At the beginning of Catching On, Ed, a Northwest native, assures his fiancée Carol that "marriage can be like fishing, the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable." Carol, a born and bred Southerner, knows a whole lot about the elusive part.

In nineteen entertaining vignettes, some humorous, some spiritual, some probing, Catching On follows this relationship, as Ed's fly-fishing passion and the couple's inherent differences (he's a brown trout and she's a rainbow) threaten to cast a pall over it, illuminating issues familiar to anyone who has ventured loving and being loved—insecurity, misunderstanding, jealousy, vulnerability and joy.

In Carol's efforts to catch on to marriage and to Ed's magnificent obsession, she is helped and hindered by well-meaning observers. Matt, Ed's best friend who is single, has definite opinions about how women mix with fishing. Ed's father, Harry, adds a colorful combination of Shakespeare and stability. Carol's friend, Shasta, whose husband Tommy also has been bitten by the fly-fishing bug, tells Carol: "Ed's just a big old bigamist. They're all married to something else, you know."

But love and determination prevail. By book's end when Ed sincerely tells Carol: "I'm not married to fishing. I'm married to you," the reader—and Carol—are convinced.

Elsie Wiesel, holocaust survivor and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace, said, "As long as there is passion, there is hope." Catching On is a tribute to women, to men, to fly fishing, and to celebrating our loved ones' passions.