Have you ever been so passionate about something that it occupies your every waking moment? In his latest collection of essays, celebrated writer and life-long angler James R. Babb reflects on his ardent preoccupation with the sport of fishing—one so strong that it often keeps him awake--and further recounts many of his most memorable adventures from a life spent casting flies across the globe. From the majestic lakes and streams of northern Maine, to the smaller brooks of eastern Tennessee and crossing the Atlantic to the lochs of Scotland and the chalk streams of southern England, Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep transcends international boundaries to demonstrate that the joy of fishing is universal.
Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep brims with over two dozen chapters on varying aspects of the sport. In “Roamin' the Gloaming,” Babb hilariously comments on some of the more peculiar idioms of his chosen passion. The aptly titled “Snide and Prejudice,” reflects on the companionship, friendships, and occasional animosities that arise from fishing with others. And in “Simple Gifts,” Babb muses on the eternal bane and gift of all fly fishermen—the weather.
Echoing the tone of great writers such as Mark Twain, Annie Dillard, and John Gierach, Babb’s poignant prose and witty observations are true testaments to the unparalleled wit of an American master.
Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Industry Reviews
"The library of reflective fly-fishing memoirs is made richer by James Babb’s brilliantly written Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep: The Obsessions of a Lifetime Flyfisherman. After eighteen years as the editor of Gray’s Sporting Journal, Babb draws together his many columns into a masterwork of creative nonfiction that embraces angling narrative, travelogue, social satire and insightful human interest infused with the sharpest wit and richest humor. His unpretentious, casual voice easily achieves a lofty literary flourish or a water level observation. Babb is clearly one of our most erudite angling authors, able not only to quote deftly from literature, but to inhabit literature." --Henry Hughes, Flyfishing and Tying Journal
“Jim Babb once told me he writes ‘complicated stories about simple things.’ If he meant that few other writers have his effortless touch with historic references; literary and cultural allusions; fishing, nautical, and backwoods lore; wordplay and sly fun while still leaving an essay room to breathe, then I have to agree. Like all good books, Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep, resembles its author: eccentric, knowledgeable, opinionated, surprising, observant, eloquent, and funny.” —John Gierach, author of All Fishermen Are Liars
“Jim Babb, unlike other fly-fishing writers, never bores me. He is the master of paradox. . . . He never quits, and Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep (great title!) proves once again that he is one of the best essayists we have, who just happens to be a flyfisher.” —Stephen Bodio, author of The Hounds of Heaven
“What James Babb calls his “fish writing” is a welcomed throwback to the days when an angler was a fisherman, and when fish-writers like Ted Trueblood, A.J. McClane, and Sparse Gray Hackle were plying the trade with wit, wisdom, hard-won experience, and an admirable absence of b******t. Each of the stories in this collection is as durable and go-to dependable as a well-tied Hornberg in brook trout country.” —Charles Gaines, bestselling author of Waters Near and Far
“Jim Babb takes you fishing like no other writer can: his captivating stories are witty and soulful, full of wisdom and wisecracks. Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep is a wild boat-ride down all the rivers, and over all the ponds and seas you ever dreamt of, Henry Thoreau at the tiller, Groucho Marx in the bows passing comment.” —Charles Rangeley-Wilson, author of Silt Road
“If Mark Twain had been a flyfisher this is the book he might have written, at once realistic, penetrating, and entertaining. Jim Babb, that holy fishing fool, writes with the kind of humorous, self-deprecating critical tone that is suspicious of fads and fashions, bemused by trends and twaddle (his own included), but always capable of extolling the genuine finny virtues and obsessive truths of contemporary fly fishing. And even if Twain hadn’t written Fish Won’t Let Me Sleep, he surely would have loved reading it.” —Robert DeMott, author of Angling Days: A Fly Fisher’s Journals
