Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/68594
Lefty Kreh and Bill Klyn. "These are guys I've known for years and so they're just guys to me," he says when asked about fishing with folks who are even more famous than he is. "I've known every one of them for over a decade. We're used to doing things together and this trip we do is like a bit of a boys club – there's a lot of mirth, a lot of comic byplay and a high level of personal comfort between all of us. "Yvon and I have been close friends for a long time, and he's one of my favorite people on Earth. Maybe my favorite guy to do things with – spontaneous, oddly unblemished by his success with a great sense of humor, great laugh. All the things I love, he loves. "And Lefty is the elder statesman who knows more about fishing than any of us. It's great to just sit back and learn from each other. And there's no competitive edge. We're just a pleasant little group of guys out fishing." Right. If that actually were the case, camera boats wouldn't be following them to the nervous waters where permit and bonefish prowl. Still, as in everything he does, McGuane is blithely unimpressed by his famous friends or his literary legacy. The glib tinge to his voice, the easy way that apt phrases roll off his tongue, the devout love he holds for his wife and children – they belie secrets to his success as a husband, father, writer and perhaps most of all, angler. "The addictive part of fishing is it's an aroused mental state – a kind of meditative alertness – to achieve a predatory goal not through force but through a kind of spiritual stealth. You can't detach yourself and hope the fish just force themselves on you. You have to be alert and ready for them – or your opportunity will come and go in the same moment. "You're more aware of what's going on around you. You see more things happening in the natural world. And, when it coalesces and you actually hook a fish, it's an endorsement of your involvement in that realm – and all the minute things you do to insinuate yourself into it." Much the way an author insinuates himself into the separate reality of his novel, disguised not as a dry fly but as the illuminating – and essential – narrator. Like Tom McGuane. Lover of life, sweet solitude and a good woman. Unmistakable voice of an outdoor generation. These are roles he's always fulfilled with style and, in recent times, grace. In the process, he's written an artful passage on what it means to be an able fisherman, distinctive author and, ultimately, a good man who's worthy of the gifts he was given and the many rewards he's earned. SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 182