In the 10-year anniversary edition of The Flyfish Journal, published in fall 2018, we published an essay by the late John Gierach called “Close to Home.” The piece is a meandering, entertaining and, finally, insightful reflection on Gierach’s home waters, beginning with his decision to buy “a wretched, but habitable little home … across the road from a trout stream I fished often, which made up for a lot.”

It goes without saying that Gierach lived what appeared—at least from the outside—to be an incredibly charmed life. He fished. He wrote about fishing. He published books about fishing (over 20 of them). And yet, despite literally living the dream (at least for a certain segment of the flyfishing population) I’d venture to say one probably couldn’t find a more down-to-earth person.

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