Jim Dean, longtime editor of
Wildlife in North Carolina,
offers his personal observations on the pleasures and frustrations
of hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor pursuits.
Dogs
That Point, Fish That Bite draws together fifty of the best
columns that Dean has written for the magazine over the last
seventeen years. The witty, sometimes poignant pieces are arranged
into a loose chronicle of the sporting year, with a generous
allowance for digression: the first is set in April, on the opening
day of trout season, and the last tells of a New Year's Day spent
alone in a mountain cabin.
At first glance, hunting and fishing are the focus of most of the
columns. Often, however, Dean is after bigger game. A crab that
escapes the pot leads him to reflect on the capricious nature of
life. The restoration of a cabin at the old family farm evokes
memories of family and simpler times. And a May panfishing trip
takes on the quality of ritual, performed by two old friends. The
consistent theme uniting all the essays is the celebration of wild
places and rural traditions that have become endangered in our
modern world.