Six Fish Limit

“Few angler-authors can match the skill and insight of Steve Raymond. . . . Raymond leads his reader to a refined and refreshed understanding of what the natural world is really all about.”—The New York Times
 
Perhaps the most innovative fly-fishing writer of his generation, Steve Raymond reaches a new level in this collection of five short stories and a novella. Here you’ll learn the fate of the world’s first genetically modified fly fisher, discover the secret behind the amazing success of an isolated little fly shop, and find out what was really going on between the sainted Theodore Gordon and his mysterious young woman fishing companion. You’ll witness the suspenseful trial of the world’s most famous fly fisher, chuckle at the tale of an angler who outwitted the Internal Revenue Service and his own accountant, and laugh out loud at the “real” story behind the first words ever written about fly fishing. And you’ll agree with the words of Arnold Gingrich in his classic work, The Fishing in Print: “Such books, and such authors, are rare, and Raymond is somebody simply not to be missed.”

Steve Raymond, a native of Bellingham, Washington, had a thirty-year career as a reporter, editor and manager at the Seattle Times. He also edited two magazines, The Flyfisher and Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, and reviewed fishing books for several publications. A charter and honorary life member of the Federation of Fly Fishers (now called Fly Fishing International), he is author of a dozen fly-fishing books, including two award-winning classics, The Year of the Angler and The Year of the Trout. He received the prestigious Roderick Haig-Brown Award for significant contributions to angling literature and his work has appeared in nine anthologies and at least twenty-four magazines. His manuscripts and papers are now part of special collections at the Western Washington University libraries in Bellingham. In 2022 he was admitted to the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. Raymond and his wife, Joan, reside on an old farm on Whidbey Island in northern Puget Sound. He can be reached at [email protected].

In Praise of SIX FISH LIMIT
“Many of fly fishing's most important wisdoms are best learned through stories, and the sport has no wiser tale teller than Steve Raymond. That's the special power of his book Six-Fish Limit, because these stories provide not only entertainment but illumination. Like all his books, I'm already looking forward to reading this one again.”—Paul Schullery, author of The Fishing Life and A Fish Come True

“The stories are fresh, immediate, knowledgeable and very entertaining—as all stories in this genre should be.”—Nick Lyons, author of Spring Creek 


In Praise of The Year of the Angler:
“Such books, and such authors, are rare, and Raymond is somebody simply not to be missed.”—Arnold Gingrich, The Fishing in Print.

“Few angler-authors can match the skill and insight of Steve Raymond . . . Through the seasons of the angler’s year, Raymond leads his readers to a refined and refreshed understanding of what
the natural world is really all about.”—Nelson Bryant, New York Times.

“Unquestionably one of the finest angling books of its kind to be published in recent years.”—Library Journal

“A classic of fishing literature . . .joyful praise for the wonders of nature that even nonfishermen enjoy reading.”—Seattle Times

“Steve Raymond, possessor of a wonderfully serene and lucid prose, makes the perfect companion for readers whose joy, when not fishing, is books about the art of fishing.”—Publishers Weekly.

“He has a talent for catching the very essence of the sport—the moods, the sounds, the scents, the scenes—and transporting the reader back to that very moment on the stream.”—Milwaukee Sentinel

“Raymond takes the reader fishing in a manner so graphic that a person almost finds himself chilled by the cold water on his waders and his vision blurred by the Pacific fog on his glasses.”—St. Louis Post-
Dispatch

In Praise of The Year of the Trout
"[Raymond] has a quality I find too rare in modern fishing writing: a sense of wonder.”—The Flyfisher

“A future classic.”—Fisherman

“Raymond invokes the sublime escape of trout fishing with graceful mastery.”—Seattle Times

”The book has a subtle blend of science and mysticism . . . Steve Raymond is at his best, which is the best, in his thoughtful mood pieces.—Fly Fisherman

“The blend of personal experience, philosophy, advice, and history make this a book that will be cherished by those who seek the elusive trout.”—American Field

In Praise of Steve Raymond:
“Steve Raymond has been one of fly fishing’s finest writers longer than most of us have been fishing.”—Paul Schullery, author of Royal Coachman and American Fly Fishing: A History

“Reading Steve Raymond . . . is much like sitting around a campfire with a good scotch, a fine cigar, and listening to your best friend.”—A.K. Best

“It’s always a pleasure to read Steve Raymond. Fly-fishing literature is a genre rife with tired cliches and posturing, but Steve has a knack for reinventing the wheel in fresh and interesting ways.”—John
Gierach, author of All Fishermen Are Liars

“Steve Raymond artfully dresses the shank of this irresistible memoir with the dubbing of nostalgia, the hackle of adventure, and the wings of humor. I bit eagerly, and he hooked me deep and played me all the
way to the end. A terrific read by a truly professional writer.”—William G. Tapply, author of A Fly-Fishing Life

“Over the past three decades Steve Raymond has given us many classic nonfictional books on fly fishing. But in the five fictional stories of Trout Quintet he takes us into the driving emotions that define
us as fly fishers. If fly fishing is our ‘resonant chord,’ then these stories describe our ‘Trout Symphony.’—John Randolph, publisher emeritus, Fly Fisherman magazine

“Raymond’s prose is direct, his commentary forthright, frankly opinionated, frequently funny, and not without cutting edges.—Fly Rod & Reel

In Praise of Steelhead Country
“Steve Raymond long ago established himself as an important literary voice and environmental conscience for contemporary fly fishing. He is the kind of regional writer whose fidelity to what he
knows well makes him universal.”—Fly Fisherman

“Raymond is able to make fly fishing for steelhead a metaphor for all of angling’s particular truths and joys. Readers will be drawn upriver by fine strokes of description . . .and by Raymond’s magnetic sense
of place.”—Publishers Weekly

In Praise of Rivers of the Heart
“Rare is the angling generation with a spokesman as thoughtful and eloquent as Steve Raymond.—Paul Schullery, author of Searching for Yellowstone

“Anyone who has a smidgen of interest in the essence of fly fishing and all that goes with it, from fishing buddies to fly tying and the marketing of the ‘tools of the trade,’ should read this important
book.”—A.K. Best, author of A.K.’s Fly Box