Synopses & Reviews
Jim Dean, longtime editor of
Wildlife in North Carolina offers his personal observations on the pleasures and frustrations of hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor pursuits.
Dogs That Point, Fish That Bite draws together fifty of the best columns that Dean has written for the magazine over the last seventeen years. The witty, sometimes poignant pieces are arranged into a loose chronicle of the sporting year, with a generous allowance for digression: the first is set in April, on the opening day of trout season, and the last tells of a New Year's Day spent alone in a mountain cabin.
At first glance, hunting and fishing are the focus of most of the columns. Often, however, Dean is after bigger game. A crab that escapes the pot leads him to reflect on the capricious nature of life. The restoration of a cabin at the old family farm evokes memories of family and simpler times. And a May panfishing trip takes on the quality of ritual, performed by two old friends. The consistent theme uniting all the essays is the celebration of wild places and rural traditions that have become endangered in our modern world.
Review
Dean is quite simply a writer with few equals.
Tom Earnhardt, author of Fly Fishing the Tidewaters
Review
What a delightful book!
The Pulse
Review
Jim Dean brings you his outdoors with long experience, pleasant sentiment and unforgettable wry humor.
Charles F. Waterman, author of Black Bass and the Fly Rod#
Review
Jim Dean is among the top few writer-sportsmen in America--and I
love this book.
Nick Lyons, author of Confessions of a Fly-Fishing Addict
Review
The consistent theme uniting all of these witty and poignant essays is the celebration of wild places and rural traditions.
Fly Rod and Reel
Synopsis
Fifty outdoor essays by Jim Dean, the longtime editor of Wildlife in North Carolina magazine and a noted outdoor writer and photographer. Here Dean shares his personal observations on the pleasures and frustrations of hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor pursuits.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Just Once a Year
2. Children of the Moon
3. One Berry Picker Moves On
4. Fishing with Grandfathers
5. Fishing for Ice Age Trout
6. Calendar Art and the Sacrificial Bass
7. Somewhere behind the Post Office
8. Let the Good Earth Roll
9. Getting Lost and Loving It
10. Death of a Turtle
11. A Brief History of Hats
12. Ship of Frogs
13. Brothers of the Lodge
14. Fly Fishing for Grouse
15. Too Lazy to Fish
16. A Few Kind Words about Guns
17. Camp Cooking Catastrophes
18. Blindfolded, with Scissors
19. Breaking In a New Guide
20. Life on the End
21. Homegrown Interludes
22. Out on the Big Blue
23. A Train up Every Creek
24. The Laws of Discontinued Perfection
25. Fishing and Supply-Side Economics
26. Fishing and the Theory of Relativity
27. The Summers before Air
28. Live Entertainment
29. The Last Elk's Legacy
30. A Kinship in Stone
31. Down and Dirty
32. Bird Thou Never Wert
33. The Last, Best Day
34. Shooting with Bone-Narrows
35. The Art of Anticipation
36. Calling All Dogs
37. The Thanksgiving Hunt
38. Dogs Are a Better Class of People
39. Birds out of Hand
40. Deerly Beloved, We Are Gathered
41. Real Ducks, Fake Ducks
42. Greasy Burgers and Curb Service
43. A Goose for Lemmie
44. A Jetty Too Far
45. File under Diversions
46. Enough Is Not Enough
47. The Best We Can Hope For
48. Where the Wind Comes From
49. Cutting the Tree
50. A Different Kind of New Year's