Profound River

A fisherman. A wild boar hunter. A Catholic nun. Surprisingly, these all describe one woman: Dame Juliana Berners. Using the same rich fabrics, threads, and other materials that adorned the esteemed priests and bishops of her faith to create her revolutionary lures, she became the Mother of Fly-fishing!

From boar-hunting on horseback with nothing but a spear, to facing greedy priests determined to further impoverish her convent, Dame Juliana’s story lives on through John Gubbins’s masterful weaving of faith, fortitude, and inspired improvisation.

“John Gubbins has done a remarkable job of creating for us the person of Dame Juliana Berners, Prioress of the St. Mary of Sopwell Priory—the first woman to be published in English and the first person to have an illustration in a published book. . . . John’s descriptions of her times, the circumstances of her life, her thoughts, and her shrewd maneuverings have given us a real page-turner that makes one feel to have known this remarkable woman in a most personal way.” —Gary Borger, Fly-fishing Expert