Here is a fish I never tire of talking about.
It is one of Nature’s finest examples of streamlining and inside its small but well-shaped head is a brain capable of setting many tests for the angler.
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Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Sea Trout
From Game Fishing: Trout, Salmon, Sea Trout by W. E. Davies
Here is a fish I never tire of talking about.
It is one of Nature’s finest examples of streamlining and inside its small but well-shaped head is a brain capable of setting many tests for the angler.
Here is a fish I never tire of talking about.
It is one of Nature’s finest examples of streamlining and inside its small but well-shaped head is a brain capable of setting many tests for the angler.
Hooks - from the 'Collins Gem' SAS Survival Guide
You can improvise hooks from all kinds of materials.
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| A thorn |
Fish Words
I like words.
I stumbled across (and purchased) a copy of The Complete Crossword Companion recently in a second-hand store.
It's a 1988 edition of two older books combined - Complete Crossword Reference Book (1932) and The Pocket English Dictionary (1976) (both also published in 1983 under the titles The Newnes Crossword Dictionary and Newnes Pocket English Dictionary, respectively).
As I often do with all sorts of reference books, I see if there's anything specifically about fish or fishing in them. In this book I found words divided into letter length (to help with crosswords, obviously) under the title 'Fish, etc.'
... and here they are!
amia, bass, bib, blay, bley, bret, brit, burt, cale, carp, chad, char, chub, clam, cod, coho, crab, cusk, dab, dace, dar, dare, dart, dorn, dory, eel, eft, elva, esox, fash, file, fin, gar, ged, goby, grig, hake, huck, huso, id, ide, jack, kelt, keta, ling, lipp, lomp, luce, mago, mort, newt, opah, orc, orca, orfe, parr, peal, pike, pope, pout, quab, ray, roe, rudd, ruff, sapo, scad, scar, scup, shad, snig, sole, tai, tau, tpe, tuna, tusk, zant
ablen, ablet, allis, angel, apode, banny, beroe, binny, bleak, bleck, bogue, boops, bream, brill, charr, cisco, cobia, cuddy, cudle, doree, dorse, elops, fleck, fusus, gadus, gibel, gummy, guppy, julis, loach, loche, maray, minim, moray, morse, mugil, muray, murry, mysis, myxon, nurse, perch, phoca, piper, pogge, porgy, poulp, powan, prawn, reeve, roach, roker, ruffe, saith, salmo, saury, scrod, scurf, sepia, sewin, shark, skate, smelt, smolt, smout, smowt, snook, solen, sprag, sprat, sprod, squid, sudak, sweep, tench, toado, togue, torsk, troll, trout, tunny, twait, whale, whelk, whiff, witch
alburn, alevin, allice, anabas, barbel, beakie, belone, beluga, blenny, blower, bonito, bounce, bowfin, braise, buckie, burbot, caplin, caranx, cepola, cheven, chevin, clupea, cockle, comber, conger, cultch, cuttle, dagoba, dentex, diodon, doctor, dugong, dun-cow, ellops, finnan, gadoid, ganoid, gardon, ginkin, goramy, grilse, groper, gunnel, gurnet, hilsah, hussar, isopod, jerkin, kipper, launce, loligo, margot, meagre, medusa, megrim, milter, minnow, morgay, mud-eel, mullet, mussel, narwal, otaria, oyster, partan, plaice, pollan, porgie, poulpe, puffer, puller, quahog, redcap, red-cod, red-eye, remora, robalo, rochet, romero, roughy, ruffin, runner, sabalo, sadina, saithe, salmon, samlet, sander, sardel, sauger, saurel, saynay, scarus, scurff, sea-ape, sea-bat, sea-cow, sea-dog, sea-egg, sea-fox, sea-hog, sea-owl, see-pad, see-pig, sephen, shanny, shiner, shrimp, snacol, soosoo, sucker, tailor, tarpon, tarpum, tautog, tawtog, tiburo, tomcord, trygon, turbit, turbot, twaite, ulican, urchin, vendis, wapper, weever, whaler, winkle, wirrah, wrasse, zander, zeidae, zingel
abalone, acaleph, actinia, ale-wife, anchovy, asterid, batfish, bergylt, bloater, blue-cap, blue-eye, bocking, bonetta, box-fish, brassie, bubbler, bummalo, calamar, capelin, cat-fish, catodon, cetacea, cichlid, cidaris, cod-fish, codling, cow-fish, crabite, croaker, crucian, crusien, cyprine, dog-fish, dolphin, drummer, dun-fish, echinus, eel-fare, eel-pout, escolar, fiddler, fin-back, fin-fish, garfish, garpike, garvock, girrock, gladius, goldney, gourami, gournet, grampus, grouper, grundel, grunter, gudgeon, gunard, gwiniad, gwyniad, haddock, halibut, herling, herring, homelyn, houting, jewflsh, keeling, lampern, lamprey, latchet, lobster, long-tom, mahseer, manatee, manchet, merling, monodon, moon-egg, morwong, mud-fish, muraena, murexes, murices, narwhal, nautili, oar-fish, octopus, old-wife, pandore, pegasus, pen-fish, pig-fish, pointer, pollack, pollard, pollock, polypus, pomfret, quinnet, rat-tail, red-fish, reef-eel, ripsack, rock-cod, ronchil, ronquil, rorqual, sand-eel, sardine, sawfish, schelly, scomber, sea-bear, sea-calf, sea-fish, sea-lion, sea-pike, sea-wolf, shadine, silurus, skegger, smerlin, snapper, sock-eye, spawner, sphyrna, squalus, sterlet, stripey, sun-fish, thwaite, tiddler, top-knot, torgoch, torpedo, tub-fish, ulichon, umbrine, vendace, whiting, worm-eel, xippias
acalepha, albacore, albicore, ammodyte, anableps, anguilla, asterias, band-fish, barnacle, bill fish, blue fish, boarfish, bullhead, cachalot, cackerel, calamory, cetacean, coalfish, corystes, crawfish, crayfish, dapedium, dapedius, dragonet, drum-fish, eagle-ray, errantes, eulachon, exocetus, file-fish, fin-scale, fire-fish, flagtail, flatfish, flathead, flounder, forktail, fox-shark, frog-fish, gillaroo, gilt-head, glass-eel, goatfish, goldfish, graining, grayling, green eel, grub-fish, gymnotus, hair-tail, halicore, hand-fish, horn-beak, horn-fish, jentling, John Dory, jugulars, kelp-fish, king crab, king-fish, lady-fish, lancelet, land crab, lump-fish, lung-fish, mackerel, melanure, menhaden, moon-fish, moray eel, mormyrus, nannygai, numbfish, ophidion, pickerel, pigmy-eel, pilchard, pipe-fish, polyneme, Poor John, porpoise, raft-fish, red perch, rock-cale, rock-fish, rockling, sail-fish, salt-fish, sand-fish, sardelle, saw-shark, sea-devil, sea-horse, sea-perch, sea robin, shore-eel, siskiwit, snake-eel, sparling, spelding, speldrin, speldron, spirling, springer, spurling, starfish, sting-ray, sturgeon, sun-bream, surf-fish, tarwhine, teraglin, testacea, thornbut, thrasher, thresher, toad-fish, trevalla, troutlet, tusk-fish, water-fox, weed-fish, wolf-fish
