The River as Looking Glass: And Other Stories from the Outdoors

For Vermonter Woods, formerly an editor of Fly Fisherman magazine and author of The Fly Fisherman's Streamside Handbook , fishing and hunting are more than sports. In this anthology of stories and articles, he describes angling for trout and salmon and tracking grouse and woodcock, and it all has as much to do with human nature as with fishing and hunting. Woods is obviously an experienced sportsman, but it is his own reactions to his successes and failures that interest him most. Salmon elude him, trout outsmart him, and, when he gets too eager for the big catch, there is a crafty old Vermonter around to show who the real sucker is. Woods describes wittily and eloquently the wiles of men and fish and the wonders of nature, while revealing much about the technique of fly fishing and a great deal more about himself. He also tells several good tales about the big ones that got away. (July)