On Fishing at Sea by Chris Yates

There's an old saw that fishermen – and fishing writers in particular – are fond of repeating: "It is not all of fishing to fish." In How to Fish , Chris Yates wrote warmly about the pleasures of freshwater fishing: of contemplative lulls, as well as memorable catches. On Fishing at Sea offers a different object of contemplation. "An ocean," Yates writes, "has a much bigger vocabulary than a pond or stream," and he sets out to translate it for us. Fortunately, he isn't the sort of fisherman who stares only into the depths: his attention is caught by the shift of a breeze, the habits of gulls and the fine changes of coastal light. For him, fishing lines are entangled with the past, and fishing itself offers time and space for remembering: a sort of piscatorial Proust.