acalephae, acipenser, angel-fish, Argentine, ascidians, asteroida, barracuda, blackfish, black sole, blue nurse, blue shark, blue sprat, bony bream, bulltrout, bummaloti, calamarys, chaetodon, cling-fish, cole-perch, conger eel, coral fish, coryphene, cover-clip, crampfish, crustacea, devil fish, dolphinet, echinidan, engraulis, finny-scad, fire-flair, fish-royal, fortesque, frost-fish, globe-fish, golomynka, grey nurse, hard-belly, hardyhead, hippodame, houndflsh, hybodonts, jaculator, jellyfish, John Dorée, jollytail, kingstone, mango fish, menominee, murray cod, pilot fish, porbeagle, pyllopodo, razor fish, red mullet, river crab, roundhead, sand-lance, saury-pike, schnapper, sea-mullet, sea-needle, sea-nettle, sea-urchin, sheat-fish, silver-eel, spear-fish, stargazer, stingaree, sting-fish, stink-fish, stockfish, stomapoda, suctorian, surmullet, sweetlips, swordfish, thorn-back, threadfin, tittlebat, troutling, trumpeter, tunny fish, whitebait, whitefish, wobbegong
amblyopsis, amphytrite, angel-shark, angler fish, banstickle, barracoota, barracouta, basket fish, black bream, black whale, blind shark, blue groper, blue puller, bottle-nose, brown trout, butterfish, cestracion, clouded eel, clypeaster, cock-paddle, coelacanth, cowanyoung, ctenoidans, cuttlefish, demoiselle, dragon-fish, echinoderm, fiddle-fish, fingerling, fistularia, flute-mouth, flying fish, ganoidians, garter fish, ghost-shark, giant toado, goblin-fish, great skate, grey mullet, groundling, hammerhead, hermit crab, holothuria, knight-fish, loggerhead, lumpsucker, mirror dory, morris pike, Moses perch, parrot-fish, pearl perch, periwinkle, pigmy perch, pycnodonts, rapier fish, red gurnard, red morwong, red rockcod, ribbon-fish, rudder-fish, Samsonfish, sand-hopper, sand-mullet, sandy sprat, sea-garfish, sea-leopard, sea poacher, sea-unicorn, silver dory, silverfish, silverside, sperm whale, square-tail, sturionian, sucker-fish, tailor-fish, tassel-fish, tiger shark, tongue-sole, triple-tail, turret-fish, velvet-fish, weaver-fish, whale-shark, white shark, yellow-tail, zebra shark
balance-fish, banded toado, bellows-fish, black-angler, blue-pointer, bridled goby, brown-groper, brown-puller, carpet-shark, carp-gudgeon, chanda perch, common skate, common toado, crested goby, cycloidians, electric eel, electric ray, finner-whale, five-fingers, golden perch, green turtle, gurnet perch, herring-cale, hippocampus, jackass-fish, javelin-fish, Jumping-Joey, kingsnapper, leatherskin, leopard-fish, lepidosiren, little tunny, man-o'-war fish, Moorish idol, orange perch, peacock-fish, peacock-sole, pennant-fish, prickleback, pterichthys, rainbow-fish, red bullseye, red fire-fish, rock-whiting, salmon-trout, sand-whiting, school-shark, scleroderms, sea-elephant, sea-scorpion, silver-belly, silver perch, silver toado, smooth toado, soldier-crab, soldier-fish, starry toado, sticklebeck, stonelifter, surgeon-fish, swallow-fish, tallegalane, trumpet-fish, whistle-fish, wolf-herring
basking shark, black drummer, black rock-cod, blue trevally, coachwhip ray, cucumber-fish, dipterygians, dusky morwong, fan-tailed ray, fatherlasher, fighting-fish, forehead-fish, gargoyle-fish, giant herring, gray tusk-fish, oyster-blenny, painted saury, piked dog-fish, plectognathi, Plesiosaurus, rainbow-trout, rat-tailed ray, river garfish, rock flathead, scarlet bream, sentinel crab, silver mullet, smooth angler, Stout Long-Tom
allports perch, banded-pigfish, barred-garfish, Barred Long-Tom, black king-fish, black-trevally, branchiostoma, climbing perch, dactylopterus, dusky flathead, entomostracan, findon-haddock, finnan-haddock, flying gurnard, giant boar-fish, horse-mackerel, leafy seahorse, leatherjacket, long-finned eel, magpie-morwong, marbled angler, mountain-trout, ox-eyed herring, porcupine-fish, Red-Indian fish, salmon catfish, salt-water fish, sandpaper-fish, scarlet angler, Sergeant Baker, silver batfish, silver drummer, snub-nosed dart, southern tunny, spiny flathead, spiny seahorse, striped angler, thresher-shark, tiger-flathead
banded sea-perch, black stingaree, branchiostegan, brown-sweetlips, butterfly-bream, enaliosaurians, estuary cat-fish, Greenland-shark, Greenland-whale, king barracouta, king parrot-fish, little nurnbfish, Macquarie perch, many-banded sole, marine annelida, one-finned shark, painted gurnard, purple sea-perch, red gurnet-perch, river blackfish, short-finned eel, shovel-nosed ray, Slender Long-Tom, smooth flathead, spotted whiting, striped catfish, striped gudgeon, striped sea-pike, white horse-fish
acanthopterygii, Australian perch, Australian smelt, beaked coral-fish, bottle-nose shark, common stingaree, crusted flounder, crusted weed-fish, edriophthalmata, frigate mackerel, hairback herring, little cling-fish, little conger eel, long-finned perch, marbled flathead, painted dragonet, short sucker-fish, small-headed sole, smooth stingaree, spangled grunter, Spanish mackerel, spermaceti whale, spotted cat-shark, spotted eagle-ray, spotted pipe-fish, white-spotted ray
It's a 1988 edition of two older books combined - Complete Crossword Reference Book (1932) and The Pocket English Dictionary (1976) (both also published in 1983 under the titles The Newnes Crossword Dictionary and Newnes Pocket English Dictionary, respectively).
