A Country Store
What a store was doing out in the middle of nowhere I didn't know, but there it was. I should never have had that second green chili burrito. The gas in my stomach told me I had made a big mistake and it was getting worse by the minute. I had finished my sales calls...
Spruce Creek and the Future
Spruce Creek's greatest claim to fame may well lie in what it gives to angling families in the future. No wider than the asphalt two-lane that traced it, the little stream wasn’t too impressive at first glance. The roar of traffic along a busy Pennsylvania highway and...
Storytelling On the Thames
Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. The neighborhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing center. There is some excellent fishing...
Play Day
Scene: A summer morning, Florida Keys, late July — but the events outlined here could have transpired in August, even September, just as well. We load the cooler with gallons of Gatorade, water and ice, with the reasonable expectation that it will feel downright...
Dog Overboard!
Life is so full of perils when you are on — or out of — a boat. As I have noted before, this summer has been one of many trips down rivers in fishing drift boats. While river cruising is fun, it has dangers like rocks and limbs protruding from the shoreline. Also the...
Gloss and Glory
In the 60s it was hip to be bass, and anglers everywhere welcomed a whole new breed of American hero. By 1965, the bassing revolution was at full throttle and re-born bass fishing was rapidly becoming galaxial. It was hip to be bass. Popularity encouraged fraternity...
Caribbean Silvers in Another World
From one world to another in a couple of blinks. The first boat heads out. Native fishermen crowd the beach and watch to see if they make it through. We idle upriver, then circle to wait our turn. Ahead is a quarter mile of choppy, mocha-stained water. Five-foot waves...
Bob Ruark and the Boy
Bob Ruark left every lover of nature, every hunter and fisherman a bountiful legacy. To virtually all contemporary lovers of fine sporting literature, not to mention the millions who came to know him through his biting newspaper columns or best-selling novels, the...
People Like Us Never Grow Up
I do not mean to sound bitter about this, for perhaps it is not the fault of the wet-eared young... This piece is being written in a bug-ridden swamp on the banks of the sluggish yellow Tana River, in northeastern Kenya, where the big elephants bugle and the baboons...
Sweltering Summer Days
I must say, I frequently take a dip into the water to cool off. Those splashes are what summer is all about. This summer is going great, in case you wondering how I am. I have been on several new rivers, and have made some drift boat trips on well-known Blue Ribbon...