My Secret Fishing Life

My Secret Fishing LifeBy Nick LyonsI used to check-out the fishing section in stores to find new fishing books, but I was dissatisfied with the plethora of How-to titles crowding the John Gierach books I already own. So I worked backwards and paid attention to names mentioned in fishing books. John Gierach led me to Russell Chatham and from there I've picked up on Nick Lyons, Jim Harrison and Robert Traver. These are the greats that great writers read, and their collections are more than creative ways to describe the sound of fly line leaving a reel. The pages are the lives of fishermen - complex, passionate and flawed in the ways that make them real.My Secret Fishing Life started as a half-hour-before-bed type read until I reached Part III. Part III is a Saturday-morning-on-the-porch-with-a-pot-of-coffee. It's a look back at his life fishing, about his writing/publishing career, about his family. I have no doubt it will be read again before this year turns to next.If you want to know how to catch more fish, go to the bookstore and get the How-to's, take notes and pass it along to a friend. If you want to feel okay about allowing fishing to take-over a considerable portion of your past and future and want to read and re-read prose that articulates what you didn't think was possible then this book needs to be in your library.