As I often do with all sorts of reference books, I see if there's anything specifically about fish or fishing in them. In this book I found words divided into letter length (to help with crosswords, obviously) under the title 'Fish, etc.'
... and here they are!
2 letter, 3 letter, 4 letter words
amia, bass, bib, blay, bley, bret, brit, burt, cale, carp, chad, char, chub, clam, cod, coho, crab, cusk, dab, dace, dar, dare, dart, dorn, dory, eel, eft, elva, esox, fash, file, fin, gar, ged, goby, grig, hake, huck, huso, id, ide, jack, kelt, keta, ling, lipp, lomp, luce, mago, mort, newt, opah, orc, orca, orfe, parr, peal, pike, pope, pout, quab, ray, roe, rudd, ruff, sapo, scad, scar, scup, shad, snig, sole, tai, tau, tpe, tuna, tusk, zant
5 letter words
ablen, ablet, allis, angel, apode, banny, beroe, binny, bleak, bleck, bogue, boops, bream, brill, charr, cisco, cobia, cuddy, cudle, doree, dorse, elops, fleck, fusus, gadus, gibel, gummy, guppy, julis, loach, loche, maray, minim, moray, morse, mugil, muray, murry, mysis, myxon, nurse, perch, phoca, piper, pogge, porgy, poulp, powan, prawn, reeve, roach, roker, ruffe, saith, salmo, saury, scrod, scurf, sepia, sewin, shark, skate, smelt, smolt, smout, smowt, snook, solen, sprag, sprat, sprod, squid, sudak, sweep, tench, toado, togue, torsk, troll, trout, tunny, twait, whale, whelk, whiff, witch
6 letter words
alburn, alevin, allice, anabas, barbel, beakie, belone, beluga, blenny, blower, bonito, bounce, bowfin, braise, buckie, burbot, caplin, caranx, cepola, cheven, chevin, clupea, cockle, comber, conger, cultch, cuttle, dagoba, dentex, diodon, doctor, dugong, dun-cow, ellops, finnan, gadoid, ganoid, gardon, ginkin, goramy, grilse, groper, gunnel, gurnet, hilsah, hussar, isopod, jerkin, kipper, launce, loligo, margot, meagre, medusa, megrim, milter, minnow, morgay, mud-eel, mullet, mussel, narwal, otaria, oyster, partan, plaice, pollan, porgie, poulpe, puffer, puller, quahog, redcap, red-cod, red-eye, remora, robalo, rochet, romero, roughy, ruffin, runner, sabalo, sadina, saithe, salmon, samlet, sander, sardel, sauger, saurel, saynay, scarus, scurff, sea-ape, sea-bat, sea-cow, sea-dog, sea-egg, sea-fox, sea-hog, sea-owl, see-pad, see-pig, sephen, shanny, shiner, shrimp, snacol, soosoo, sucker, tailor, tarpon, tarpum, tautog, tawtog, tiburo, tomcord, trygon, turbit, turbot, twaite, ulican, urchin, vendis, wapper, weever, whaler, winkle, wirrah, wrasse, zander, zeidae, zingel
7 letter words
abalone, acaleph, actinia, ale-wife, anchovy, asterid, batfish, bergylt, bloater, blue-cap, blue-eye, bocking, bonetta, box-fish, brassie, bubbler, bummalo, calamar, capelin, cat-fish, catodon, cetacea, cichlid, cidaris, cod-fish, codling, cow-fish, crabite, croaker, crucian, crusien, cyprine, dog-fish, dolphin, drummer, dun-fish, echinus, eel-fare, eel-pout, escolar, fiddler, fin-back, fin-fish, garfish, garpike, garvock, girrock, gladius, goldney, gourami, gournet, grampus, grouper, grundel, grunter, gudgeon, gunard, gwiniad, gwyniad, haddock, halibut, herling, herring, homelyn, houting, jewflsh, keeling, lampern, lamprey, latchet, lobster, long-tom, mahseer, manatee, manchet, merling, monodon, moon-egg, morwong, mud-fish, muraena, murexes, murices, narwhal, nautili, oar-fish, octopus, old-wife, pandore, pegasus, pen-fish, pig-fish, pointer, pollack, pollard, pollock, polypus, pomfret, quinnet, rat-tail, red-fish, reef-eel, ripsack, rock-cod, ronchil, ronquil, rorqual, sand-eel, sardine, sawfish, schelly, scomber, sea-bear, sea-calf, sea-fish, sea-lion, sea-pike, sea-wolf, shadine, silurus, skegger, smerlin, snapper, sock-eye, spawner, sphyrna, squalus, sterlet, stripey, sun-fish, thwaite, tiddler, top-knot, torgoch, torpedo, tub-fish, ulichon, umbrine, vendace, whiting, worm-eel, xippias
8 letter words
acalepha, albacore, albicore, ammodyte, anableps, anguilla, asterias, band-fish, barnacle, bill fish, blue fish, boarfish, bullhead, cachalot, cackerel, calamory, cetacean, coalfish, corystes, crawfish, crayfish, dapedium, dapedius, dragonet, drum-fish, eagle-ray, errantes, eulachon, exocetus, file-fish, fin-scale, fire-fish, flagtail, flatfish, flathead, flounder, forktail, fox-shark, frog-fish, gillaroo, gilt-head, glass-eel, goatfish, goldfish, graining, grayling, green eel, grub-fish, gymnotus, hair-tail, halicore, hand-fish, horn-beak, horn-fish, jentling, John Dory, jugulars, kelp-fish, king crab, king-fish, lady-fish, lancelet, land crab, lump-fish, lung-fish, mackerel, melanure, menhaden, moon-fish, moray eel, mormyrus, nannygai, numbfish, ophidion, pickerel, pigmy-eel, pilchard, pipe-fish, polyneme, Poor John, porpoise, raft-fish, red perch, rock-cale, rock-fish, rockling, sail-fish, salt-fish, sand-fish, sardelle, saw-shark, sea-devil, sea-horse, sea-perch, sea robin, shore-eel, siskiwit, snake-eel, sparling, spelding, speldrin, speldron, spirling, springer, spurling, starfish, sting-ray, sturgeon, sun-bream, surf-fish, tarwhine, teraglin, testacea, thornbut, thrasher, thresher, toad-fish, trevalla, troutlet, tusk-fish, water-fox, weed-fish, wolf-fish
9 letter words
