'This is just the story of some rods, and the places they take you to. It begins with surf-casting on the New Jersey coast when I was 13, and carries on to such scenes as flyfishing the headwaters of the Kuban in the upper Caucasus, and casting for rainbow trout in the rivers of southern Chile, with a volcano erupting every ten minutes within plain view.
'There is not a record, or even a very big fish in it; and some of the finest things fishing has given me I have found beside the steams of the West Country in England. Chiefly, I love my rods because of their associations, the places they have brought me to. They have been part of my kit when I travel, for many years.

'This magic wand has revealed to me some of the loveliest places on earth. That is the story of this book.'

                                                                                                     – Negley Farson