Fall is right around the corner, and our streams and lakes will cool off in time for some shoulder-season fishing. This time of year will be fitting for the Montana State University Library to showcase its 2024 Trout Lecture. This year’s lecture will feature novelist and journalist Carl Hiaasen. The event, free and open to the public, is scheduled for October 10, 2024 at 7 p.m. in the SUB Ballroom on the MSU campus. This annual event hosts a guest speaker who shares a unique perspective on anything related to trout and salmonid, angling, and water ecology.

The Trout Lecture is an ongoing project the Montana State University Library facilitates. The first lecture was held in 2011 with guest Dr. Richard Hoffman and his seminar, “Trout and Fly, Work and Play, in Medieval Europe.” Since then, this annual lecture has featured a wide variety of guest speakers, including writers, government officials, angling enthusiasts, professors, and scientists.  Special collections librarian James Thull says, “the Trout and Salmonid lecture series is my favorite public event at MSU. It gives people a chance to hear about the culture and history of angling from some of the world’s most prominent anglers, writers, and artists.  It is one part of our larger effort to preserve the history of these great species.” All previous Trout Lectures were recorded and are available online for anyone who wants to watch them and get an idea of what these lectures entail.

In September 2022, prominent local attorney Jim Goetz presented his lecture “The Waters Belong to Everyone: The Montana Stream Access Cases,” which detailed the fight he helped lead to codify public access to Montana waterways. A significant argument he challenged was the belief that property owners could legally prevent access to waterways where they flowed through privately held lands and prevent people from using stretches of navigable streams and rivers throughout the state. Goetz used the Public Trust doctrine and the Montana Constitution to stop this tactic from becoming precedent and expanding public access through waterways. One of the big takeaways from the lecture was that the fight is not over, and anglers need to remain vigilant in defending our access

In September 2023, MSU alum and environmental historian Dr. Jen Brown presented “The History of Western Fly Fishing in Five Flies.” Brown gave an extensive history lesson on fly fishing as we know it and presented some interesting and humorous facts about flyfishing that many anglers may not know, including examples of fly-fishing dating from as early as 200 AD, and the fact that flyfishing evolved with imperialism. She cited the oldest existing fishhook in the world being 22,000 years old, and mentioned that flyfishing was first discussed as a sport in the late 1400s in a book titled “A Treatise of Fishing with an Angle,” written by Dame Juliana Berners and published in 1496. MSU library holds an early edition of this book for anyone interested in seeing it.

The Trout and Salmonid Collection is the largest collection of trout and salmonid material in the world with more than 22,000 volumes, 600 periodicals, and hundreds of DVDs. This archive contains many genres such as poetry, old and new fishing regulations from different countries, artwork, and primary sources such as Paolo Giovio’s 1531 book about fishing in the “New World.”

“This collection is one of our pride and joys, generously supported by donors who contribute materials and funds,” says Jodi Allison Bunnell, Head of Archives and Special Collections.

Carl Hiaasen is a novelist and journalist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who began his successful and extensive career as a newspaper reporter in the late 1970s while writing novels on the side. He specializes in crime thrillers for his humorous adult novels, which relate to environmentalism and political corruption in Florida. Hiaasen has written or cowritten more than 19 adult fiction novels, seven fiction novels for young readers, three short stories, and six nonfiction books. Twenty-one of his novels and nonfiction books are New York Times best sellers. His 2002 young readers’ novel, Hoot, won the Newberry medal and was adapted into a film of the same title in 2006. Hiaasen’s second young reader’s novel, Flush, was part of a reading challenge for Montana school kids. Gavin Herzog from Miles City, who read the book while in elementary school, remembers the story being funny and suspenseful.

“The moment that still stands out for me is near the end, when the sewage-dumping businessman gets let off the hook with only a small fine. I couldn’t believe it then, but as an adult, of course you hear about that lack of environmental accountability all the time. Whether it’s something long-term and institutional like Berkeley Pit, or accidents like the train derailment that dumped carloads of asphalt in the Yellowstone River last year, I think Montanans are especially sensitive to the environmental impacts. A clean and healthful environment is in our state constitution for a reason.”

Herzog, who is now a program coordinator for the MSU Library events team, looks forward to this year’s Trout Lecture and says, “Carl Hiaasen’s writing has that ability to tap into conservation concerns that resonate just as much in Montana as in Florida.”

Hiaasen does not only encourage young Montana readers, he also helps young Montana writers. In 2003, Hiaasen helped Montana teenager Christopher Paolini land a publisher. Hiaasen was flyfishing in Montana with his wife and stepson, Ryan, when Ryan came across Paolini’s first novel, Eragon, and loved it. Hiaasen took interest in Paolini’s story and mentioned it to his editors at Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf offered Paolini a book deal, and Paolini went from publishing Eragon independently to landing this successful book deal that evolved into a whole series of novels and film adaptations.

​Hiaasen’s October lecture is titled, “The Loveliest Disease.” When asked about his plans for the talk, he said, “I won’t be giving an actual speech. It will be more like a group therapy session, because all of us who are most at peace with a flyrod in our hands suffer from the same incurable affliction. We desperately need help — and, of course, big  fish in clear water.”

To learn more about the Trout Lecture or MSU Library’s Trout and Salmonid Collection, contact Trout and Salmonid Librarian James Thull at jjthull@montana.edu or 406-994-5305.  

Jason Berg is an intern for the Montana State University Library.