acalephae, acipenser, angel-fish, Argentine, ascidians, asteroida, barracuda, blackfish, black sole, blue nurse, blue shark, blue sprat, bony bream, bulltrout, bummaloti, calamarys, chaetodon, cling-fish, cole-perch, conger eel, coral fish, coryphene, cover-clip, crampfish, crustacea, devil fish, dolphinet, echinidan, engraulis, finny-scad, fire-flair, fish-royal, fortesque, frost-fish, globe-fish, golomynka, grey nurse, hard-belly, hardyhead, hippodame, houndflsh, hybodonts, jaculator, jellyfish, John Dorée, jollytail, kingstone, mango fish, menominee, murray cod, pilot fish, porbeagle, pyllopodo, razor fish, red mullet, river crab, roundhead, sand-lance, saury-pike, schnapper, sea-mullet, sea-needle, sea-nettle, sea-urchin, sheat-fish, silver-eel, spear-fish, stargazer, stingaree, sting-fish, stink-fish, stockfish, stomapoda, suctorian, surmullet, sweetlips, swordfish, thorn-back, threadfin, tittlebat, troutling, trumpeter, tunny fish, whitebait, whitefish, wobbegong
10 letter words
amblyopsis, amphytrite, angel-shark, angler fish, banstickle, barracoota, barracouta, basket fish, black bream, black whale, blind shark, blue groper, blue puller, bottle-nose, brown trout, butterfish, cestracion, clouded eel, clypeaster, cock-paddle, coelacanth, cowanyoung, ctenoidans, cuttlefish, demoiselle, dragon-fish, echinoderm, fiddle-fish, fingerling, fistularia, flute-mouth, flying fish, ganoidians, garter fish, ghost-shark, giant toado, goblin-fish, great skate, grey mullet, groundling, hammerhead, hermit crab, holothuria, knight-fish, loggerhead, lumpsucker, mirror dory, morris pike, Moses perch, parrot-fish, pearl perch, periwinkle, pigmy perch, pycnodonts, rapier fish, red gurnard, red morwong, red rockcod, ribbon-fish, rudder-fish, Samsonfish, sand-hopper, sand-mullet, sandy sprat, sea-garfish, sea-leopard, sea poacher, sea-unicorn, silver dory, silverfish, silverside, sperm whale, square-tail, sturionian, sucker-fish, tailor-fish, tassel-fish, tiger shark, tongue-sole, triple-tail, turret-fish, velvet-fish, weaver-fish, whale-shark, white shark, yellow-tail, zebra shark
11 letter words
balance-fish, banded toado, bellows-fish, black-angler, blue-pointer, bridled goby, brown-groper, brown-puller, carpet-shark, carp-gudgeon, chanda perch, common skate, common toado, crested goby, cycloidians, electric eel, electric ray, finner-whale, five-fingers, golden perch, green turtle, gurnet perch, herring-cale, hippocampus, jackass-fish, javelin-fish, Jumping-Joey, kingsnapper, leatherskin, leopard-fish, lepidosiren, little tunny, man-o'-war fish, Moorish idol, orange perch, peacock-fish, peacock-sole, pennant-fish, prickleback, pterichthys, rainbow-fish, red bullseye, red fire-fish, rock-whiting, salmon-trout, sand-whiting, school-shark, scleroderms, sea-elephant, sea-scorpion, silver-belly, silver perch, silver toado, smooth toado, soldier-crab, soldier-fish, starry toado, sticklebeck, stonelifter, surgeon-fish, swallow-fish, tallegalane, trumpet-fish, whistle-fish, wolf-herring
12 letter words
basking shark, black drummer, black rock-cod, blue trevally, coachwhip ray, cucumber-fish, dipterygians, dusky morwong, fan-tailed ray, fatherlasher, fighting-fish, forehead-fish, gargoyle-fish, giant herring, gray tusk-fish, oyster-blenny, painted saury, piked dog-fish, plectognathi, Plesiosaurus, rainbow-trout, rat-tailed ray, river garfish, rock flathead, scarlet bream, sentinel crab, silver mullet, smooth angler, Stout Long-Tom
13 letter words
allports perch, banded-pigfish, barred-garfish, Barred Long-Tom, black king-fish, black-trevally, branchiostoma, climbing perch, dactylopterus, dusky flathead, entomostracan, findon-haddock, finnan-haddock, flying gurnard, giant boar-fish, horse-mackerel, leafy seahorse, leatherjacket, long-finned eel, magpie-morwong, marbled angler, mountain-trout, ox-eyed herring, porcupine-fish, Red-Indian fish, salmon catfish, salt-water fish, sandpaper-fish, scarlet angler, Sergeant Baker, silver batfish, silver drummer, snub-nosed dart, southern tunny, spiny flathead, spiny seahorse, striped angler, thresher-shark, tiger-flathead
14 letter words
banded sea-perch, black stingaree, branchiostegan, brown-sweetlips, butterfly-bream, enaliosaurians, estuary cat-fish, Greenland-shark, Greenland-whale, king barracouta, king parrot-fish, little nurnbfish, Macquarie perch, many-banded sole, marine annelida, one-finned shark, painted gurnard, purple sea-perch, red gurnet-perch, river blackfish, short-finned eel, shovel-nosed ray, Slender Long-Tom, smooth flathead, spotted whiting, striped catfish, striped gudgeon, striped sea-pike, white horse-fish
15 letter words
acanthopterygii, Australian perch, Australian smelt, beaked coral-fish, bottle-nose shark, common stingaree, crusted flounder, crusted weed-fish, edriophthalmata, frigate mackerel, hairback herring, little cling-fish, little conger eel, long-finned perch, marbled flathead, painted dragonet, short sucker-fish, small-headed sole, smooth stingaree, spangled grunter, Spanish mackerel, spermaceti whale, spotted cat-shark, spotted eagle-ray, spotted pipe-fish, white-spotted ray
In under the trees
From Tony Orman's great little book The Challenge of Fishing Small Streams in New Zealand; part of chapter 13 (slightly edited/shortened to fit this layout better):
When you fish overgrown streams you have to assess each situation individually.
I recall one trout which rose just above a log jam. You could not get at it from below because of willows. So at dusk, as it rose steadily a metre or so above the obstruction, I carefully eased upstream and dropped the fly in a few metres upstream and let it float down, paying out line so there was no drag.
