Andrew
10-06-2009, 01:04 PM
A while ago, I decided I needed a break from the fly fishing boards. The idea was that taking a break would keep me out of trouble for a while, then I'd return a new man, or better yet during my absence, people would have somehow decided to agree that I was always right. By and large, my plan was a complete failure, both on my part and everybody else's parst, although I think everybody else deserves more of the blame than I do, seeing how it would be much easier for you all to agree that I'm right than for me to change. But the result is the same, and I returned a few times, and managed to get myself in trouble most of those times. But, there you go.
The upside, though, is that my summer vacation was fun while it lasted. I did some fishing, mostly to no avail, but sometimes with some success. When the stripers weren't cooperating, I chased sunfish, bluegills, and bass, and was reminded how much fun that kind of fishing can be. I got a 13 foot two handed rod and made a little progress learning to spey cast. I also learned, through the help of an enabler or two, that an evening of unsuccessful striper fishing could be completely salvaged by standing roadside, waders on and car trunk open, and consuming quantities of hoppy ale. That this proved so completely satisfying alarmed me, not because it meant that I often returned home at 2:00 am, despite stringing the rod up at 10:45 pm, but rather that it took me so long to discover it. Water under the bridge now, I suppose, but still, to think of what I'd missed by fishing the entire time in the past!
Another thing I had decided was that I'd read some of the books that have been on my list a while, but that I'd neglected in part because of time spent surfing the boards. I thought I'd reproduce that list here, in case somebody else should find themselves still reading the boards but also considering a healthy vacation from them. So, here, in no particular order are the ones I can recall reading sometime in the last few months, with a few comments that might prove useful. I managed to secure most of these through inter-library loan via my own public library. None of these are "how to" books about fishing, which I have generally found to be about as exciting as corn flakes in all but the rarest exceptions. These are books with fishing stories and other things related to why we fly fish, and probably without exception these include at least some humor, some more than others.
"Crazy for Rivers", by Bill Barich: I've just started this one, just this morning, so I can't comment extensively, but I like the writing style. If you like some of the others on this list (below), you probably will like this one. It seems as if this little book could probably be best described as a memoir.
"To Know a River" and "A River Never Sleeps", both by Roderick Haig-Brown: The first title turns out to be selected chapters or sections from some of Haig-Brown's other books, so it's a nice intro to his writing. I hadn't realized this when I requested it, but it's a nice book by itself or as an entry point. "A River Never Sleeps" is one of his more famous books. Haig-Brown was an Englishman, originally, who moved to British Columbia when he was fairly young and developed a real taste for Pacific salmon and steelhead fishing, and trout. His writing is highly descriptive, of nature, fishing, etc., and full of nice little nuggets of wisdom but never preachy. This particular book, written in the 1940's, I think, follows a year, month by month, in the life of a river, where he describes not only the fishing but also just what is going on in the river. It's considered a classic.
"The Habit of Rivers" by Ted Leeson. I loved this book, or at least parts of it. It wasn't easy reading, and a few sections I slogged through and was relieved to reach the end. But others were great, and on occasion Leeson turns a phrase that I had to read two or three times because I couldn't get over how great it was. The book is, basically, just a narrative of some fishing experiences he has fishing for trout (mostly) in various parts of Oregon. He gets philosophical here and there, and in my opinion these were the best and the worst parts of the book. All in all, I highly recommend this one.
"On the Spine of Time" by Harry Middleton. I was reading this book when another book came in through inter-library loan, and because the latter have short borrowing periods, I set down Middleton's book and haven't picked it up again. But I was enjoying it and will return to it. Middleton writes about trout fishing small streams in the southern Appalachian mountains. He has a couple others that I assume are similar, but I haven't seen them yet. These are "The Bright Country" and "The Earth is Enough".
"In the Company of Rivers" by Ed Quigley. I couldn't get into this one. It just wasn't my style. I looked it up because it came up as one of those "Other people who bought this book also bought..." on Amazon, but I would not describe this book as being of the same style, or same caliber, as the others I read. So, I include this info just in case it's of some use.
"If Fish Could Scream" by Paul Schullery. This was a really interesting and thought provoking book. Schullery takes a partly philosophical (an admittedly personal and biased one) and partly historical perspective to examine some issues in fly fishing. The title refers specifically to a chapter on the ethics of fishing, of catch and release, etc. WIthout the book in hand right now, I can't recall what the other issues are that he tackles, but even though the book is thought provoking, it's entertaining and mostly light-hearted.
