River Pimp

Reading is one of my passions so from my perspective, the past year was excellent. What made it all the more special is that friends or people I have met and liked get their works published. Usually this would be where I start whining about wanting to get a book published but I will only say, that you have to start before you are finished.

So it happened that while at the Fly Fishing Show in January here in Denver that I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman named Eric Stroup and his lovely wife Tracey. I was vaguely familiar with Eric as a known flytier. from "back East" somewhere. As I was visiting with Tracey, who has her own business called Training  by Tracey (more on Tracey later) that I noticed that her husband Eric was right next door tying flies. Sad to say that at the time I was much more interested in Tracey than Eric, but did get a chance to exchange a few words with him and enjoyed our brief conversation.

Before I left I noticed that Eric had a book called River Pimp for sale. Well I liked the name and I liked that Eric never once mentioned the book (but he really should). So I bought a copy and had him sign it for me. It was money well spent.

Eric is and has been a professional fly tier, fly shop owner, guide and about any other job you can imagine related to fly fishing. The book is Eric's perspective on the state of the fly fishing industry, but it's much, much more than that. River Pimp is Eric's story of growing up, how fishing became an important part of his life and more than a few real life adventures. When I've met someone I like and I did enjoy Eric for our brief visit, the value of the book is confirming to me that that person is one of the "good guys."

Eric's life and times are much like any of ours; the good times, the not so good times, hard lessons learned and meeting the love of our life. And despite some hard times and hard lessons, Eric does come out as someone I would like to go fishing with and then share a beer afterwards. And if Tracey is there, all the better.

Eric's book is well written and full of great fishing stories. Eric does also talk about the fly fishing industry (rather briefly I thought) from his perspective. I have to say that although not as keenly aware as Eric obviously is, I agree with much he has to say.

As an important aside, Eric's wife Tracey is amazing. She overheard me talking to my friend Larry about my bum rotator. She immediately had me sit in a chair and poked prodded and massaged while imparting advice on how to care for the injury. After 15 minutes...no pain! Tracey is part of Fly Fit Gals and is a professional Kinesiologist, personal trainer and soon to be Naturopathic Doctor. Among other things Tracey specializes in injury prevention and rehabilitation through the study of human movement. And she fly fishes, so she understands the injuries most likely to occur to a fisherman.

I really enjoyed reading River Pimp because no one can tell better stories than a fly fishing guide and I highly recommend the book. Tracey made my shoulder feel better so I could finish out the day at the Fly Fishing Show. Thank you both.