The fish took the floating deer sedge quietly, I paused... one two three... then tightened and without yanking dictated to the fish, moving upstream a couple of metres. I was lucky I got away with it. It was a fine fish from a difficult spot, only overcome by an unorthodox approach.
Overgrown streams are worth looking at. Most anglers shun them. Perhaps they like it easy. Perhaps they don't realise what treasures such streams can hold.
Another way of fishing in tight spots is dapping. This technique consists of dropping your fly on the water and flicking it up and down if it is a dry fly, or letting it sink if it is a nymph. There is no casting involved. A good method for fishing off a bank or under willow. Dapping is reputed to have originated in Ireland on the loughs (lakes). There it was done from boats, usually with dry flies.
One Marlborough stream I know can hold some fine trout early in the season when they run up from the parent river. There were two particularly fine trout that held under a clump of willows and briar. You could see them through the twigs as they fed deeply on nymphs. No one could cast to them.
Ted tied on a weighted nymph and poked his rod through the twigs and branches. Then he fed out line until he had enough slack literally to drop the nymph in about a couple of metres above the trout.
The fish rose up towards the surface and Ted's nymph disappeared.
Until then he hadn't considered how he was going to land it. He tightened the nymph home and the fish bucked and drove away. Ted just let the fish go somewhere downstream. After a few minutes the fish luckily sulked.
Ted passed his rod through the twigs and put his other hand downstream, transferring the rod from right to left. Then he eased his right hand through the gap and took it from his left, poked his left hand into another gap and transferred again. Four or five of these and he was in the clear, with the fish luckily still attached. There the fight took place.
It was a fine 3.6kg (8lb) brownie which Ted quickly weighed in his landing net and then slipped back.
When you fish overgrown streams you have to assess each situation individually.
I recall one trout which rose just above a log jam. You could not get at it from below because of willows. So at dusk, as it rose steadily a metre or so above the obstruction, I carefully eased upstream and dropped the fly in a few metres upstream and let it float down, paying out line so there was no drag.
The fish took the floating deer sedge quietly, I paused... one two three... then tightened and without yanking dictated to the fish, moving upstream a couple of metres. I was lucky I got away with it. It was a fine fish from a difficult spot, only overcome by an unorthodox approach.
Overgrown streams are worth looking at. Most anglers shun them. Perhaps they like it easy. Perhaps they don't realise what treasures such streams can hold.
Another way of fishing in tight spots is dapping. This technique consists of dropping your fly on the water and flicking it up and down if it is a dry fly, or letting it sink if it is a nymph. There is no casting involved. A good method for fishing off a bank or under willow. Dapping is reputed to have originated in Ireland on the loughs (lakes). There it was done from boats, usually with dry flies.
One Marlborough stream I know can hold some fine trout early in the season when they run up from the parent river. There were two particularly fine trout that held under a clump of willows and briar. You could see them through the twigs as they fed deeply on nymphs. No one could cast to them.
Ted tied on a weighted nymph and poked his rod through the twigs and branches. Then he fed out line until he had enough slack literally to drop the nymph in about a couple of metres above the trout.
The fish rose up towards the surface and Ted's nymph disappeared.
Until then he hadn't considered how he was going to land it. He tightened the nymph home and the fish bucked and drove away. Ted just let the fish go somewhere downstream. After a few minutes the fish luckily sulked.
Ted passed his rod through the twigs and put his other hand downstream, transferring the rod from right to left. Then he eased his right hand through the gap and took it from his left, poked his left hand into another gap and transferred again. Four or five of these and he was in the clear, with the fish luckily still attached. There the fight took place.
It was a fine 3.6kg (8lb) brownie which Ted quickly weighed in his landing net and then slipped back.
From The Collected Works of Billy The Kid, by Michael Ondaatje
A river you could get lost in
and the sun a flashy hawk
on the edge of it
a mile away you see the white path
of an animal moving through water
you can turn a hundred yard circle
and the horse bends dribbles his face
you step off and lie in it propping your head
till dusk and cold and the horse shift you
and you look up and moon a frozen bird's eye
and the sun a flashy hawk
on the edge of it
a mile away you see the white path
of an animal moving through water
you can turn a hundred yard circle
and the horse bends dribbles his face
you step off and lie in it propping your head
till dusk and cold and the horse shift you
and you look up and moon a frozen bird's eye
Mole sees a river for the first time
He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river.
Never in his life had he seen a river before - this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver - glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble.
The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man, who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
From The Wind In The Willows, By Kenneth Grahame.
Never in his life had he seen a river before - this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver - glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble.
The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man, who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
 |
| Illustration by Ernest H. Shepard. |
From The Wind In The Willows, By Kenneth Grahame.
Where water comes together with other water
 |
| Wairau River, Marlborough, New Zealand. |
I almost forgot to say something about the source! Can anything be more wonderful than a spring? But the big streams have my heart too. And the places streams flow into rivers. The open mouths of rivers where they join the sea. The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.
But these coastal rivers! I love them the way some men love horses or glamorous women. I have a thing for this cold swift water. Just looking at it makes my blood run and my skin tingle. I could sit and watch these rivers for hours. Not one of them like any other.
Sometimes when I read poems (not that I read many), I can't help but read them in my head with an almost sing-song limerick style, like there's an Irish jig playing in the background somewhere. I suspect childhood poems are responsible for this. I can seldom bring myself to read any poem that rhymes.
The photo above is mine, but the words in italics are not. I've reproduced most of Raymond Carver's poem where water comes together with other water without its original poetic breaking-up-of-lines as a way of turning down the volume on the jig.
The full poem in its original form can be found here.
Swirly World Sails South, By Andrew Fagan
You may know Andrew Fagan from his days fronting 80s band The Mockers, or perhaps more recently his radio show on Radio Live with wife Karyn Hay. What you may not know, is that he is a sailer.
He is a mad sailer; mad as the proverbial hatter. Well, there's a fine line been madness and bravery - I guess he may deserve 'brave', as he lived to tell this tale.
In a sailing boat less than 18 foot in length (with a dodgy engine), he single-handedly sailed from Auckland, New Zealand, down the east coast, then left the relative safety near the mainland to sail to the Auckland Islands before finishing his circumnavigation of New Zealand and returning to Auckland.
The Auckland Islands are far enough south to be called "subantarctic", and even summer feels wintery, apparently. The weather and seas can get very nasty. The location associated with this post shows their location on Google maps.
