Fishing Life is Hard Work

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 23 JUN. 2003

While writing about writing about fishing might seem pretentious, this volume of essays from Scheck, a former editor of countless fishing glossies, is quite the opposite. A mostly humorous, sometimes caustic but overall sentimental collection, it is part cautionary tale about turning one's best-loved hobby into a nine-to-five job and part unmasking of the holy trinity of "the fishing magazine game" fly fishing, fly fishing writers and tackle companies that can drain the fun out of fishing. For instance, in "Ixnay the Atinlay," Scheck and a buddy fish a local stream, their running dialogue mocking alternatively the technical nature of fly fishing ("employ the Australian Spiral Staircase Cast") and the overly florid writing associated with the sport ("The crystalline surface of the stream exploded in a shower of diamonds"). As the essays unfold even the author doesn't go unscathed, as in "The Art of Deception," where he reports standing by and watching as a young boy with a spinning rod and an archaic lure hooks the trout Scheck's fancy fly outfit couldn't land. All this sarcasm and criticism is balanced nicely with Scheck's joyful recollections about solitary fishing trips and fruitful experiences with his father and daughters. These personal essays give a more complete picture of Scheck and show the reader he is not too embittered to embrace fly fishing's unofficial and unmockable laureate, Norman Maclean when he admits, thanks to a life spent fishing, he has been "blessed by waters."