I picked up The Believer: A Year in the Fly Fishing Life by David Coggins because I thoroughly enjoyed Coggins’ The Optimist: A Case for a Fly Fishing Life.

Coggins’ humor, relatability, and clear writing style make his books engaging and thought provoking. While his subject in his works is fishing, he forces readers to think about the larger aspects of life and relationships, all in witty fashion.

I couldn’t wait to begin The Believer and as expected, it did not disappoint.

About the Author: David Coggins

David Coggins is a prominent writer known for his writing of the outdoors, travel, and style. He’s written several books, most notably Men and Style and to our interest as fly fishing anglers, The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life. He also writes a weekly newsletter called “The Contender,” which covers a wide range of topics including menswear, travel, and of course, fishing.

Coggins is known for witty, insightful, thought-provoking writing that entertains and informs. He’s clearly extremely intelligent, yet his writing is able to translate nuance in a clear, concise, and very often humorous way.

While there are many great books about fly fishing, it’s artistic nature, intricacies, and sometimes difficulty, they can come across to those uninitiated as snooty or snobbish. Coggins’ books are the opposite of that. His books and essays are mostly light-hearted but at the same time capture the complexity and challenge of fly fishing.

I’ve appreciated his ability to express the spirit of fly fishing in a humorous way, without any sense of stuffiness or elitism. For how serious a fly fisherman he is, he certainly doesn’t take the pursuit too seriously.

With his humorous and insightful new addition entitled The Believer: A Year in the Fly Fishing Life, Coggins continues that trend and is able to engage readers from start to finish.

What is The Believer about?

David Coggins’ The Believer is a collection of short essays and stories about his travels around the world doing what he loves- fly fishing.

The book begins with Coggins’ recounting, in a somewhat somber fashion, the conclusion of his youth. He describes the difficulty of maintaining the pursuit of a life-long passion while juggling the responsibilities, in addition to the physical limitations, that come along with growing older. After this introduction, Coggins quickly pivots back to what we know him for- his fishing tales.

Similar to The Optimist, The Believer is broken down chapter by chapter, each entitled by the country in which he fishes. Whether he’s in Norway, Argentina, Cuba, or back home in the USA, Coggins recounts not only the fishing itself, but also the culture, food, and unique features of his destinations.

While each chapter is a separate story, every account revolves around the lifestyle, people, and traditions of the country and how fishing connects it all together. Coggins then returns home to the US and wraps his excursions all together, unique as they may be, to the larger themes of life and the human experience.

Takeaways from The Believer

I really enjoyed this book. It’s funny, engaging, and thought-provoking.

As he did in The Optimist, Coggins is able to convey the challenge of fly fishing without any sense of elitism or stuffiness. He comes across as an “everyman” fly fishing angler who simply enjoys the sport of fly fishing and the travels surrounding it. At the same time, he can also capture how fly fishing can make one contemplative and curious about the world around them, asking deeper questions about life while maintaining a sense of humor.

My favorite chapters in this book actually involved the fishing excursions where he did not catch fish. Every angler out there that has traveled for fly fishing likely knows the feeling of making plans, travelling far off distances, driving their hopes sky high, only to have little to none of those expectations met (as far as catching fish). It’s a disappointing feeling, though one every angler must unfortunately familiarize themselves with, especially if you roll the dice on world-wide excursions like Coggins does.

However, through these excursions, you ultimately learn how to appreciate the things other than catch fish that angling has to offer. The surroundings, the adventure, meeting new people- all in an effort to chase a fish that might not bite your fly.

In Coggins’ first book appropriately named The Optimist, he illuminated this reality of chasing something that cannot be guaranteed (in his case literally around the world at great expense) and how fisherman carry a hardened sense of positivity, while his second book expounds upon that idea even further. Fly fisherman often pursue fish that are extremely challenging and in some cases unlikely to actually bite. Compound that with taking the risk of traveling for fish where the weather may wipe out any opportunity to actually cast to them.

Fly fisherman, even if you are traveling locally to areas you know you can catch fish, must possess an unrelenting sense of positivity in their pursuits, so much so that a strangely irrational sense of belief (hence the title The Believer) ultimately keeps driving you forward. Coggins notes that this becomes more and more challenging with age, not only because of the physical limitations, but also the added responsibilities that come along with getting older. But nonetheless, he presses on and continues to pursue his passions.

What I like about Coggins is that he’s able to convey this lesson that can really be applied to anything in life, but he does it through fishing in a very honest, sincere, and (much of the time) humorous manner. I think this is why Coggins is able to relate to fly anglers, and non-anglers alike. Everyone can take something away from his books, even if you don’t fish.

Conclusion

The Believer is a thoughtful, engaging, funny book that I would recommend to anyone- fisherman or not.

Coggins’ style of writing is straightforward, clear, and full of humor that captures the logical and illogical reasons for fly fishing. Despite the chapters broken down into separate stories, the book is a page-turner and I found myself hard pressed to put the book down.