I just completed my second reading of this novel not long ago, the first time being over 30 years prior in college.  As often is the case, the book had a lot more meaning and depth after having a lot of life experience, travel and education under my belt.  I am a Hemingway fan, I love his prose and style and I am intrigued by his life.  I believe For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of his best novels.  The prose, dialogue and plot are excellent.  There are a lot of details I recognized this time that I did not pay attention to in the first reading.  One thing that I find interesting is the obsession he has about hair, especially women with short cropped hair and after reading biographies about his childhood and life and the discussions of his psychosexuality I tend to notice these details in his novels more, where before I do not think I really paid it a lot of attention.  Not to say that these details are particularly important to analysis, I simply find it interesting as I did not know a lot about Hemingway the man when I first started reading his works and now it is interesting to see how his life and experiences play into his characters and novels.  I believe Hemingway was what I would call an authentic and honest writer of fiction because he seemed to have a desire to live and experience everything he wrote about, thus the detail is authentic.

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Robert Ruark is one of my favorite authors and if I had to pick a favorite novel I believe that I would have to say The Old Man and the Boy would have to be it.  This is a classic novel, originally published in 1957.  The book tells the story about the friendship between and young boy and his grandfather as he teaches him life lessons as they hunt the woods of North Carolina and fish the lakes, ponds and the ocean.  This novel is especially special to me because, growing up in rural South Carolina, it reminds me of my childhood.  I believe I am among the last generation to get a glimpse into life that is described in this novel, I grew up in a time where the last remnants of life described in this book were left.  I also had a special relationship with my grandfathers and I hung onto every word as they told me tales and stories about growing up in the rural South, hunting fishing and farming.  Also, one being a veteran of the WWI and the other of WWII, I relished the stories of the great wars.  These were stories told by real men, my grandfathers, stories recalled and shared under big oak trees with a piece of wood and a case pocket knife in hand, carving off nice curled shavings.  The old man teaches his grandson how to be a gentleman, a woodsman, and live a respectful life though lessons learned in the field.  This was a time when you could unapologetically be a man.  It is a heartwarming and eloquent tale about choices, responsibility, and about becoming a man.  I hope you will pick it up and enjoy!     

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This is an action-packed and gripping historical narrative of the most famous encounter in exploration history.  This is the true story of the legendary explorer Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, the journalist who set off to look for Livingstone when he went missing in the treacherous African terrain, populated by fearsome man-eating tribes.  The story is told with the power and drama of a novel.  This is one of my favorite pieces of adventure literature of all time. 

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"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn, It's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before.”

-Ernest Hemingway

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This is the Recipe for a Hippo Stir Fry I had in Zambia. Very Good

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The Talopossa River in Alabama has some great warm water species fishing. Not long ago I did a float trip down the Talopossa with Drew Morgan of East Alabama Fly Fishing “EAFF” guide service. We met at Horseshoe Bend just South of Alexander City and floated down toward Lake Martin. Within a few minutes we were catching Bluegill Bream and just a little further down river we were catching the Alabama native species Red Eye Bass and Spotted Bass and Large Mouths. The scenery on this river is unbelievable.

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We were tracking a small bachelor group of about five animals. I had a desire to take an old Dugga Boy with a large hard boss and worn tips, a “proper bull” as they say. We lost the track for a little while in the tall grass then we were able to pick it up again in a dry river bed.

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I love sporting dogs. I have always had the opinion that if you are going to have a canine it needs to have a purpose, so I have always had dogs from one of the sporting breeds. My wife Gretchen was pressuring me for a lap dog because my hyper active Brittany and big black Lab were simply not fitting the bill for a lap dog companion.

We are members of the Orvis Shooting Grounds at Pursell Farms near Birmingham Alabama so last fall we attended their annual sporting fair where vendors of all varieties come from dog trainers to clothiers and gun makers. That is where we met Tyla and her English Field Cockers. My wife immediately fell in love with these sweet dogs and Tyla assured us that they make great “Hearth to the Field” companions.

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Lefty Kreh once said, “If I had to choose only one fly to fish, for any species, anywhere in the world, it would be the Clouser Minnow.” In 1994 he wrote that he had caught 63 species of fish on the Clouser. This is a pattern that was developed in the mid 1980’s by Bob Clouser, a fishing guide, fly tier and tackle shop owner in Middletown, PA. The pattern is a simple bucktail streamer, with dumbell lead eyes tied about a third of the way down the shaft. They are mounted on what is normally considered the top of the hook, however the weight of the eyes cause the fly to swim hook point up. This reduces the chances of the fly getting caught in weeds and other debris. Using a stripping retrieve creates a realistic up and down darting movement.

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