Individual taste in books varies as much as the favorite rod or fly.  With that in mind, we hope to review books and videos from the ever-growing fly fishing world, and share them with you.  Books will be the best of all worlds, new and old.  Many of the old books are now available in reprint, and the wisdom contained is timely today.  Others can be found in second-hand book stores, or by mail order dealers. As we find videos we feel are outstanding they will be included. Be assured, reviews are based on what we have actually read, and due to that fact, may not appear weekly.
April 26th, 1999

The Quotable Fisherman
Complied and Introduced by Nick Lyons
The Lyons Press
31 West 21 Street, New York, New York 10010
Phone: (212) 620-9580, email Lyons Press

I'm always amazed and delighted with those people who can say so much in so few words. When reading such wisdom a little light really does go off in your mind. Sometimes it's a "wow!" Other times a "hmmm," and the wheels in your head continue to crank away on the thought. Occasionally the response is more like, "gee, I knew that, but could never put it into words."

I've just finished reading The Quotable Fisherman. Nick Lyons has some kind of mind set that enables him to gather and catalog thoughts. He gleans them from writings he has read over the years, as in the case of Fisherman's Bounty a collection of marvelous writings both entertaining and educational. The Quotable Fisherman is wonderful. Nick may have outdone himself.

Besides the scraps of wisdom gathered, Nick arranged them in a very neat order. Each of the twelve chapters contain quotes on the same subject by a variety of people. For instance, there is Beginnings, Fish and Their World, A Mixed Bag, Some Ways We Do it, When, Tools and Technical Matters, Anglers All, A Necessary Passion, The Antic Angler, The Essence of the Pursuit, Ethical Matters and Fisherman's Autumn. Which when read in the order presented take the reader from the anglers beginning to the autumn of his life. A book of quotations that reads like a novel.

An additional chapter has "Some Very Personal Notes on Some of the Authors." Most interesting to have information about the folks I have just read. Especially those whose books I have not yet read, it gives me more reason to pursue their writings.

This really is a lovely book, with crisp black and white drawings by Alan James Robinson here and there, designed to read easily, and pleasant to the eye. But it's the content that will get you! Highly recommended.

The Quotable Fisherman is hardbound, 200 pages. The price is $20.00 (U.S.), ISBN: 1-55821-717-7. ~ DB

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