A bit of serendipity enter my life recently that married up two things I enjoy, fly fishing and reading. While at the Carnegie Main Library in Oakland I spotted a book written by Ernest Hemingway entitled "Big Two-Hearted River". Reading the jacket cover it explained that it is actually a short story (you can read it with two cups of coffee) about a man's solo trip to go fly fishing.
Intrigued I checked it out of the library and returned home. Upon reaching my place it had been awhile since my last mail pick up so I stopped at the mailbox. Amongst the letters and advertisements was the latest edition of "Trout" the quarterly publication of Trout Unlimited. A few days later while purusing the magazing an article caught my attention "Recapturing "All the Old Feeling" of Hemingway's "Big-Two Hearted River". I was stunned! What a coincidence to have found this article just days after having discovered the book itself.
Sitting down with my morning coffee I opened the book and started reading. The forward as explained in the "Trout" article was written by the author John N. Maclean. If that name sounds familiar to you it may be because his father was the author of "A River Runs Through It".
The story itself is quite short but amazingly descriptive. You'll feel as though you were there with Nick as he preps his gear or enters the stream. Yes his use of 'live' bait isn't what we do but the sights he sees, his reason for being there, and the enjoyment he gets from the sport match mine despite the story having been written in the 1920s. I'd highly recommend giving it a read. It is available via the Carnegie Library system or through both on-line and brick and mortar book stores.
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