Richard Fieldhouse
Here at Fly Punk towers, we often receive things through the post which are fly fishing related, you know the score – things you ordered by completely forgot about, this you need to hide from your other half! But the other day we received a pre-release copy of a book which I had been looking forward to reading. It’s a book of short stories from Bill Stokes. Here’s a quote from the marketing blurb for this book:
“Trout Friends and Other Riff-Raff is a compelling memoir of short stories on fishing and outdoors. Further it contains a never before published essay titled “Trout Flounderers.” In these stories, popular Chicago Tribune outdoor columnist Bill Stokes gives himself over to his true passion, trout fishing. It is an activity, possibly a madness, that moves him, time and again, to stand knee-deep in cold and murky waters, offer himself up to clouds of hungry mosquitoes, and attempt to keep from snagging his line in overhanging limbs while trying to outwit a wily rainbow or brook trout. And then remembering where the car is parked. This is a work of literature compiled over years of writing by Bill Stokes assisted by his grandson, Paul Stokes (Audiobookreviewer.com) to bring to the world both published and nonpublished writings that bring will tears of laughter, melancholy and remembrance. Paul saw the value and importance of sharing his grandfather’s work with the new generation of readers and listeners. Together they have collected his writings and brought them to both e-book status and audio book.”
I love these types of books, ones where you can dip in and out when you have a few minutes to spare, ideal “Poop Fiction” so to speak.
Bill has a unique way over getting the stories to resonate with the reader; one I especially liked was “Trout or Cows”. Now, I’ve had a fair few ‘run-ins’ with Cows, and they are not my favourite animal when encountered on the river bank, I do remember hooking one once on a back cast, that was interesting to say the least! But this story is more about the pull of fishing over working for a living. If you are working for a living, why not grab yourself a copy of the audio book, at least that way you can listen to it on the way to work, and get your fishing fix for the day. You won’t regret it.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Trout-Friends-other-Riff-Raff-Stories/dp/1542497353