Reading some passages in Swirly World Sails South made me feel uneasy from the safety of my swing-chair on the deck - I hate to think what it was like living them. For example:
--- --- ---
It was a seascape I had never seen before. The darkness had sheltered us from a grim and turbulent picture that I didn't realize would look so bad. The waves - seas, swells, call them whatever - were as high as the kauri trees behind where I live my landlubber life in Titirangi. And they were a long way apart compared with other seas I'd seen and had unsettlingly steep sides. Up on the tops of them, where we kept finding ourselves for a brief but exhilarating elevated moment, many were breaking into a cascading tumble of rushing white water.
It was obvious even to me that Swirly World had already entered the forbidden zone. As far as I was concerned, there was no need for the tops of these small hills to be collapsing and rushing down faster than the wave itself, and sending a one- to two-metre wall of breaking surf-beach-type water at Swirly World. It looked peculiar, and out of proportion, and it was obvious that we were in what the chart called an area of 'Heavy Overfalls'.
...
Total destruction was a very real possibility as I sat there hand-steering in zero visibility, rushing downwind, aiming for a lee shore 6 miles away that I couldn't see; and listening in awe and fear to the breaking white-water wave-tops manifesting around us in random, vicious, unpredictable shapes everywhere. This was dangerous sailing, with the prospect of it getting worse the closer we got. The scale of waves and white water was enough for me to understand that a somersault could be on the cards if the seas got steeper and those malevolent, rushing bits that better belonged to a surf beach got any bigger.
...
With my survival suit on and thinking thoughts of survival, I turned Swirly World to port and the southeast, reluctantly away from where I really wanted to get to. It had to be done. To get out of here as quickly as Swirly World could sail. It was a beam reach (wind side on) that was required.
The storm jib had been driving us more or less before the wind, its tiny square footage just enough to put some fast miles in without any effort on my part. But now, on a beam reach, it didn't feel that efficient. That tiny piece of sail area hoisted on the forestay on the bow was dragging us more sideways than forwards.
It wasn't a welcome realization, but the longer I sat there steering, the more I could feel the lack of forward, efficient sailing and, more importantly, could imagine in a macabre way Swirly World ending up on North East Cape, still pretending to sail on a reach but going downwind at a terrible rate of knots. Setting the storm trysail was the answer; get a bit of sail-plan balance.
Just before I convinced myself I had to do it, a decent breaker came rushing down the face of one of the tall waves to windward of us and slammed into the side of Swirly World in a frenzy of fast-rushing surf-beach white water. The broken water was running down from the top of the wave, and higher than Swirly World's deck.
Up we went, elevating fast, picked up above the sea we had just been floating in; then matter of factly slammed down and shunted sideways, with water half a metre deep over the dinghy strapped down on the fore-deck. The cockpit was full, with me up to my elbows in sea water, holding on grimly. The breaker spun Swirly World round and left us facing downwind, pointing back in the direction of Enderby Island. It was almost like the sea and wind were insisting we go there.
The wave-top rushed on through to leeward, then disappeared amongst the others downwind as we quickly lifted up high again on our aquatic elevator, to be smacked by another big breaking one. Swirly World felt a bit helpless in the lee of the hills, and when the white stuff came tumbling down fast with no intent to stop, you knew what was next. It was scary sailing now. These had to be the mythical overfalls extending out from the coast further than I expected.
--- --- ---
Mr Fagan writes with a relaxed enjoyable style. Hats off to him for his mad/brave adventure and being able to put it down so well on paper.
View the book on fishpond.co.nz or the kindle edition on amazon.com.
He is a mad sailer; mad as the proverbial hatter. Well, there's a fine line been madness and bravery - I guess he may deserve 'brave', as he lived to tell this tale.
In a sailing boat less than 18 foot in length (with a dodgy engine), he single-handedly sailed from Auckland, New Zealand, down the east coast, then left the relative safety near the mainland to sail to the Auckland Islands before finishing his circumnavigation of New Zealand and returning to Auckland.
Reading some passages in Swirly World Sails South made me feel uneasy from the safety of my swing-chair on the deck - I hate to think what it was like living them. For example:
--- --- ---
It was a seascape I had never seen before. The darkness had sheltered us from a grim and turbulent picture that I didn't realize would look so bad. The waves - seas, swells, call them whatever - were as high as the kauri trees behind where I live my landlubber life in Titirangi. And they were a long way apart compared with other seas I'd seen and had unsettlingly steep sides. Up on the tops of them, where we kept finding ourselves for a brief but exhilarating elevated moment, many were breaking into a cascading tumble of rushing white water.
It was obvious even to me that Swirly World had already entered the forbidden zone. As far as I was concerned, there was no need for the tops of these small hills to be collapsing and rushing down faster than the wave itself, and sending a one- to two-metre wall of breaking surf-beach-type water at Swirly World. It looked peculiar, and out of proportion, and it was obvious that we were in what the chart called an area of 'Heavy Overfalls'.
...
Total destruction was a very real possibility as I sat there hand-steering in zero visibility, rushing downwind, aiming for a lee shore 6 miles away that I couldn't see; and listening in awe and fear to the breaking white-water wave-tops manifesting around us in random, vicious, unpredictable shapes everywhere. This was dangerous sailing, with the prospect of it getting worse the closer we got. The scale of waves and white water was enough for me to understand that a somersault could be on the cards if the seas got steeper and those malevolent, rushing bits that better belonged to a surf beach got any bigger.
...
With my survival suit on and thinking thoughts of survival, I turned Swirly World to port and the southeast, reluctantly away from where I really wanted to get to. It had to be done. To get out of here as quickly as Swirly World could sail. It was a beam reach (wind side on) that was required.
The storm jib had been driving us more or less before the wind, its tiny square footage just enough to put some fast miles in without any effort on my part. But now, on a beam reach, it didn't feel that efficient. That tiny piece of sail area hoisted on the forestay on the bow was dragging us more sideways than forwards.
It wasn't a welcome realization, but the longer I sat there steering, the more I could feel the lack of forward, efficient sailing and, more importantly, could imagine in a macabre way Swirly World ending up on North East Cape, still pretending to sail on a reach but going downwind at a terrible rate of knots. Setting the storm trysail was the answer; get a bit of sail-plan balance.
Just before I convinced myself I had to do it, a decent breaker came rushing down the face of one of the tall waves to windward of us and slammed into the side of Swirly World in a frenzy of fast-rushing surf-beach white water. The broken water was running down from the top of the wave, and higher than Swirly World's deck.
