Books
Fieldsports have long been the subject of great writing. Alasdair
Mitchell chooses what he’d take if he were marooned on an island
fi rst and foremost. Of no-kill moralists
he says: “In every catch-and-release
fi sherman’s past there is an old black
frying pan.”
Gierach disdains conformity,
observing: “If people don’t
occasionally walk away from you
shaking their heads, you’re doing
something wrong.”
His books are compilations
of essays. Here’s an excerpt from a
story fi rst published in Field & Stream
magazine about an expedition to
a remote river in western Canada:“You’re supposed to make noise
so if there is a bear around, you
won’t surprise it. I did that, but then
it occurred to me that maybe a
middle-aged man in the middleA
hot, salt-laden
environment is perhaps
the last place you’d
expect to be conducive
to thoughts of trout — those fi shy
denizens of cold, aerated fresh water.
But that’s partly why I’d choose a book
by American writer John Gierach.
His laconic, contemplative style
of writing conveys the philosophical
appeal of fl yfi shing — which isn’t
about merely catching fi sh any
more than Top Gear is about cars.
According to Gierach: “The solution
to any problem — work, love, money,
whatever — is to go fi shing, and the
worse the problem, the longer the
trip should be.”
Colorado-based Gierach made his
name with his fi rst book, Trout Bum,
published in 1986. Since then, there
have been many more, with titles
such as Another Lousy Day in Paradise,
Dances with Trout and Sex, Death and
Flyfi shing. Though some of his writing
A. SYDENHAMtouches on hunting, he is a fi sherman
64 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
of nowhere singing Grateful Dead
lyrics off -key might be a little
surprising in itself. You think: maybe
it’s common knowledge among bears
that old hippies are delicious and easy
to catch.
“Some people who spend a lot of
time in bear country wear bells on
their packs or vests to alert bears by
their presence. There’s an old joke
about that: How can you tell the
droppings of black bears and grizzlies
apart? The grizzly turds are the ones
with bells in them.”Goose Fe ver, by Douglas
McDougall, is an illustrated diary
of his inland goose-shooting trips.
The original book covered the years
1933 to 1975, with a special edition“The solution to any problem — work, love,
money — is to go fi shing, and the worse the
problem, the longer the trip should be”
My desert island books
Being marooned on a desert island
wouldn’t be so awful perhaps if you
had some Surtees to hand