The Secret Lives of Fishermen

<i>The Secret Lives of Fishermen</i> is Jim Dean’s second book of essays celebrating wild places rural traditions and the pleasures and often humorous frustrations of fishing hunting hiking and camping — or as Dean might put it “messing around” outdoors. It combines essays originally published in his monthly “Our Natural Heritage” column in <i>Wildlife in North Carolina</i> with longer pieces that appeared in other magazines. These forty-six engaging essays are arranged in a loose chronicle of the sporting year but they seldom follow predictable routes. From a whimsical story about discovering live wood ducks in a cabin stove to a poignant memoir of summers spent in a remote riverside shack all of the pieces are bound by a conviction that our resources and time are limited and our finest memories are shared.<br/><br/>The title notwithstanding not all of the essays in <i>The Secret Lives of Fishermen</i> are about fishing nor are readers likely to discover any shocking secrets — unless they are surprised to learn that fishermen and hunters have myriad interests and seldom measure success by the number of fish caught or game bagged.