The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life Hardcover – May 4, 2021

If you love fly fishing, you’ll love the storytellers style of these real life experiences. Relatable and gives me some ideas of where I need to go fish.

I absolutely loved this book. Great stories that tell the triumphs and failings on the water. And there's great comedy sprinkled throughout. Do yourself a favor and grab this book. It prompted me to get into the sport!

Over far too many decades I have fly fished for many species and in many, many places and have read about the sport for the same number of years.I fish in Wisconsin where we live and in other places that the author writes about including Montana and Andros Island in the Bahamas.Coggins writes very well and his descriptions of places that I also have fished ring true.Before I retired I had a very intense professional life where my margin of error was small.I fly fished as a relief from that and I learned to be patient with myself, knew I was very good in a difficult profession so I quickly learned to stop beating up on myself for a bad cast and did not look upon the guides as judgmental but as teachers.I grew a little weary reading about the author's angst about a lost fish, worrying about what the guides may think or a bad cast.Aside from that the book was very enjoyable.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Every chapter was a new and interesting read about a different fly fishing experience with different species of fish.

The sport of fly fishing is blessed with some of the most storied literature on the planet. To say that David Coggins' new book is an ode to the sport and written with great style seems woefully inadequate to describe the arrival of what I can only call "A New American Fly Fishing Classic."This book had me at the title: "The Optimist" is probably one of the best fishing book titles ever, and "The Case for A Fly Fishing Life" one of the best subtitles to describe our collective obsession--as in: "There is always room in an angler's life for another obsession."It is a difficult assignment to treat a subject so inclined to snobbishness and elitism, but David Coggins breaks the code with a good-natured approach to his subject that is both instructive and humorous. He covers the basics while gently piercing the veil of secrecy surrounding the storied waters that hold trout, salmon, striped bass and bonefish, from Montana to Canada to New York to the Bahamas and the hallowed rivers and streams of England and Argentina.The book is as much about the fly fisher's psyche as about the techniques, methods and equipment that the fly fisherman uses to stalk his favorite prey. What he manages to reveal about the inner workings of a fly fisher's mind is as fascinating as his treatment of the vast possibilities that the sport affords around the globe.This author is as comfortable writing about casting poppers for smallmouth bass in a Wisconsin lake as laying out a cast for a brown trout on the legendary River Test. You may even find yourself fascinated by his description on the precise method for inventorying and loading his vehicle for a fly fishing expedition.In "The Optimist," the journey is the reward, and what a journey! Fly fishing for brown trout and cutthroats in Montana, wading the flats for bonefish in Andros, swinging flies for Atlantic Salmon in Canada, casting for brook trout in the North Woods in Maine, pursuing large rainbows in Patagonia or shotgunning flies for stripers in Jamaica Bay or Montauk, it's all fast paced and frenetic, or slower paced and well observed, just like the tempo of the sport itself.Coggins is at his best when he is in his head--you are there with him, feeling every insecurity, inadequacy, triumph, pyrrhic victory and delight--the "internal reward" of fishing. Fly fishing is as much a mental game as a meditative, physical pursuit that brings one closer to nature, and this book revels in both the joys and the challenges.The range of this book is rather impressive, with some great instruction for the novice and some deeper reflection and craft for the advanced angler. The same will apply to readers, I suspect--those who have read fly fishing literature extensively will pick up on the finer points and the creativity of the writer in approaching a well worn subject and those who come to the sport with new eyes will have them opened to its great possibilities.Like some of the best fly shops, "The Optimist" is stuffed with gear--rods, reels, flies, stories and yarns of all types for all tastes--full of possibility even before the fun begins on the river, far away from the crazy modern world.This book is beautifully written, end-to-end, with unexpected views and turns of phrases that will stick with you long after you put it down.As Coggins writes so memorably at the end when returning to his home water in the Catskills:"I put too much emphasis on fishing--giving in to the obsession is one of angling's rewards. I think about fishing when I am on the water and afterward, in that sense it never ends."

This book has been a pleasure to read. It really captures the spirit of fly fishing and the joy you get from continued exploration in life.The author does a good job of providing an honest view of the triumphs and defeats of fishing but is always there to remind you that it’s more than just catching the fish. It can also be about the pursuit, the friendships, and the challenge itself.In sum, the author adds philosophy and thinking to a sport some would try to ruin by only bragging about the size and quantity of their fish. It’s more than that! Just get out there and stand in the stream for a minute and you’ll get it. Read this book and you’ll get it too.Well done!

This book touched my heart with the vivid descriptions of people and places, and the honesty about what fly fishing experience looks and feels like. I am an avid fisherman and a passionate (but not highly skilled) about fly fishing. I have seen and felt everything the author described because I am often fishing alongside what I would call "real" fly fishing experts. Sometimes they are patient, and sometimes they make you feel little. :) This book captures all of that, and the reality that we all have skills and if learning and valuing the experience is always the goal - every hole gives us a story, even if it is not in a catch.The second benefit of the book is how it describes 8 different experiences, some of which I have experienced, but many that I dream about (Patagonia). The author is so skilled at describing the whole journey that I felt like I was getting travel tips as well as fishing tips. This was an unexpected surprise for me because it was recommended by a friend as a fishing book. It provides lots of fishing details, and yet it is more that that because of the format of providing 8 different short stories.I highly recommend this book and thank David Coggins for writing it.

It was written well. Author has a great sense of humor and has extensive experience in subject matter. Liked the author’s perspective and how he wrote the book.

The author visited lots of different fishing spots and had the same experiences I've had onmany occassions !

Told by a younger than usual angler for this type of book. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Great book which describes the up and downs of a flyfisher. Also gave me some ideas where to look for the next experience.

Well written and enjoyable. Wanted it to go on longer than it’s fairly brief form.

Very poor delivery service