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First published June 16th 2008 - A couple of months ago
More about: Writings 

Small Fry: The Lure of the Little

Prologue: These Lines

By ron P. swegman

Catch BIGGER Fish . . .
Like you, I have lost count of the times I have read this alluring phrase in fishing magazines, catalogues, and advertisements, although I can count the number of BIGGER fish I have actually caught. These trophies, tallied up, leave my left hand free to hold my fly rod.
    Yes, I have always delighted in the adrenaline rush of the sudden, athletic grab, the awesome sight of the huge silhouette, leading a taut line, making a great wake across a pool, the large amount of pride felt in being able to happily release a giant back to its water; I cannot dispute that. What I am willing and ready to debate is the sport’s obsession with sheer, or may I submit mere, size. The personal highs of my own fly fishing life, the moments I am most compelled to tell, have always involved a little finesse and, ultimately, MORE fish. These angling game highlights have occurred almost exclusively along small streams, glacial lakes, or farm ponds where the fish have been sized to scale. This little book celebrates these waters and these fish, and I hope these lines will help you, the reader --

Catch MORE Fish . . .

-- ron P. swegman

Start reading the story here




All chapters of Small Fry
  • Small Fry, intro - Prologue: These Lines, published June 16th 2008
  • Small Fry, 1 - Chapter 1: The Lure of the Little, published June 16th 2008
  • Small Fry, 2 - Chapter 2: Presenting Brookus bassa; The Smallmouth, published June 30th 2008
  • Small Fry, 3 - Chapter 3: Presenting Rob-fin redbreast; The Stream Sunfish, published July 14th 2008
  • Small Fry, 4 - Chapter 4, Presenting Solid rocky; The Punk Rock Bass, published July 28th 2008
  • Small Fry, 5 - Chapter 5: Presenting White lightning; The Tidal River Perch, published August 11th 2008
  • Small Fry, 6 - Chapter 6: Presenting Mighty minnows; The Chub Family, published August 25th 2008
  • Chapter 7: Presenting Small wonder; The Mountain Brook Trout, to be published September 8th 2008


    The chapters are being published with a couple of weeks inbetween.
    When new chapters are ready, they are first announced and then linked from here.


    • User comments
    From: Sandra Swegman · doublesdude·at·verizon.net
    Submitted July 4th 2008

    great story as usual. keep up the writings, I love to read them
    Mom


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    Small Fry, 6

    The father of English fishing literature, Izaak Walton, devotes two chapters of The Compleat Angler to chubs (or “cheven” in the archaic plural), and in one scene his Piscator takes pleasure in catching the largest one of a school of twenty to the amazement of his companions, Venator and Auceps.

    Small Fry, 1

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    Small Fry, 2

    The smallmouth bass is the headliner of small coolwater venues and that fact is understandable. Micropterus dolomieui bends fly rods and performs top water acrobatics throughout the course of the fishing season, even during the hottest dog days, as long as the human on the other end of the line knows his or her art and craft.

    Small Fry, 5

    The white perch is actually an anadromous silver bass in the fish family Moronidae. This game panfish is the little cousin of the striped bass and shares much of the same habitat: the brackish tidal estuaries and adjacent rivers of the mid-Atlantic and New England states.
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