by Monte Burke
First published 2020
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the world's best fly anglers descended on Homosassa, a small town on Florida's west coast, with one shared obsession: breaking the world record for tarpon caught on fly rod. Monte Burke chronicles this unique moment when legendary fishermen like Ted Williams, Stu Apte, Lefty Kreh, and Thomas McGuane competed by day and partied by night in pursuit of the most coveted prize in fly fishing. The world record fell nearly every year, but so did equipment, relationships, and marriages as egos clashed and vices took hold. Burke explores the allure of the tarpon itself, a fifty-million-year-old species that can reach three hundred pounds and live eighty years. These massive fish create what poet Richard Brautigan called "immediate unreality" when hooked in shallow water. The author also documents the eventual destruction of this fishery through environmental damage and the interference of a Miami gangster, showing how these events shaped modern tarpon fishing. Burke weaves together the stories of angling legends with present-day stars to capture both the thrill of the chase and the human cost of obsession.
Genres: history, adventure, sports, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: competition, obsession, rivalry
Setting: Florida, Homosassa
Period: 1970s, 1980s
304 pages · Hardcover · Pegasus Books