Angling Days: A Fly Fisher's Journals

by Robert DeMott

Overview

“From the very first, it seems, fishing was a respite and a therapy along with all of its other potentially redemptive qualities.” —Robert DeMott

Spanning more than forty-five years, Angling Days is a collection of Robert DeMott’s numerous journal entries, each a small essay in itself, jotted down during the placid moments of fishing in and along the streams and rivers of North America. Through his journaling, DeMott carries on the angling tradition of channeling the tranquility of fly fishing into creative endeavors, whether by painting, sketching, fly tying, or writing. For him, it was writing—something he did whenever he could, whether in the midst of fishing or during a break away from the water.

Angling Days is a lifetime of work, a chronicle of what it is to be an angler seeking the most pristine waters and the smartest fish. It is a collection of entries and musings in the vein of DeMott’s literary hero, Henry David Thoreau, and promises to shine a new light on the art and joy of fly fishing.

“For me, rod and pen seem to complete each other in a kind of call-and-response way. One demands a response from the other, and in that way rod and pen complete each other.” —Robert DeMott

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634508155
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	06/28/2016
Edition description:	Skyhorse Stationary
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Robert DeMott is Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio University and author or editor of many books, including Steinbeck's Typewriter: Essays on His Art, Brief and Glorious Transit: Prose Poems, Afield: American Writers on Bird Dogs, and Astream: American Writers on Fly Fishing. A flyfisherman for more than half a century, he is a Federation of Fly Fishers certified casting instructor and life member of Trout Unlimited. He lives in Athens, Ohio, with writer and editor Kate Fox.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xiii

The Trouting Journals xv

Part I (1989-2001) 1

On Grayling Creek 26 July 1989 2

Hardy LRH Lightweight 28-29 July 1989 6

A Rod, Not a Pole 6 October 1991 11

Four Corners Faraway 28 March 1992 15

The View from Staley Springs 25 July 1992 21

The Beaverhead Is a Movable Feast 3 August 1992 28

Through a Looking Glass 11 October 1992 36

Rainbows in Paradise Valley 2 September 1993 40

In Praise of Small Streams 1 August 1994 49

The Myth of Fishyfus 11 August 1994 57

Nick Nicklas Instructs 27 July 1995 62

Desert Places 18 August 1995 66

For Whom Big Wood River Tolls 26 July 1996 69

Brown Trout after Dark 4 August 1997 73

Western Rivers Guide School 7 July 1998 81

Querencia 11 July 1998 85

Millennial Trout 23 December 1999 89

Elk River Trout Ranch 15 May 2000 93

Success Is Counted Sweetest 15 August 2000 96

Spring Creek Tantalizations 11 August 2001 101

Part II (2002-2015) 107

Marryat's Fly Box 9-10 July 2002 108

On the North Tongue 6-7 August 2002 114

Red Run Brookies 10 October 2003 118

A Fox Barked on the Hiwassee 28 March 2004 121

Fishing with Jim Harrison 18 August 2005 124

In the Driftless Region 29 April 2007 129

Isos and Big Fish 19 June 2007 133

The Big Wet 20 August 2008 140

Co-Ed Angling 6-8 June 2009 144

Front-Door Trout 15 August 2010 148

Slaty Fork Takes Before It Gives 26 September 2011 151

Cruel Sport of the Angling Gods 15 August 2012 157

O'Dell Creek Redux 22 August 2012 161

Honey Ants on the Railroad Ranch 15 August 2013 164

Strange Courage 30 August 2013 169

Looking for Joe Brooks 1 September 2013 174

Déjà Vu All Over Again 13 August 2014 179

The Fisher as He Fishes 1 September 2014 182

Finale, for Now 27 October 2015 188

About the Author 193

Editorial Reviews

“This irresistibly readable book is presented as a compilation of entries to a fishing journal kept by Bob DeMott for over a quarter of a century. Those entries track a long, attention-paying self-education in the high art of trout fishing. . . . Along the way, DeMott entertains us with lively prose, deft cameos of guides and fishing pals, elegant depictions of riverscapes, and an erudition in angling literature as capacious yet unpretentious as a thirty-year-old fishing vest. Angling Days: A Fly Fisher’s Journals belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who fishes for trout and values fine writing.” —Charles Gaines, author of The Next Valley Over

“After over sixty years in the sport Bob DeMott is to me the best trout fisherman I’ve ever met along with Tom McGuane. His expertise shows on every page of Angling Days. Any trout fisherman who can read will want to pick up a copy.” —Jim Harrison, author of Dead Man’s Float

"A rich book indeed, the work of a passionate and cultivated writer who can actually fish and sees the place of angling in a thoughtful life. DeMott has a lot to tell us about how the game is played, and what it means. A cultivated, unpretentious and useful contribution to our literature." —Tom McGuane, author of The Longest Silence

"Fishing is Robert DeMott’s chosen metaphor, but one gets the feeling that he could write with grace about any other contest between obligation and escape, and every other test that requires us to be more expansive in our thinking and imagination. We habitually reach for the familiar and the inventive, the useful and transcendent in fishing. In Angling Days DeMott has given us the whole possibles bag." —Marshall Cutchin, publisher of MidCurrent

