Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict - Softcover

Lyons, Nick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0871137453 ISBN 13: 9780871137456

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999

Synopsis

Book by Lyons, Nick

About this title

From the Back Cover

Nick Lyons has been called a "happy combination of angler-poet-romantic," and nowhere is this-and his compulsion to fish-more in evidence than in Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict. From his spirited defense of "fish tales" to his exploration of dozens of moments in a "fly-fishing addict's" life, this collection of fifty essays is sure to delight his legions of fans.

Nick Lyons takes a hard and often whimsical look at how we all learn to fish, what we fish for, and where we cast our lines. Bluegills, bluefish, snook, chub, brown trout, bass, and salmon are all explored, along with the discretely different experiences of fishing in small ponds, major Western rivers, English chalk streams, and no-name brooks. Lyons can be hilarious when recording his misadventures as a fishing guide or inventor of new flies, contemplative when looking at the ethics or peculiarities of fishing, nostalgic and philosophical about a season past or an old fishing friend now dead. In the emotions it explores and records, Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict is Lyons's broadest book.

"Bravo for the Confessions, from one addict to another! Nick Lyons is quite simply the tops, in stylish prose, gentle wit, and accumulated wisdom. Add his sense of humility and complete honesty-rare qualities among us fly fishermen-and you will begin to understand why Lyons' essays are essential to our sanity."-William W. Warner, author of Beautiful Swimmers

"Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict captures the feelings, frailties, frustrations, and fun of fly fishing. This is Nick Lyons at his absolute best. Nick Lyons weaves a spell with words as he masterfully makes us see ourselves more clearly on streams, lakes, estuaries, and oceans through his fly-fishing journeys. You won't put it down!"-Mark J. Sosin

Nick Lyons was for twenty-six years an English professor at Hunter College and is now a book publisher. He has published more than four hundred articles and eighteen books, most of them on fishing. Mari Lyons's paintings and drawings have graced previous books by her husband. She shows regularly at the First Street Gallery in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly

These essays, reprinted from Fly Fisherman magazine, form a smooth and satisfying collection. A book publisher and essayist, Lyons ( Bright Rivers ) is adept at both writing and fly fishing--qualities in evidence despite his humility and self-deprecating humor, which prompt a friend to chide him: "You're downgrading yourself too much, Nick. You're not nearly so bad a fisherman as you make out." His language sparkles ("What a glorious pool it is. The water sweeps down from a four-hundred-yard-long riffle, hits the bend, and makes marvelously trouty music"), and sound advice is leavened with wit and charm. To make a dry fly appeal to a fish, he counsels, have it behave naturally. "If you saw a piece of steak moving unnaturally on your plate, would you eat it?" The various pieces range in style from touching simplicity to slapstick comedy. Fly fishing, Lyons contends, is a panacea, "a pleasant, restful time, with the kind of happy, leisurely rhythms that are addictive." So are his essays.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0871137453
• ISBN 13: 9780871137456
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Illustrator: Lyons Mari