Au Sable Apocalypse: Notes from a Fly Fisher's Life

A selection of amusing, insightful, and reflective articles and essays by one of the nation's most popular writers on fly-fishing includes an account of the author's conversion to the joys of fly-fishing on Michigan's Au Sable River.

On a gray afternoon 40 years ago, Lyons hooked, and quickly lost, a large brown trout on a dry fly on Michigan's Au Sable River. He subsequently ordered his life around that "remarkable moment" and today Lyons is one of America's best-known fly-fishing authors, as well as a leading publisher of fly-fishing literature. In this elegant collection of essays, Lyons reflects on a life spent fishing for everything from pike outside Paris to giant tarpon on the shimmering flats off the Florida Keys. He is at his best, however, writing about trout?a fish of cool, clear streams that is, like its habitat, wonderfully evocative of Lyons's own quiet and intimate prose. Ranging from humorous to philosophical, these short pieces explore a fascinating sport in its many dimensions. Whether discussing how fly-fishermen compulsively attempt to duplicate with their lures the hatch stage of the life cycle of the tiny Paraleptophlebia or sadly reminiscing on a rural trout stream overwhelmed by the inevitable crowds, Lyons looks back on his lifelong passion without becoming unduly sententious: fly-fishing is "merely a lovely, useless activity that, somehow, has become an axial in my life, an anchor." The writing is a pleasure for anyone who has similarly tried examining the world through the lens of moving water. Mari Lyons is a New York City- based fine artist.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

How Lyons (Fishing Widows, 1974, etc., and president of Lyons & Burford publishers) manages, year after year, to wrest fresh, hugely entertaining material from the world of fly-fishing is a mystery. But he does. Lyons likes to fish. He likes to fish long and hard, short and delicate. He likes to fish for all manner of quarry (though the brown trout is his downfall), and he will happily fish a spinning rod when the wicked, slender fly rod won't do. And when he's not streamside, he likes to fish in his head, read about fishing, paw through his fly boxes, dream of the honey holes. Lyons just slipped past the 60 mark, recently emerged from a hospital stay, and this collection of his articles and essays is a bit more reflective than his earlier books; the humor is still there, the wit sharp, but now he's taking a bead on why fishing has given him such pleasure, enthralled him so, made him, in a word, happy. In the long run, that joy may be ineffable, yet two aspects of his avocation continue to rise to the surface: Fishing makes him think, puzzle out a stretch of water, get intimate with the currents, eddies, and backwaters; and he deeply loves the context--not just the history and literature and paraphernalia, but even more the riverine environment, ``the things that led us here in the first place: simplicity, untrampled bogs and banks, sweet silences, and perfectly exquisite beauty.'' While Lyons would run screaming from the suggestion, there is more than just a touch of the graybeard's wisdom here; when he talks of Roderick Haig-Brown's books, their ``high-level of quiet instruction, inconspicuouly offered,'' the same could be applied to this book, teachings that shape the soul of the fisherman. For Lyons, fishing is a matter of the heart, and to fishing he has blissfully lost his. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This commendable compilation of angling essays and articles from Lyons, a writer and publisher, will inspire and enlighten anyone who cares about fish and their habitat. Lyons's musings and observations go far beyond strategies for catching as many fish as possible. On the contrary, he deplores anyone or anything that would deplete the cherished natural resources that are requisite to this popular pastime. His approach is more contemplative and frequently philosophical as he ponders a variety of topics ranging from artificial fly patterns to river currents to modern gadgetry. Simple truths emerge from these pithy considerations, and readers will benefit from having their hearts and minds enkindled. Highly recommended for public libraries.
Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.