John Gierach was born in Glenwood, Illinois, on January 21, 1946.[2] He graduated from Findlay College in Ohio with a degree in philosophy and a minor in English.[1] In 1969, he moved to Colorado and began fishing nearly every day while working at a silver mine.[3][4]

He began writing more seriously after his move to Colorado.[4] His books are based on his various fly fishing adventures all over the world, some of which take place with his friend, A.K. Best (Gierach frequently refers to Best as the "dryflyguru" due to Best's affinity for dry flies).[5] A few of his works include The View from Rat Lake, Even Brook Trout Get the Blues, and the cult classic, Trout Bum, which popularized the term "trout bum." Gierach also wrote poetry and authored two books of poems.[1]

Gierach's archival collection can be found at Montana State University, as well as an oral history interview conducted by MSU pertaining to Gierach's life as an angler and an angling writer.[6] The collection includes his manuscripts, poetry, photographs, fishing logs, and general correspondence ranging from 1976 to 2014.[1]

Gierach died from a heart attack on October 3, 2024, at the age of 78.[7]

Writing career

Gierach began writing professionally because he needed money. Starting out, he wrote contributory notes and features for the Fly Fisherman to pay his monthly rent. Prior to selling his work, Gierach had been writing consistently and felt that he could write as well as the angling authors who were getting published at the time.[8]

His work has appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal, Field & Stream, where he was a contributing author, and Fly, Rod, and Reel, where he was an editor at large. In the 1990s, he wrote an column for the "Outdoors" section of The New York Times.[9] Gierach also wrote columns for the Longmont Daily Times-Call, the monthly Redstone Review, and the quarterly publication TROUT for the non-profit Trout Unlimited.[10][1] These articles pertained mostly to the sport of fly fishing, but Gierach's perspective on nature, philosophy, and life were also central to his work. The New York Times also featured several of Gierach's books in a "Books of the Times" article.[11]

A.K. Best, a close friend of Gierach's, is included in many of the articles due to their relationship built around fly fishing. Best previously owned a fly shop in Colorado where he tied flies at a production level (tying many identical flies for international vendors).[12] He worked for the Orvis Company, creating fly tying tools and advertising flies, and was a signature tyer for Umpqua Feather Merchants.[13][14] Gierach encouraged Best to start writing about production fly tying and fly fishing as a whole.[15]

After making a name for himself in angling magazines, Gierach's work garnered attention from Sports Illustrated and The Wall Street Journal, with the latter calling him "the voice of the common angler". He is one of the only angling authors to be published by a premier publishing house.[3]

Recognitions

Gierach was the 1994 recipient of the US Federation of Fly Fishers Roderick Haig-Brown Award. The award recognizes a fly fishing author whose work embodies the philosophy and spirit of Roderick Haig-Brown, particularly a respect for the ethics and traditions of fly fishing and an understanding of rivers, the inhabitants and their environments.[16] Gierach's interest and knowledge of the natural world is detailed in his publications, though he considered himself an "amateur" naturalist.[8]

In 2015, he was inducted into the Catskills Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. The criteria include, amongst other traits, that the inductee has made "significant contributions to the sport" by furthering aquatic habitat understanding, innovating fly fishing techniques, or furthering appreciation and knowledge of the sport.[3]