Marooned on a river island above the Arctic Circle, caught by a flash flood in New Zealand, boated with an NFL cheerleader in the Caribbean, robbed in a British Columbia motel, and bunked with an almost-terrorist in Manitoba, this author-preacher from Colorado has had some interesting experiences when going "further out" to fish. Twelve ebullient stories of adventure, travel, and international fly-fishing are told here. They are undergirded by a singular autobiographical story that weaves James White's passion for fly-fishing with his vocation in ministry. The book takes the reader from the Indian Ocean to the River Vltava in Bohemia. The characters met include "two-headed" Taswegians and Lake Woebegon "strong women." In one story, you stand with the author on "basement of time" metamorphics, beneath the Northern Lights in another, and before the Southern Cross in a third. You'll go on an "Ixthus/Christ and Ichthyology/Fishing" retreat. With the stories are illuminating photographs of giant rainbows, massive moose antlers, and "Jesus Rays" coming through a Ukrainian Orthodox church cupola. The book leads to rumination on Henry David Thoreau's observation that "Men may go fishing all their life and never know it's not fish they're after."

James W. White is minister emeritus of First Congregational Church in Colorado Springs and senior guide for Anglers Covey Fly Shop. He is author ofChristianity 101: Tracing Basic Beliefs,Brief Christian Histories: Getting a Sense of Our Long Story, andRound Boys Great Adventures: Fish-a-logues through Rocky Mountain Waters. He and Patti live in a great Victorian home with Gilda the Golden. They have two adult fly-fishing daughters.