Fishing with My Old Guy: The Hilarious Quest for the Biggest Speckled Trout in the World

The Old Guy of the title is Gordon Deval, who joined Canadian novelist Quarrington (King Leary) and two others on a fishing trip from Toronto to northern Quebec. The term is a generic one among anglers and refers to the experienced fisher who passes on secrets of fishing or casting to a novice. Those who think that casting and fishing must be concomitants are wrong, for there is a group that holds casting competitions, determines champions (Deval is the longtime North America Casting Champion) and awards plaques--fishing is not necessarily the point of the activity. On this trip, though, the goal was to catch the biggest brook (i.e., speckled) trout in the world, to best the record 14 pounds. But nature was against them, with an unrelenting, freezing wind, lots of rain and at least one ice storm. The terrain, too, was hostile and the engine on their boat uncooperative. Everything went badly, leaving this humorous account the only bright spot in their quest. (Oct.)