supporting people living with cancer and their caregivers. Gibson has fished in nearly every corner of the world, pursuing many fish species, from trout, salmon, bonefish, tarpon, and permit to lesser-known species such as golden dorado and bumphead parrotfish. She also describes family turmoil, a marriage and divorce, dating challenges and the delight of a present relationship, an ultimately successful hunt for a rewarding career--including overcoming the challenges of working in a profession with a powerful male bias--and happiness and heartbreak with two dogs. Information on the mysterious and endangered life of Atlantic salmon bridge and connect Gibson's accounts of her life as she clearly explains the appeal of fishing and angling mechanics in a way non-anglers will understand and shares stories of notable women anglers not chronicled elsewhere. Recommend this book to fans of angling stories, and to anyone looking to make personal lives and careers more rewarding.

British conservationist Gibson explores her passion for fishing in this captivating debut. As a child, Gibson cast for trout with her mother at a farm near their home in Gloucestershire. That hobby became an obsession--Gibson opted for a 21st birthday present of fishing rods over jewelry--and then a career, with Gibson promoting fishing gear for Orvis and then becoming a certified instructor in Yorkshire, where she eventually opened her own fishing school. As Gibson traces her career path, highlighting the "soft misogyny" she faced from internet commenters and male fishermen, she also reflects on personal milestones, including a trip to Bolivia to capture "one of the most powerful game fish in the world" and her rocky marriage to a man she calls "B." Through it all, Gibson remains a winning narrator, fortifying the potentially niche material with lyrical prose ("Like Ariadne's thread, this unspooling line of fishing memories and experiences has led me out of some corners that felt dark and unnavigable"). This moving meditation will even sink its hooks into readers who've never cast a line. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop. (June)