The Secret Lives of Fishermen 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 Wildlife in North Carolina 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.
The title notwithstanding, not all of the essays in The Secret Lives of Fishermen 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.