"Royal Coachman", also by Schullery. This book is similar to Schullery's great book "American Fly Fishing" about the history of fly fishing, but this one takes a less academic approach. Both of Schullery's books on fly fishing are really entertaining, though. These are not simply books about the history of fly fishing where one might tell you when so and so tied this fly, when this style was developed, etc. but rather, Schullery is VERY mindful of the various issues and arguments that still pop up regularly (especially now in the age of internet discussion boards), and he is pretty adamant in pointing out that mostly, fly fisherman don't know their history terribly well. I don't think he ever says it, but you could say Schullery's books drive home the old bible verse "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Or maybe Harry Truman's observation that "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."
"My Moby Dick" by William Humprey. What a great little book! This book is about Humphrey's obsessive quest to catch a giant brown trout that he spies in a small brook. He describes the effect the fish has on him, how he goes about preparing to catch it, and of course, what finally happens.
A handful of others that I think I read before my "vacation" started, but that are also worth a look:
"Silent Seasons", edited by Russell Chatham. This is a collection of fishing essays, many humorous, all good, written by a handful of different authors. I recall among those being Chatham, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, William Hjortsberg, Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin and Charles Waterman.
"Backcast" by Lou Ureneck. This is the account of an Alaskan river float trip that the author took with his son. It's grouped with the other fishing books at Barnes and Noble, but I'd argue it's more about his relationship with his son and the people of his past than it is about fishing, but fishing pervades the book. It didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed it.
"American Buffalo", by Steven Rinella. This isn't a fishing book at all, but because Rinella has written essays for sporting related periodicals, including "Fly Fisherman" magazine, some people may have come across his writing. This is a great book about his obsession with bison, his hunt for wild bison in Alaska, and the general history of bison and our relationship to them in the United States. Rinella also wrote "The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine", which is a great book about his quest to create a huge extravagant wild-game dinner for his friends. He spends a year hunting, fishing, trapping and otherwise acquiring an assortment of beasts, including but not limited to carp, eels, pigeons, sparrows, pronghorn, and bear. He's also an acquaintance of mine, being the brother of one of my good friends. So, this is also a shameless plug.
Winter's coming, so for those of you that like to spend some of it reading about fishing, these are some of my suggestions. I have found that I enjoy a good book almost as much as I enjoy fishing, which tends to take some of the sting out of the coming of winter.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for me, please pass them along. I've almost reached the end of my list, and I'd hate to think I'll spend the winter doing nothing but bickering on the internet!
Andrew
The upside, though, is that my summer vacation was fun while it lasted. I did some fishing, mostly to no avail, but sometimes with some success. When the stripers weren't cooperating, I chased sunfish, bluegills, and bass, and was reminded how much fun that kind of fishing can be. I got a 13 foot two handed rod and made a little progress learning to spey cast. I also learned, through the help of an enabler or two, that an evening of unsuccessful striper fishing could be completely salvaged by standing roadside, waders on and car trunk open, and consuming quantities of hoppy ale. That this proved so completely satisfying alarmed me, not because it meant that I often returned home at 2:00 am, despite stringing the rod up at 10:45 pm, but rather that it took me so long to discover it. Water under the bridge now, I suppose, but still, to think of what I'd missed by fishing the entire time in the past!
Another thing I had decided was that I'd read some of the books that have been on my list a while, but that I'd neglected in part because of time spent surfing the boards. I thought I'd reproduce that list here, in case somebody else should find themselves still reading the boards but also considering a healthy vacation from them. So, here, in no particular order are the ones I can recall reading sometime in the last few months, with a few comments that might prove useful. I managed to secure most of these through inter-library loan via my own public library. None of these are "how to" books about fishing, which I have generally found to be about as exciting as corn flakes in all but the rarest exceptions. These are books with fishing stories and other things related to why we fly fish, and probably without exception these include at least some humor, some more than others.
"Crazy for Rivers", by Bill Barich: I've just started this one, just this morning, so I can't comment extensively, but I like the writing style. If you like some of the others on this list (below), you probably will like this one. It seems as if this little book could probably be best described as a memoir.
"To Know a River" and "A River Never Sleeps", both by Roderick Haig-Brown: The first title turns out to be selected chapters or sections from some of Haig-Brown's other books, so it's a nice intro to his writing. I hadn't realized this when I requested it, but it's a nice book by itself or as an entry point. "A River Never Sleeps" is one of his more famous books. Haig-Brown was an Englishman, originally, who moved to British Columbia when he was fairly young and developed a real taste for Pacific salmon and steelhead fishing, and trout. His writing is highly descriptive, of nature, fishing, etc., and full of nice little nuggets of wisdom but never preachy. This particular book, written in the 1940's, I think, follows a year, month by month, in the life of a river, where he describes not only the fishing but also just what is going on in the river. It's considered a classic.
