Lately I’ve been doing some reading.
Come to think of it, I read on a daily basis nearly continually. The only time I don’t read daily is when I’m away from home on a fishing trip.
The rest of the year I’m reading about fishing. Some say I’m a tad addicted to the rod and reel. A wise man once said, “all things in moderation including moderation.”
I believe in a degree of moderation, but my mathematician friend Charles Kennedy of Port de Grave, the wise man referred to, left me the loophole I needed.
I do not and will not moderate my fishing. Most other things in life I pursue with reasonable and rational enthusiasm, I think, even hunting. I once said in public, “so many fish and so little time.” A few people found that funny. I was very serious. Anyway, I’m rambling again.
Back to reading, I don’t mean reading the news on your phone, or browsing what your friends and family are doing on Facebook.
That doesn’t count. Might as well be watching TV or Netflix.
I’m referring to books and magazines of substance, and digital counts nowadays, while not filling up the house. I read Moby Dick digitally last year. That was a lot of digitally turning pages, a long detailed read. I now know everything about whaling. Did I tell you my father was a whaler for a while?
That’s another story for another time.
And I was partially joking about all fishing-related reading. Partially, because I do read a lot of angling and fly tying stuff, but I do indulge in other topics and well. I just started John McCain’s “The Restless Wave,” interesting in the present U.S. political context.
I love biographies and historical novels. A while back I read a few wonderful famous angler biographies, Stu Apte most memorably.
I have this great book by Ian Whitelaw, “The History of Fishing in Fifty Flies.” See how I can bring all things around to fishing.
Goldie loves that. Not really.
You will not be surprised that I read everything Hemingway.
You know he was an accomplished angler and hunter, right? Yes indeed, “The Old Man and the Sea” is my very favourite novel. I have a copy in Spanish that I picked up in Buenos Aries when I was passing through on a fishing trip.
It is a powerful story and if you haven’t, read it, now is the time. I managed to ask for the book in Spanish as well, so I’m quite proud of that copy. I always try to learn some of local language for fishing trips.
There is plenty of good fishing in the Spanish-speaking world so I’m continuing as a student of hablando espanol. Icelandic was brutal, not in a million years could I say anything correctly. Good thing most of the folks in Iceland speak good English.
That is not true in Argentina.
Anyway, I just finished another great read and this one got me all inspired with a bunch of column ideas. I’ll tell you a bit about the book first. It’s “Guide Eyes,” by Perry Munro and it is a fascinating look into the mind of a man who has spent his whole life hunting and fishing, or guiding others while they hunt or fish.
Like the title implies, it is an insightful look through his eyes.
I think you will enjoy this book even if you don’t hunt or fish.
Perry has a way of saying things, and presents the outdoors holistically, with Zen always the underlying theme.
Perry was my guide at Igloo Lake in the summer of 2018. Jim Burton put us together because he figured we had a lot in common, besides the obvious long hair.
Jim was right and we had a grand time together. I consider Perry a friend and we have stayed in touch digitally.
There’s a chapter in the book titled “Trophy Water and Home Water,” that rings a bell with my life experience. Like me, and most of us anglers, Perry grew up chasing the fish that lived in the lakes, rivers, and ponds around where he grew up in Nova Scotia. That’s generally the way it is for kids with a hankering for biting fish. But we all still dream about the big fish in exotic and wonderful far-away places.
My first real reading obsession after Archie and Superman were Field and Stream sort of magazines.
It was the same for Perry and we both dreamed of big fish in far-away places. And we both ended up writing fishing stories in magazines, beginning with our home waters and later getting a taste of those famous far away fishing destinations.
But Perry’s journey had an added more specific twist.
You can read “Guides Eyes” yourself for all the details, but I’ll give you the jist of “Far-Away River.”
It’s where the big fish are of course, just over the next hill. You know how that goes. As a kid Perry frequented a hardware store that stocked some top end fishing gear, Hardy reels and the like. The storekeeper would show Perry the fine worldly gear and tell him about how good the fishing was on Far Away River. In fact it was so bloody good that the guy didn’t fish at home anymore. Wow, what kid wouldn’t dream of fishing Far Away River. Perry certainly did, and so did I, all those wonderful locations around the world, Labrador, North West Territories, Alaska, and beyond.
There are plenty of far-away rivers.
You know what? I’ve heard that same story from people. One guy said that he went to the Eagle River and now he just can’t fish for salmon anywhere else. I just don’t understand that reasoning. My Gull Pond on New Harbour Barrens is a far-away river for some folks. It’s my trouting home waters and I catch some nice brook trout on a good mayfly hatch.
For a fella in Tennessee, where a 10-inch brook trout is a whopper, well you get the picture.
Perry and I have been to plenty of far-away rivers but we still love to fish around home. What do you think I was doing in Buenos Aries?
There are big sea trout in the Rio Grande. But yesterday I braved the cold and easterly wind to tangle with a few smaller sea trout in CBS. Fishing really is about a lot more than just catching trout, bass, or salmon. And Perry can explain that better than I.
Search Perry Munro on Facebook if you are interested in his book.
I will not get to fish for largemouth bass in Florida this spring. I have a few fishing buddies in the Sunshine State and we always do our annual kayak run on a creek system leading into Lake Okeechobee.
It’s renowned for big bass and I can still remember reading about its fantastic fishing in Field and Stream, lying on my bed while Mom cooked supper.
Deep down I knew I’d get there, although not this year, not in this COVID-19 reality. But I love my home waters.
I’m not wasting good fishing time crying and sulking about bass, snook, or tarpon, well maybe tarpon.
Seriously, I can’t wait for May 15 to distance myself from the world in my canoe and catch a few trout.
Newfoundland is the best darn place in the world to catch brook trout. It’s the “Far Away-River” in our own back yard.
Paul Smith, a native of Spaniard’s Bay, fishes and wanders the outdoors at every opportunity. He can be contacted at flyfishtherock@hotmail.com or follow him on twitter at @flyfishtherock.