Up we went, elevating fast, picked up above the sea we had just been floating in; then matter of factly slammed down and shunted sideways, with water half a metre deep over the dinghy strapped down on the fore-deck. The cockpit was full, with me up to my elbows in sea water, holding on grimly. The breaker spun Swirly World round and left us facing downwind, pointing back in the direction of Enderby Island. It was almost like the sea and wind were insisting we go there.
The wave-top rushed on through to leeward, then disappeared amongst the others downwind as we quickly lifted up high again on our aquatic elevator, to be smacked by another big breaking one. Swirly World felt a bit helpless in the lee of the hills, and when the white stuff came tumbling down fast with no intent to stop, you knew what was next. It was scary sailing now. These had to be the mythical overfalls extending out from the coast further than I expected.
--- --- ---
Mr Fagan writes with a relaxed enjoyable style. Hats off to him for his mad/brave adventure and being able to put it down so well on paper.
View the book on fishpond.co.nz or the kindle edition on amazon.com.
In The Lake Of The Woods, By Jim O'Brien
There is a small second-hand bookshop on Scott Street in Blenheim. I visit it more than any other place in town. They have two, sometimes three wheelbarrows outside the front doors that I am unable to pass by without at least a quick check - they're full of cheap books.
On Saturday I picked up a copy of Tim O'Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods. I seldom read the back cover of fiction books before reading them, prefering to choose a book based on the author or merely judge the book by its cover or name - I don't want to know any details about the story I'm about to read. I had a quick glance at the back of this one, though, and "... in a remote lakeside cabin deep in the Minnesota forests," combined with a brief look inside and getting a good feel from the book was enough to convince me $2.50 was a small price to pay to have this book.
The front cover stated 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' TIME MAGAZINE, so I'm hardly the first to discover it. Apparently they selected it as the Best Work Of Fiction in 1994.
The brief look inside before buying had revealed, amongst the 'normal' prose, a section (there are actually a few) titled 'Evidence', that had small quotes and excerpts with footnotes. It had a feeling of a non-fiction book, and I was keen to read it, as lately I have been pondering the idea of helping with the suspension of disbelief that makes all fiction work by presenting the fiction in as 'real' a format as possible.
The style worked well. The prose is simple and reminiscent of Hemingway a lot of the time. The following is from the first chapter, and feels very much like Hemingway dialogue to me:
---
Later, Kathy pushed back the blankets and moved off toward the railing at the far end of the porch. She seemed to vanish into the heavy dark, the fog curling around her, and when she spoke, her voice came from somewhere far away, as if lifted from her body, unattached and not quite authentic.
"I'm not crying," she said.
"Of course you're not."
"Its just a rotten time, that's all. This stupid thing we have to get through."
"Stupid," he said.
"I didn't mean -"
"No, you're right. Damned stupid."
Things went silent. Just the waves and woods, a delicate in-and-out breathing. The night seemed to wrap itself around them.
"John, listen, I can't always come up with the right words. All I meant was - you know - I meant there's this wonderful man I love and I want him to be happy and thats all I care about. Not elections."
"Fine, then."
"And not newspapers."
"Fine," he said.
Kathy made a sound in the dark, which wasn't crying. "You do love me?"
"More than anything."
"Lots, I mean?"
"Lots," he said. "A whole busful. Come here now."
Kathy crossed the porch, knelt down beside him, pressed the palm of her hand against his forehead. There was the steady hum of lake and woods. In the days afterward, when she was gone, he would remember this with perfect clarity, as if it were still happening. He would remember a breathing sound inside the fog. He would remember the feel of her hand against his forehead, its warmth, how purely alive it was.
"Happy," she said. "Nothing else."
---
Some parts later reminded me of Hemingway's posthumously published Islands In The Stream, although I would have prefered more passages like this, set amongst the wilderness:
---
She was in a wide, gently curving channel flanked by four little islands, and for a few seconds she idled there, not sure about direction. She opened the red gas can, refueled, then turned the boat in a slow semicircle and took aim at a stand of pines a mile or so back down the channel. The breeze had picked up now. Not quite a wind, but the waves stood higher on the lake, and the air was taking sharp bites at her neck and shoulders. There was no sound except for the rusty old Evinrude.
Kathy buttoned up her sweater. No problem, she thought. Connect the dots.
And then for well ever an hour she held a line toward the southeast. lt was thick, gorgeous country, everything painted in blues and greens, and the engine gave off a steady burbling noise that reassured her. A good story for dinner. Danger and high adventure. It might give John a few things to think about. Like the priorities in his life, and where his marriage ranked, and how he was in jeopardy of losing something more than an election. You could get lost in all sorts of ways - ways he'd never considered - and she’d tell him that.
Humming to herself, Kathy adjusted the tiller and began planning a dinner menu, two big steaks and salad and cold beer, imagining how she’d describe everything that was happening out here. Get some sympathy for herself. Get his attention for a change.
The idea gave her comfort. She could almost picture a happy ending.
After twenty minutes the channel forked around a large rocky island, narrowing for a mile, then breaking off into three smaller channels that curled away into the trees. The place struck her as both familiar and foreign. On whim, she took the center channel and followed it through a funnel of pine and brush for what seemed far too long. Occasionally the channel widened out, opening into pretty little bays and then closing up tight again. Like a river, she thought, except it didn’t flow. The water beneath her had the feel of something static and purposeless, like her marriage, with no reality beyond its own vague alliance with everything else.
...
Ahead, the channel widened out into a stretch of open water, deep blue and icy looking. She squinted up at the sun to calculate the remaining daylight. Maybe five hours until dark. Angle Inlet had to he somewhere off to the south, probably a shade to the west.
She nodded to herself and said, "All right, fine," and fixed the boat on a southerly course, or what she took to be south, now and then checking her direction against the sun. The day was bright and windy, a string of filmy white clouds scudding eastward. She eased back on the throttle and for more than two hours moved through a chain of silvery bays and lakes that unfolded without stop to the horizon. There were no cabins, no other boats. Along the shoreline, thick growths of cattails bent sideways in the wind, and there were occaisonal flights of ducks and loons, but mostly it was a dull succession of woods and water. After a time she felt a detached laziness come over her, a sitting-down sensation. At one point she found herself singing old nursery songs; later on she laughed at the memory of one of Harmon's filthy jokes - a chipmunk, a deaf rhinoceros. A spasm of guilt went through her. Not that she'd ever loved the man, not even close, but there was still the shame of what had happened back then. She pictured his bare white chest, the fingers so thick and stubby for someone who made a living at dentistry. Hard to believe she'd felt things for him.
Enough, she thought. Leave it alone.
---
It's not all slow dialogue and nice scenery, though - there are also quite a lot of gruesome war scenes.
