It’s about time I go back to basics, here at the close of 2018, and explain what the site’s really all about, what the commonality is between all my musings on amphibians, trails, fish and outdoors people, all of which are encountered here. And first: as to the site’s name: “The Dying Fish” […]
Read more "Of Ecology and Liberty"I recently read Michael Finkel’s account of the North Pond Hermit of Maine, a work entitled, The Stranger in the Woods. In my first entry on Christopher Knight (the hermit), I began to discuss his view of society, from the outside looking in, as it were, and my own similar perspective gained during the long […]
Read more "A Stranger Response (Part II)"In 1986 twenty-year old Chris Knight parked his Subaru Brat at the end of a northern Maine woods road, set the keys inside and walked away into the woods. What might have been expected in the days ahead was for Chris to get tired of the woods and start trying to find his way back […]
Read more "A Stranger Response (Part 1)"I’m a runner and I even race, occasionally. Like many of us, I started out with little 5k fun runs and progressed to ultramarathon class. (To some ultra runners, my ultras would still be twice-round-the-block fun runs.) As a runner and observer of runners, I’ve noticed a general trend: Youthful runners right out […]
Read more "Lessons from the Long Trail"Over the last couple of years, I’ve done almost all my fly fishing with an English fellow, Nigel. We’ve shared the same waters but almost always attack those waters from different angles. I charge in, throwing the largest streamers I think might fit between the jaws of a fat brown while Nigel […]
Read more "Invasive Ideas"On the first day of November I was on the Black River in northern New York, trying to catch a Chinook salmon, the largest type of trout or salmon (salmonid) on the North American Continent. I’d failed here before to actually get one in though I’ve hooked many in previous years. I just have […]
Read more "A Problem and an Opportunity along the Lake Shore"I went to the source of the Allegheny River several days ago, just to make sure it still flows from the same place. And I got to thinking about where I was in life the last time I was there, about 9 years ago, during a long walk in the woods. I was on […]
Read more "Progress"