Fishless Days, Angling Nights: Classic Fly-Fishing Stores, Reminiscences, and Lore

by Sparse Grey Hackle

A rich and varied treasury of superb stories and articles by the acknowledged "Dean of American Fly Fishermen."

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Neil Guerin]

A classic book that discusses much about the secret of fishing not being about catching fish, but precious time on the bank or in the water with friends.
The first half a series of vignettes which I found quite difficult to get into, but then really enjoyed the latter half on the history of Theodore Gordon and how he influenced the American fly fishing scene.
Worthy of a read if you enjoy American Fly Fishing stories mixed with humour and light heartedness.

[Matthew Sherin]

6/10

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and I did for the first half of it. But when the large 50 page section on Theodore Gordon started up, it just became such a slog. Reading 5 pages would feel like 30. It never regained it's light, (fishing) story-like quality either.

I finished it, but I could only recommend the first half of it or so.

[Chris]

I read this book while the local streams and lakes were frozen and it was the perfect answer to cabin fever. I found the book from a citation in Mike Valla's "Tying Catskill-Style Dry Flies." If I had one criticism, it would be to include the original publication date for each chapter as his writing seems to span from the 1910s through 1960s.

[Dennis Robbins]

Sparse Grey Hackle is funny. I read this collection of stories while camping and fly fishing in the Catskills. It was a wonderful fireside companion. For the fly fisherman make sure to read "The Perfect Angler" for his views on fishing expertise. Read "The Quest for Theodore Gordon" for the story of the acknowledge father of dry fly fishing in America. All the essays have wit and humor, how could you expect anything less from a writer whose pen name is a chicken feather.

[Mike]

Had some laugh out loud funny stories and overall good writing but like a lot of these fishing collections... some of it just got kind of long-winded and tiresome.