I reviewed Bill Tapply’s book
Trout Eyes when it was first
released. In that review I shared my delight at reading one of the few
genuine, unique voices in contemporary outdoor writing. Like John
Geirarch, Tapply’s words enchant the reader through their simple honesty;
his voice is like the voice of a dear friend, shared on paper.
While surfing the Internet one day, following links to and from the Fly
Fish Ohio website, I came across my review of Trout Eyes reproduced
in its entirety on Bill Tapply’s web site. I was flattered beyond words
and reached out to him to share my delight. What I found was an
angler/writer who was as gracious and generous in his personal
communications as in his professional output. The voice I read in his
books was the same voice I heard in his emails. Bill Tapply and I shared
several email exchanges and he agreed to personalize my copy of Trout
Eyes. I treasure that volume, today even more so, knowing that I’ll
not have the pleasure of another such kindness. Bill Tapply passed away
in July 2009 after a two-year battle with leukemia. His loss will leave a
great, gaping void in the written lexicon of our sport, to say nothing of
our collective humanity.
Every Day Was Special
was completed shortly before Bill Tapply died and has been published
posthumously. It is a fitting coda for a life spent sharing the joys and
satisfactions of time spent afield. This book is a collection of stories
and observations first published in American Angler, Gray’s Sporting
Journal or Field and Stream magazines. In this collection, Tapply shares
memories from his first, formative days on the water; time spent on a
warmwater pond with an old, cane South Bend fly rod and “an old
Pflueger reel wound with a cracked HDH double-taper line, an envelope of
size-6 Eagle Claw bait hooks, a spool of 8-pound monofilament, and a
Campbell’s soup can of freshly dug earthworms.” From there he takes
us on a journey that includes the world-class trout streams of Montana,
the bonefish flats of the Florida Keys, and even to the weedy pockets that
hide pugnacious largemouth bass in Massachusetts’ Charles River. Each of
the thirty essays is as perfectly sparse and wonderfully proportioned as a
classic Catskill dry fly, and equally beautiful.
Having grown up on the South Shore of Massachusetts, I was particularly
taken by Tapply’s New England warmwater recollections. In his words I can
see the very places where I myself first learned to cast a fly. Tapply’s
written voice is so natural and relaxed it comes on like a tale shared
with a familiar fishing partner. Writing about his earliest memories of
casting both flies and worms for bluegill, crappie, bass and suckers he
says; “It took me all of those summers – thousands of hours, I’m sure –
to learn as much about water and fish and fly casting as Lefty Kreh could
probably teach me in a single afternoon. But I learned it all by myself,
by trying and erring repeatedly, and so it felt – it still feels –
hard-earned and important. Most fly fishermen that I know began fly
fishing with, well, with flies, and with fancy equipment, and with helpful
– and often insistent – instruction. That’s their loss, if you ask me.”
Every Day Was Special
is more than a personal memoir. Channeling one final time his undeniable
need to teach, Tapply provides us with fly patterns and tying instructions
that are sure to result in new favorites in our trout boxes. He even
explores some of the history of angling with pieces examining the
contributions of past luminaries like Ray Bergman and Tom Nixon.
This book is a sparkling gem; it’s a read that’s over too fast, but one
that I’m confident will find its way onto my reading list again and again.
It might just be the perfect summer-time read for an addicted angler kept
too long from the water. I know it made a particularly stressful business
trip personally rewarding for me on a level I didn’t expect. There is a
delicate bitterness in knowing that this was Tapply’s final work, but
there is also a true sense of gratitude in knowing that he found fishing
such an important a part of his life that he spent his final months
working to share these words with an appreciative audience. Bill Tapply,
you will be missed. Thank you for this final gift.
Every Day Was Special
is available from Skyhorse Publishing (ISBN 978-1-60239-955-6).
