Jesse’s Book
The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere and is now available for pre-order, and will be released on Feb. 24.
Based in the backyard and beyond the horizon, The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere presents fly fishing as art and practice more than sport or objective—more discovery than certainty—while emphasizing that ‘the best’ is always subjective, and exists anywhere that anglers do. The book showcases and analyzes the indefinable elements and unanswerable questions unique to fly fishing, celebrates the relationships we form, nurture, and explore with fish, nature, and others, and aims to inspire a deeper and mutually-beneficial connection with the ecosystems in which we angle.
From the publisher: In The Best Fly Fishing Is Everywhere, Jesse Lance Robbins invites readers into a contemplative journey through water and time. This collection of essays, stories, and meditations moves beyond the pursuit of the perfect cast or the biggest catch. Instead, it explores fly fishing as a dialogue between human and nature, solitude and connection, movement and stillness.
From the misty rivers of Oregon to the urban waters of Tokyo, the windswept flats of Key West to the trout-laced waters of New Zealand, Robbins captures the essence of place and the spirit of the angler. Each chapter is a moment suspended—sometimes triumphant, sometimes humbling, always honest.
Click here to order a signed and personalized copy through my local fly shop, The Caddis Fly.
Requests for dedications and personalizations (i.e. “To Mom”, “Happy Birthday Jon!”, etc.) can be made in the comments section on the checkout webpage. Please check spelling of names carefully.
Unsigned copies can be ordered through Bookshop.org, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Wholesale orders can be placed through Angler’s Book Supply or any Penguin Random House distributor. For special order inquiries and any questions, please email me.
The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere is organized into three Parts—Here, There, and Everywhere—and features interior artwork from South Carolina-based graphic designer, photographer, and angler Bre Drake, along with cover photography from British Columbia-based Chase White.
Praise for The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere
“Robbins stands out for his ability to convey detail and abstractly riff and reflect on the broader fly fishing experience. This earnest, well-crafted collection of stories brings light to the fact that the people we fish with and the moments we share are often more memorable and important than the fish we catch.”
– Ken Morrish, co-founder Fly Water Travel, signature fly tyer, fly fishing photographer and writer
“Jesse Lance Robbins writes with the patience and precision of a seasoned angler. His sentences are clean, without wasted motion, and his stories linger in that liminal space between solitude and connection—where rolling a cigarette or changing a fly opens into something much larger. In The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere, he finds grace in impermanence and meaning in what others might overlook. Don't expect answers. Expect company.”
– Steve Duda, author of River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing, Head of Fish Tales at Patagonia, and former Editor of The Flyfish Journal
“Jesse Lance Robbins has an eye for the unusual, the intriguing, and the downright surprising. Whether cataloguing obscene quantities of flies, delineating the precise qualities of a good cast, or simply sharing an old fashioned fishing tale, Robbins’ eye for the unsung details that make fly fishing such a distinctive and special obsession is unmatched. The best fly fishing is indeed everywhere, because, as Robbins so artfully shows, the great thing about fly fishing is that it stays with us long after the flies have dried and we’ve stowed our rods.”
– Jason Rolfe, Editor, The Flyfish Journal
“It's obvious that fly fishing lives in Jesse’s head just as much as it lives in his heart. Fly fishing stories from chasing big browns in New Zealand to tarpon in Florida and anadromous fish near the coasts, make it clear that yes, the best fly fishing is everywhere and Jesse joyously takes you along for the journey. Reading through each essay, you’ll see his head and heart awake, alive, and anticipating his next encounter on a solo adventure or shared with loved ones. Sit down, grab a coffee, and enjoy this escape before planning your next adventure… everywhere.”
– Kara Armano, Editor, TROUT Weekly
“From Scotland to New Zealand, Bainbridge Island to Key West–Jesse Robbins' debut transports its reader as surely as a mountain stream carries an elk-hair caddis. Thanks to sharp detail and surprising turns of phrase, we're right on his shoulder as he casts for musky, Atlantic salmon, permit, Japanese seabass, cutthroat trout, Dean River steelhead, and so many others of this planet's most intriguing fish. In the end, you might just be persuaded: the world’s best fly fishing exists everywhere good friends, high adventure, and unflappable optimism converge.”
– John Larison, bestselling author of Whiskey When We're Dry and The Ancients
“Jesse Robbins’ essay collection, The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere, focuses on the “why” of fly fishing instead of the where, when, and how—a crucial distinction in our Internet/social media era. It’s a tenet I believe so strongly in that I founded a magazine based on it. Not that you won’t learn things by reading Robbins’ writing. From the unique pageant of a hex hatch in Maine to the thousandth cast for a musky or steelhead to the “dumb luck” of catching a permit, Robbins pleasantly describes the mix of joy and anguish found in the mental game of this beloved sport. He uses strong, surprising writing to inform, entertain, and enlighten his readers.”
– Tom Bie, Founder and Editor of The Drake Magazine