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

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. (June)