“Angling Days is a seamless amalgam of Robert DeMott’s erudition and love for trout fishing, a masterwork crafted in and by the eddies and currents of the streams that have coursed through the author’s blood since childhood.”—Guy de la Valdene, author of On the Water: A Fishing Memoir

"Move over Lyons, Schwiebert, and Traver: fly-fishing has a new master raconteur. Bob Demott shares his "Angling Stories" with his fishing friends, we are lucky to be those friends!" -Craig Mathews, author, conservationist, and fly-shop owner

"What fun to read Bob DeMott’s fishing journal and see the private and public so happily merged...His passions for fishing and literature—and his delight in human quirks and wild places—come through brilliantly in this lovely book."—Jerry Dennis, author of The River Home and A Place on the Water

“We rarely see the journals of a truly wise and articulate flyfisher, writing so close to a day on the water that we live his choices and sensations, use the flies he used, think his thoughts, learn what the river taught him. DeMott’s Angling Days is that rare treat. It is intimate, brilliant, bone honest, and memorable.” —Nick Lyons, author of Spring Creek

“Late in Angling Days, Robert DeMott recalls breaking a fly rod for the fourth year in a row. Every fisherman knows this suspicion, but as the rich prose and uncanny sensory accuracy indicate here, the karmic forces of good in the author’s life have far outweighed their opposites. If he never raised another trout, DeMott would know he’s a lucky person—and we readers are glad beneficiaries of his good fortune.” —Sydney Lea, author of A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife

“Generous, erudite, and relentlessly readable, like sitting down with the author over burgers and beers to relive a fine shared day of obsessive fly fishing.” —James R. Babb, editor emeritus, Gray’s Sporting Journal

“Bob DeMott’s Angling Days is a richly textured chronicle of the fly fisher’s life at its most enterprising and provocative. We wait a long time between books that are this satisfying—and this much fun.” —Paul Schullery, author of The Fishing Life and member of the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame

“This irresistibly readable book is presented as a compilation of entries to a fishing journal kept by Bob DeMott for over a quarter of a century. Those entries track a long, attention-paying self-education in the high art of trout fishing. . . . Along the way, DeMott entertains us with lively prose, deft cameos of guides and fishing pals, elegant depictions of riverscapes, and an erudition in angling literature as capacious yet unpretentious as a thirty-year-old fishing vest. Angling Days: A Fly Fisher’s Journals belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who fishes for trout and values fine writing.” —Charles Gaines, author of The Next Valley Over

“After over sixty years in the sport Bob DeMott is to me the best trout fisherman I’ve ever met along with Tom McGuane. His expertise shows on every page of Angling Days. Any trout fisherman who can read will want to pick up a copy.” —Jim Harrison, author of Dead Man’s Float

"A rich book indeed, the work of a passionate and cultivated writer who can actually fish and sees the place of angling in a thoughtful life. DeMott has a lot to tell us about how the game is played, and what it means. A cultivated, unpretentious and useful contribution to our literature." —Tom McGuane, author of The Longest Silence

"Fishing is Robert DeMott’s chosen metaphor, but one gets the feeling that he could write with grace about any other contest between obligation and escape, and every other test that requires us to be more expansive in our thinking and imagination. We habitually reach for the familiar and the inventive, the useful and transcendent in fishing. In Angling Days DeMott has given us the whole possibles bag." —Marshall Cutchin, publisher of MidCurrent

“Angling Days is a seamless amalgam of Robert DeMott’s erudition and love for trout fishing, a masterwork crafted in and by the eddies and currents of the streams that have coursed through the author’s blood since childhood.”—Guy de la Valdene, author of On the Water: A Fishing Memoir

"Move over Lyons, Schwiebert, and Traver: fly-fishing has a new master raconteur. Bob Demott shares his "Angling Stories" with his fishing friends, we are lucky to be those friends!" -Craig Mathews, author, conservationist, and fly-shop owner

"What fun to read Bob DeMott’s fishing journal and see the private and public so happily merged...His passions for fishing and literature—and his delight in human quirks and wild places—come through brilliantly in this lovely book."—Jerry Dennis, author of The River Home and A Place on the Water

“We rarely see the journals of a truly wise and articulate flyfisher, writing so close to a day on the water that we live his choices and sensations, use the flies he used, think his thoughts, learn what the river taught him. DeMott’s Angling Days is that rare treat. It is intimate, brilliant, bone honest, and memorable.” —Nick Lyons, author of Spring Creek

“Late in Angling Days, Robert DeMott recalls breaking a fly rod for the fourth year in a row. Every fisherman knows this suspicion, but as the rich prose and uncanny sensory accuracy indicate here, the karmic forces of good in the author’s life have far outweighed their opposites. If he never raised another trout, DeMott would know he’s a lucky person—and we readers are glad beneficiaries of his good fortune.” —Sydney Lea, author of A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife

“Generous, erudite, and relentlessly readable, like sitting down with the author over burgers and beers to relive a fine shared day of obsessive fly fishing.” —James R. Babb, editor emeritus, Gray’s Sporting Journal

“Bob DeMott’s Angling Days is a richly textured chronicle of the fly fisher’s life at its most enterprising and provocative. We wait a long time between books that are this satisfying—and this much fun.” —Paul Schullery, author of The Fishing Life and member of the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame

From the Publisher