Fishin’ Jimmy

Ralph’s line flies back empty, and an old fisherman hurries through the bushes to call, “Strike him, sonny, strike him!” When the narrator asks if he likes fishing, Jimmy answers as if asked whether he loves his mother or his wife.

In early summer, beside the clear brooks and ponds of Franconia Valley, New Hampshire, the narrator meets Fishin’ Jimmy—James Whitcher, an old man who has spent his life watching the water. He teaches boys how to fish, but his lessons reach far beyond bait and trout: to Jimmy, angling is a guide to faith, patience, kindness, and endurance. His wisdom comes not from books but from knowing every current, birdcall, and hidden plant in the mountain country. The narrator listens, wondering how this humble sport could hold a whole gospel. What has Jimmy learned beside the brook that the rest of us might be missing?

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