Month: October 2018

A new fly shop opened in town, so on the first available Saturday morning, one too hot to fish, I visited to meet the owner, talk fish, and pick up some fly-tying groceries. As I entered, I paused momentarily to let my eyes adjust from the glare outside.

A large black shape moved toward me, gave me a sniff and licked my hand. My improved vision identified it as a Lab and already I liked the fly-shop greeter. He had two legs up on the Wal-Mart greeters, though I will concede the Wal-Mart greeters have considerably better etiquette on where they stick their noses.

The proprietor rose from his fly-tying bench in the back and ambled forward, adjusting his glasses on his nose to look over the top.  He was a wiry guy, with grizzly hackle hair and beard and a firm handshake.

“Howdy, I’m Spyder.”

Click here for the rest of Jim Mize’s story at Sporting Classics Daily.

THE GREATEST DEER HUNTING BOOK EVER

A full year of researching, collecting, and reading hundreds of stories and essays, both fiction and nonfiction, underlies the creation of The Greatest Deer Hunting Book Ever.

Edited and compiled by veteran sporting scribe Jim Casada, the book’s 465 pages feature 43 stories from some of America’s most revered authors, among them William Faulkner, Robert Ruark, Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Rutledge, Gene Hill, Jack O’Connor, Gordon MacQuarrie and dozens of others.

Collectively, these carefully chosen selections open wide the door to literary wonder. As you read these stories, you’ll chuckle, experience the occasional catch in your throat or tear in your eye, and venture afield vicariously with deer hunters/writers who instinctively knew how to take readers to the setting of their tales. In these pages the deer season is always open and the sport’s joys endlessly unfold.

Along with the stories, Casada provides a solid introduction to the book, brief commentary on each selection, biographical vignettes of every contributor, and a bibliographical essay on the literature of deer hunting.

The Greatest Deer Hunting Book Ever is available in a hardbound edition for $40 and a deluxe, numbered edition, limited to 350 copies bound in leather and featuring gilded end sheets and edges, for $70.  Both versions are signed by the editor and are available from him (include $5 shipping) c/o 1250 Yorkdale Drive, Rock Hill, SC 29730 or his website, www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com.