"The Habit of Rivers" by Ted Leeson. I loved this book, or at least parts of it. It wasn't easy reading, and a few sections I slogged through and was relieved to reach the end. But others were great, and on occasion Leeson turns a phrase that I had to read two or three times because I couldn't get over how great it was. The book is, basically, just a narrative of some fishing experiences he has fishing for trout (mostly) in various parts of Oregon. He gets philosophical here and there, and in my opinion these were the best and the worst parts of the book. All in all, I highly recommend this one.
"On the Spine of Time" by Harry Middleton. I was reading this book when another book came in through inter-library loan, and because the latter have short borrowing periods, I set down Middleton's book and haven't picked it up again. But I was enjoying it and will return to it. Middleton writes about trout fishing small streams in the southern Appalachian mountains. He has a couple others that I assume are similar, but I haven't seen them yet. These are "The Bright Country" and "The Earth is Enough".
"In the Company of Rivers" by Ed Quigley. I couldn't get into this one. It just wasn't my style. I looked it up because it came up as one of those "Other people who bought this book also bought..." on Amazon, but I would not describe this book as being of the same style, or same caliber, as the others I read. So, I include this info just in case it's of some use.
"If Fish Could Scream" by Paul Schullery. This was a really interesting and thought provoking book. Schullery takes a partly philosophical (an admittedly personal and biased one) and partly historical perspective to examine some issues in fly fishing. The title refers specifically to a chapter on the ethics of fishing, of catch and release, etc. WIthout the book in hand right now, I can't recall what the other issues are that he tackles, but even though the book is thought provoking, it's entertaining and mostly light-hearted.
"Royal Coachman", also by Schullery. This book is similar to Schullery's great book "American Fly Fishing" about the history of fly fishing, but this one takes a less academic approach. Both of Schullery's books on fly fishing are really entertaining, though. These are not simply books about the history of fly fishing where one might tell you when so and so tied this fly, when this style was developed, etc. but rather, Schullery is VERY mindful of the various issues and arguments that still pop up regularly (especially now in the age of internet discussion boards), and he is pretty adamant in pointing out that mostly, fly fisherman don't know their history terribly well. I don't think he ever says it, but you could say Schullery's books drive home the old bible verse "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Or maybe Harry Truman's observation that "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know."
"My Moby Dick" by William Humprey. What a great little book! This book is about Humphrey's obsessive quest to catch a giant brown trout that he spies in a small brook. He describes the effect the fish has on him, how he goes about preparing to catch it, and of course, what finally happens.
A handful of others that I think I read before my "vacation" started, but that are also worth a look:
"Silent Seasons", edited by Russell Chatham. This is a collection of fishing essays, many humorous, all good, written by a handful of different authors. I recall among those being Chatham, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, William Hjortsberg, Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin and Charles Waterman.
"Backcast" by Lou Ureneck. This is the account of an Alaskan river float trip that the author took with his son. It's grouped with the other fishing books at Barnes and Noble, but I'd argue it's more about his relationship with his son and the people of his past than it is about fishing, but fishing pervades the book. It didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed it.
"American Buffalo", by Steven Rinella. This isn't a fishing book at all, but because Rinella has written essays for sporting related periodicals, including "Fly Fisherman" magazine, some people may have come across his writing. This is a great book about his obsession with bison, his hunt for wild bison in Alaska, and the general history of bison and our relationship to them in the United States. Rinella also wrote "The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine", which is a great book about his quest to create a huge extravagant wild-game dinner for his friends. He spends a year hunting, fishing, trapping and otherwise acquiring an assortment of beasts, including but not limited to carp, eels, pigeons, sparrows, pronghorn, and bear. He's also an acquaintance of mine, being the brother of one of my good friends. So, this is also a shameless plug.
Winter's coming, so for those of you that like to spend some of it reading about fishing, these are some of my suggestions. I have found that I enjoy a good book almost as much as I enjoy fishing, which tends to take some of the sting out of the coming of winter.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for me, please pass them along. I've almost reached the end of my list, and I'd hate to think I'll spend the winter doing nothing but bickering on the internet!
Andrew