Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Author Tim Schulz read excerpts from his book "A Cast Away in Montana," at the Portage Lake District Library Monday. His visit was part of a book tour. His book recounts his experiences while fly fishing during his first trip to Montana.

HOUGHTON — Tim Schulz stopped by the Portage Lake District Library on Monday evening for an author talk and book signing for his latest book “A Cast Away in Montana.” Selected as one of the 2025 Michigan Notable Books by the Library of Michigan, Schulz describes the book as a travel log or a personal journal of his first fly fishing trip to Montana.

Schulz read excerpts from his book, shared stories about the trip that inspired the book and described his writing process. Representatives from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services were also present to educate attendees on safe fish consuming practices handed out guides regarding fish serving sizes based on the species and location. The event was held in partnership with Copper Country Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Schulz moved to the Houghton area from Ann Arbor 33 years ago when he applied for a faculty position within Michigan Tech’s Department of electrical engineering. When he arrived to the U.P. Schulz indulged in books about fishing, which included books by John Voelker, writing under the pseudonym Robert Traver. Voelker wrote “Anatomy of a Murder,” and several books on fly fishing, among other topics. Schulz read the books “Trout Magic” and “Trout Madness” and was captivated by the fact there was an author who lived most his life in Ishpeming and rose to become a Michigan Supreme Court Justice.

“And once he hit it big, he just dropped everything and played cribbage and went fishing every day,” Schulz said. “There was something magical about that to me. And I just obsessed. I became very, very obsessed with him.”

Schulz said his obsession grew to the point when in 2011 he went to the Northern Michigan University Library Archives to read Voeler’s journals. “He was known for writing, taking journals every day to fish. And what I wanted to do was read through the journals and try to reproduce the places, find the source of all these stories he had written about the U.P., and I started doing that, and found several of them.

Schulz’s goal was to photograph the areas mentioned in the journals and then he began writing stories about his adventures. He shared his stories in a blog, and was eventually asked by someone what the point of all his stories were. That was when Schulz had the idea to self publish his first book. He sent a copy to author Jerry Dennis, who said the book needed broader exposure. The book then hit local bookstores and online shops such as Amazon and did well. Schulz was then invited to a Celebrate Michigan Rivers event as a speaker along with Dennis and a retired Ohio University literature professor named Bob Demont.

“So Bob and I hit it off pretty well, and he invited me to come to Montana. Now, you see how we’re going to get to Montana. I always wanted to go to Montana and see it from a fly Fisher’s perspective, but never had chance to do it. Canceled a couple chances to do it, but it came about and I did not go to write a book — that wasn’t my intent,” Schulz said.

Schulz explained he thought the trip would result in him writing some articles for magazines, but when he started collecting the stories he recounted together two-thirds through the trip that they all had commonality with one another. It was then he realized he could create a book from his experiences as a first time visitor to Montana to go fly fishing.

The first reading from “A Cast Away in Montana” came from the second chapter, in which Schulz goes over the process of getting ready to leave for the trip, but acknowledges how he does not enjoy departing from places, people and things he has a fondness for. He also recalls a day while watching an episode of Bonanza in which he realized everyone and everything he knew would eventually die. While the book does ultimately tell the story of a fishing trip, it is the emotions and other stories that accompany it which also includes reflections and time with his dog Sunny. Schulz shared an excerpt centered on his dog, then moved onto the main subject.

“If we’re going to have a fishing book, there has to be a little fishing, right?” Schulz asked.

Schulz then read from the book recalling a fish that rose on the bank of the river for half an hour that he tried to catch.

“I want to catch it, but the river is 60 feet wide and flows at several speeds across its span. I need to get closer before making a cast, so I sneak into the water. My first step sinks me knee deep. My second puts the river’s surface about 10 inches below the top of my waders. I slide my foot forward until I feel the bottom fall away. I need to get closer, so I take another step and ask the fish gods to show mercy. Swimming in waders is never easy. I use one hand like a five pronged oar other to keep my rod safe above my head. A guide has anchored his boat about 100 feet downstream and I hear him and his clients laughing. Heck, I’m laughing too, but I’d like to get out of the Beaver Head River before I float down to them. About 20 feet into my swim, I grab onto some sedge and pull myself into a place where I stand. The guy in the boat asks if I’m okay, and when I hold up my thumb as a sign of triumph, he holds up all eight fingers and two thumbs to give me a perfect score,” Schulz read.

Schulz would then dump water out of his waders then watch as other fishermen tried to catch the fish. Schultz also read another story which involved a visit to a fly shop to ask for advice and locations to fish. Schulz explained when asking for advice the appropriate thing to do is buy from the store employee giving out the advice. After Schulz made his purchase he went out 15 miles to fish, and later was greeted by the store employee to ventured all the way out to return Schulz’s credit card.

These are only some of the stories Schulz shared and after the presentation, audience members could purchase signed copies of the book and were able to talk with Schulz individually and fishing stories were exchanged.

“One of the things I love to get in feedback is people tell me that it reminds them of things they want to do, things they’ve done,” he said. “And so the relatability has been really important to me. And I think a lot of readers have enjoyed the writing itself, and I like try to bring in humor as much as possible, but the fact that people relate to it is really what makes it nice.”

Schulz said he enjoyed reading portions of his book to a hometown crowd with familiar faces in it, and it was important to be able to include Portage Lake District Library on the tour. He also believes the book speaks well to Michiganders.

“I think a piece of it is there’s strong connections to Michigan. There’s very direct connections in many ways. And I think that I’ve talked to people that grew up in Michigan and have moved to Montana, and a lot of them say there’s a pretty substantial number of people that move from Michigan to Montana. It seems to be a place people like to go to and relate to it,” Schulz said.

Schulz recommends those interested in purchasing his book to go pick it up in local book stores if it is carried. The book can also be purchased online on Amazon or timschulzwriter.com with signed copies available from bobwhitestudio.com. Schulz is also the author of “Habits of trout: And other unsolved mysteries.”