"Truly remarkable portraits
        of courage." -- John van Amerongen, editor, Alaska Fisherman's
        Journal
      "These little-known tales
        of women working in Alaska's commercial fishing industry make for great
        reading. . . . Readers will be amazed by their stories." -- Laine
        Welch, Alaska Fish Radio
      "A richly textured story,
        a multi-genre text that invites readers to witness women's conversation
        with America's last frontier, Alaska." -- Patricia Foster, University
        of Iowa
      Why do women choose an occupation
        that has been ranked the most dangerous in the nation? What do women give
        up--and get in return--when they take on the tasks of fishermen? The
        Entangling Net explores these issues through the stories of twenty
        women who have chosen to work in this extremely risky, male-dominated
        profession.
      Leslie Leyland Fields lyrically
        weaves their stories with her own experiences as a fishing woman. She
        tells of long, exhausting days in skiffs, catching fish in brutally cold
        weather on waters that are often violent. Her words and those of the women
        she interviews convey the paradoxical relationship the women have with
        commercial fishing: they face extraordinarily difficult working conditions
        made more difficult and dangerous by male crews and skippers who don't
        welcome women, yet they feel impelled by the challenge of the work to
        return to their jobs season after season.
 

When Sandy Holston is on dry land, she’s nothing special: a nurse who wears her hair in a ponytail and prefers a fishing lure as an earring. But once she dons waders, picks up a fly rod, and steps into a river, she becomes a remarkable, elegant fisherwoman who’s at peace with the world.

After surviving her marriage to Vernon - her violent, incarcerated ex-husband - peace is just what Sandy needs. So she moves to Damascus, a small town on the Ripshin River, where she plans to enjoy the fishing and the solitude. Finally she is on the brink of a life she desires in a place she loves. But as the Ripshin’s trout mysteriously die off, and as Sandy grows closer to a reclusive neighbor who has a propensity for fishing naked, her plans are put in jeopardy. Will Sandy be able to find peace - in the river or out - once Vernon is released from prison and fulfills his promise to hunt her down?