Fishing Came First Book

This robust, hilarious memoir spans fifty years of a fishing life. Cole takes us from his early days of bottom-fishing for blowfish in the Long Island Sound to fly casting for 150-pound tarpon out of Key West. Along the way, he gives us unforgettable portraits of people he fished with, glimpses of his own fascinating life, and such remarkable moments as the electric strike of a barracuda, the richness of an Alaskan river, and the savage grace of sharks marauding a school of massive tarpon in the Marquesas. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 224 pages)

Publishers Weekly

Cole claims to be the Blanche DuBois of fishermen; he writes that he has always depended on the kindness of strangers. This memoir, covering five decades in pursuit of the noble sport, is utter delight for anglers. As a teenager, Cole preferred fishing to tennis; when an elderly friend of the family invited him to go fishing he was ecstatic. Years later, he in turn put a bamboo pole in the hands of his three-year-old son. Cole ( Striper ) describes fishing trips in the Florida Keys, Long Island, the Gulf of Maine, on a cleaned-up Kennebec River, a salmon river in maritime Canada, Iceland and Alaska. We observe his developing skills as an angler and the evolution of a philosophy about the sport. Cole conveys the drama of flyfishing--``every motion of the fish communicates straight from the creature to the angler's fingers and from those fingers to his consciousness.'' He has all the enthusiasm of fisherman Jimmy Carter and his writing skills place him among the best of breed. (Sept.)