Some of the greatest love stories are about rivers, especially trout rivers. And many of these affairs have come to an end, for the year anyway, as the legal fishing season closes. It really is a love affair with many of the more dedicated. They are haunted through the winter with this curve of their river or that, the clear complexion of the water, the gentle swell of the flood.
Enough of these comparisons: the fisherman's heart is indeed often as much with the surroundings in which he goes after his prize, as with the weight or number of fish caught. It is sometimes said that all fishermen are liars. No, but they are often fantasists. And they do, many of them, enjoy the early flight of the bat or the rustling of bird in the reeds on a darkening summer's night. It happens with lake fishermen too, especially those who cast from the shore, but it is especially strong with those who walk the banks of a river, and tell you that they can "read" it, and from the height; of the water and the lie of the stones, discern signs of life that others cannot.
A neat book sent by a young relative from New York is called Spring Creek and, over about 160 pages, tells of countless expeditions to the named stretch of water. The book is so lyrical, so warm, that you wonder if this is not, in fact, a river of the author's dream or imagination. But no, Spring Creek exists, is lovingly drawn and many a triumph is recorded. The author, Nick Lyons, is apparently well known; he is described on the back cover as "a national treasure" and, we are told, this volume "shows what fishing writing can be."
Well, it is disturbing for the Irish trout angler. "In deep pools, when the light was just right, you could see fifty or sixty wild browns of all sizes - a few ten inchers, a whole slew of fish between fifteen and nineteen inches, and a few old alligators that would go twenty five or more." Later he sees "a fish the size of a muskrat or a dog, coming right past me, black and thick, scaring me half out of my boots.
But angling is also a serious business. Most of the anglers on this creek fish only the dry fly, which they tie themselves with utter precision. The author asked one such purist at the end of the day: "Have fun?" He replied: "I never have fun." Yes. it really is a serious business.
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press. Excellent drawings by Mari Lyons. No price given.