Lords Of The Fly: Madness, Obsession, And The Hunt For The World Record Tarpon Monte Burke Hardcover

Filled with larger-than-life characters and vivid prose, Lords of the Fly is not only a must read for anglers of all stripes, but also for those interested in the desperate yearning of the human condition. 6X9 inches, 304 pgs.

From the bestselling author of “Saban”, “4th And Goal” and “Sowbelly” comes the thrilling, untold story of the quest for the world record tarpon on a fly rod, a tale that reveals as much about Man as it does about the fish.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, something unique happened in the quiet little town on the west coast of Florida known as Homosassa. The best fly anglers in the world–Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Ted Williams, Tom Evans, Billy Pate and others–all gathered together to chase the same Holy Grail: The world record for the world’s most glamorous and sought-after fly rod species, the tarpon.

The anglers met in the mornings for breakfast. They were all on the water during the day, in competition. They ate dinner together at night, and socialized and partied, some harder than others. The world record fell nearly every year. But records weren’t the only things that were broken. Hooks, lines, rods, reels, hearts and marriages didn’t survive, either. The egos involved made the atmosphere electric. The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. And the drugs and the women that were swept in with the tide made it all veer out of control. It was something–a period of time, a gathering–that had never happened before in the world of fishing and will never happen again, a collision of the top anglers and the top species of fish which led, eventually, to smashed lives for nearly all–man and fish–involved.

In Lords of the Fly, Monte Burke, an obsessed tarpon fly angler himself, delves into what led to that point in time–namely, the growing popularity of the amazing tarpon, which has been around for 50 million years, can live to 80 years old and can grow to 300 pounds in weight. The massive, leaping, bullet train of a fish, when hooked in shallow water, produces “immediate unreality,” as the late poet and tarpon obsessive, Richard Brautigan, once described it.

Lords of the Fly ties in the stories of many of the biggest names in angling, from Ted Williams, to Stu Apte, to Flip Pallot, to Thomas McGuane, to Billy Pate, to Tom Evans, to Steve Huff…on up to the present-day, with Andy Mill, David Mangum and Nathaniel Linville.

Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction of the fishery–brought on by greed, environmental degradation and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster–and how all of it has shaped our contemporary fishery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I am the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Saban: The Making of a Coach,” a biography of Alabama head coach, Nick Saban. I’m also the author of “4TH And Goal: One Man’s Quest to Recapture His Dream,” which won an Axiom Award for biography, and “Sowbelly: The Obsessive Quest for the World Record Largemouth Bass,” which was named one of the best books of the year by Sports Illustrated and Amazon, and was chosen for Barnes & Noble’s “Discover Great New Writers” program. After a 14-year stint as a reporter, staff writer and editor at Forbes, I am now a contributing editor at the magazine. I’m also a contributing editor at Garden & Gun and The Drake. You can reach me via Twitter @monteburke, or through monteburke.com.