A well-written book that starts off with some mystery, adds a bit more as it goes a long, and, quite frankly, ends mysteriously.
View the book on amazon.com or fishpond.co.nz.
On Saturday I picked up a copy of Tim O'Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods. I seldom read the back cover of fiction books before reading them, prefering to choose a book based on the author or merely judge the book by its cover or name - I don't want to know any details about the story I'm about to read. I had a quick glance at the back of this one, though, and "... in a remote lakeside cabin deep in the Minnesota forests," combined with a brief look inside and getting a good feel from the book was enough to convince me $2.50 was a small price to pay to have this book.
The front cover stated 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' TIME MAGAZINE, so I'm hardly the first to discover it. Apparently they selected it as the Best Work Of Fiction in 1994.
The brief look inside before buying had revealed, amongst the 'normal' prose, a section (there are actually a few) titled 'Evidence', that had small quotes and excerpts with footnotes. It had a feeling of a non-fiction book, and I was keen to read it, as lately I have been pondering the idea of helping with the suspension of disbelief that makes all fiction work by presenting the fiction in as 'real' a format as possible.
The style worked well. The prose is simple and reminiscent of Hemingway a lot of the time. The following is from the first chapter, and feels very much like Hemingway dialogue to me:
---
Later, Kathy pushed back the blankets and moved off toward the railing at the far end of the porch. She seemed to vanish into the heavy dark, the fog curling around her, and when she spoke, her voice came from somewhere far away, as if lifted from her body, unattached and not quite authentic.
"I'm not crying," she said.
"Of course you're not."
"Its just a rotten time, that's all. This stupid thing we have to get through."
"Stupid," he said.
"I didn't mean -"
"No, you're right. Damned stupid."
Things went silent. Just the waves and woods, a delicate in-and-out breathing. The night seemed to wrap itself around them.
"John, listen, I can't always come up with the right words. All I meant was - you know - I meant there's this wonderful man I love and I want him to be happy and thats all I care about. Not elections."
"Fine, then."
"And not newspapers."
"Fine," he said.
Kathy made a sound in the dark, which wasn't crying. "You do love me?"
"More than anything."
"Lots, I mean?"
"Lots," he said. "A whole busful. Come here now."
Kathy crossed the porch, knelt down beside him, pressed the palm of her hand against his forehead. There was the steady hum of lake and woods. In the days afterward, when she was gone, he would remember this with perfect clarity, as if it were still happening. He would remember a breathing sound inside the fog. He would remember the feel of her hand against his forehead, its warmth, how purely alive it was.
"Happy," she said. "Nothing else."
---
Some parts later reminded me of Hemingway's posthumously published Islands In The Stream, although I would have prefered more passages like this, set amongst the wilderness:
---
She was in a wide, gently curving channel flanked by four little islands, and for a few seconds she idled there, not sure about direction. She opened the red gas can, refueled, then turned the boat in a slow semicircle and took aim at a stand of pines a mile or so back down the channel. The breeze had picked up now. Not quite a wind, but the waves stood higher on the lake, and the air was taking sharp bites at her neck and shoulders. There was no sound except for the rusty old Evinrude.
Kathy buttoned up her sweater. No problem, she thought. Connect the dots.
And then for well ever an hour she held a line toward the southeast. lt was thick, gorgeous country, everything painted in blues and greens, and the engine gave off a steady burbling noise that reassured her. A good story for dinner. Danger and high adventure. It might give John a few things to think about. Like the priorities in his life, and where his marriage ranked, and how he was in jeopardy of losing something more than an election. You could get lost in all sorts of ways - ways he'd never considered - and she’d tell him that.
Humming to herself, Kathy adjusted the tiller and began planning a dinner menu, two big steaks and salad and cold beer, imagining how she’d describe everything that was happening out here. Get some sympathy for herself. Get his attention for a change.
The idea gave her comfort. She could almost picture a happy ending.
After twenty minutes the channel forked around a large rocky island, narrowing for a mile, then breaking off into three smaller channels that curled away into the trees. The place struck her as both familiar and foreign. On whim, she took the center channel and followed it through a funnel of pine and brush for what seemed far too long. Occasionally the channel widened out, opening into pretty little bays and then closing up tight again. Like a river, she thought, except it didn’t flow. The water beneath her had the feel of something static and purposeless, like her marriage, with no reality beyond its own vague alliance with everything else.
...
Ahead, the channel widened out into a stretch of open water, deep blue and icy looking. She squinted up at the sun to calculate the remaining daylight. Maybe five hours until dark. Angle Inlet had to he somewhere off to the south, probably a shade to the west.
She nodded to herself and said, "All right, fine," and fixed the boat on a southerly course, or what she took to be south, now and then checking her direction against the sun. The day was bright and windy, a string of filmy white clouds scudding eastward. She eased back on the throttle and for more than two hours moved through a chain of silvery bays and lakes that unfolded without stop to the horizon. There were no cabins, no other boats. Along the shoreline, thick growths of cattails bent sideways in the wind, and there were occaisonal flights of ducks and loons, but mostly it was a dull succession of woods and water. After a time she felt a detached laziness come over her, a sitting-down sensation. At one point she found herself singing old nursery songs; later on she laughed at the memory of one of Harmon's filthy jokes - a chipmunk, a deaf rhinoceros. A spasm of guilt went through her. Not that she'd ever loved the man, not even close, but there was still the shame of what had happened back then. She pictured his bare white chest, the fingers so thick and stubby for someone who made a living at dentistry. Hard to believe she'd felt things for him.
Enough, she thought. Leave it alone.
---
It's not all slow dialogue and nice scenery, though - there are also quite a lot of gruesome war scenes.
A well-written book that starts off with some mystery, adds a bit more as it goes a long, and, quite frankly, ends mysteriously.
View the book on amazon.com or fishpond.co.nz.
Still need to get Dad a gift for Father's Day?
Last year I read Hemingway on Fishing and enjoyed it, even though I'd already read most of the excerpts in their originally-published form. A nice collection of some of Ernest Hemingway's fishing-related writing, including what must be my favourite short story of all time - Big Two-Hearted River.
Another enjoyable read, with a New Zealand flavour, is Derek Grzelewski's The Trout Diaries. Kennedy Warne (founding editor of New Zealand Geographic, amongst other things), states on the back of the book that it will "satisfy angler, adventurer and philosopher alike." - I couldn't agree more!
I also recommend Mark Kurlansky's Cod - A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World - it's a great book. I'd like to write something like that one day...
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