My Secret Fishing Life

Beyond his life as an English professor, book publisher, and writer, Lyons has always had a secret fishing life, explored in this collection of wise, gentle, and witty essays. Illustrations.

The perfect fly fishing book for today's novice, enthusiastic amateur, as well as the devoted angler is part narration of the author's own angling obsessions and adventures, part practical how-to, and part meditation on a connection to the natural world.

"On a good evening in June I can hear the frogs booming and croaking the instant I shut down the car in the parking lot a hundred yards from the pond in the middle of town. . . . By the time I've reached the end of the path, I've shut out the sounds of cars a hundred yards away on Main Street. For the next hour, the world will shrink to this little piece of water." What could be better than to work in a business that relates so closely to one's hobby? Art Scheck works in the fishing business as an author and magazine editor. In this collection, he confesses how he became disenchanted with fishing when he began working long hours in the business, and how his humor and his love of time spent alone fishing whatever water was nearby brought back his appreciation of the simple joys of fishing for fun.

From the acclaimed author of Maybe He Just Likes You and Halfway Normal comes a “compassionate…touching” (Donna Gephart, award-winning author of The Paris Project) and powerful story of learning how to grow, change, and survive. When twelve-year-old Zinnia Manning’s older brother Gabriel is diagnosed with a mental illness, the family’s world is turned upside down. Mom and Dad want Zinny, her sixteen-year-old sister, Scarlett, and her eight-year-old brother, Aiden, to keep Gabriel’s condition “private”—and to Zinny that sounds the same as “secret.” Which means she can’t talk about it with her two best friends, who don’t understand why Zinny keeps pushing them away, turning everything into a joke. It also means she can’t talk about it during Lunch Club, a group run by the school guidance counselor. How did Zinny get stuck in this weird club, anyway? She certainly doesn’t have anything in common with these kids—and even if she did, she’d never betray her family’s secret. The only good thing about school is science class, where cool teacher Ms. Molina has them doing experiments on crayfish. And when Zinny has the chance to attend a dream marine biology camp for the summer, she doesn’t know what to do. How can Zinny move forward when Gabriel—and, really, her whole family—still needs her help?

In Casting Forward, naturalist, educator, and writer Steve Ramirez takes the reader on a yearlong journey fly fishing all of the major rivers of the Texas Hill Country. This is a story of the resilience of nature and the best of human nature. It is the story of a living, breathing place where the footprints of dinosaurs, conquistadors, and Comanches have mingled just beneath the clear spring-fed waters. This book is an impassioned plea for the survival of this landscape and its biodiversity, and for a new ethic in how we treat fish, nature, and each other.

Sometimes the wildest fishing happens right in your own town-or in the city you happen to be visiting. Some of fly-fishing's most gifted writers proclaim the joys and rewards of fishing urban waters.

Fishing is many things to many people. To some, quietly dangling a worm for a sunfish in a local farm pond is not only exciting, but relaxing and reflective. To others, it’s all about the adventure of traveling to exotic locales and fishing for ten-pound rainbow trout in Alaska or 100-pound tarpon in Central America. To others, it’s an integral part of life, not just a pastime but something to live for. Still others feel compelled to write about it, to try to understand this sport that grips so many. In this collection, you’ll read works from celebrated writers that aim to explore the mysterious grip that fishing has held on so many of us. Within these pages, the reader can: Join Rudyard Kipling as he chases a cow that has stolen his minnow Examine the philosophical side of angling with Thaddeus Norris Fish the Ohio River with John James Audubon Learn what it’s like to fish for Great Lakes steelhead with Jerry Hamza Get used to fishing alongside Alaskan brown bears with Richard Chiappone And many more fishing escapades! With more than three dozen photographs and illustrations that masterfully bring these stories to life, Incredible Fishing Stories is a must-have for every angler looking to share in the joy of their chosen sport.

100 Essential, Engaging, Offbeat, and Occasionally Odd Fishing and Hunting Books for the Adventurous Reader