Chasing The Dark (2024)
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About Chasing The Dark
Joe Jackson's life has seemed to follow the hours of low light; waking in the pitch-dark to beat the sun and lingering until it's long gone. The stories told in between range from hunting snowshoe hares in the cold of Alaskan winter; Spey casting monotonously to king salmon and waiting, hoping, praying for a miracle; fishing to the very ends of human sanity for steelhead in one of the last great places on Earth; developing a new and profound love for upland bird hunting; and much, much more. Jackson shares and reflects on the adventures and the misadventures, assessing why he and so many others can rise in the wee hours to hunt and fish day after day, yet have a hard time rolling out of bed for work or school. In short, these are the tales of a sporting life-a young man's yarns of chasing the dark and seeking the fins, furs, and flurries of wings beyond it. |
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It's Only Fishing (2023)
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About It's Only Fishing
2020 was a year of change. Caught between occupations and a global pandemic, 24-year-old Joe Jackson decided to write an essay for every fly-fishing trip he took. And just like the fishing itself, these essays drift from the metaphysical to the wholly matter-of-fact; they chronicle the spontaneous spectacles of bear encounters, rivers hidden in plain sight, a wonderfully cryptic angler called ‘the Samurai’, and much, much more – all elements that not only shaped the season, but the fisherman himself. These are the yarns of a young and dumb Alaskan fly angler; one who travels less the far corners of angling’s exotic destinations and more the familiar streams close to home. These are vital investigations into why he fishes at all: why he bushwhacks through a mile of alders for the small hope of a trout stream; why he forces himself through early morning after early morning in the slow deterioration of sockeye fishing; why he burns gas and time in the face of concerned family and friends that suggest he “might spend a little too much time fishing.” The conclusion that Joe’s come to is a simple one: It’s only fishing – but it’s also so much more. Reviews"Thought-provoking introspections and asides about fishing and life in general keep Jackson’s prose fresh throughout the book, sometimes adding context to a moment, other times providing background in the form of personal or natural history. Add to these moments Jackson’s gift for vivid description (“clouds fat as Spanish warships marched overhead …”), his whip-sharp sense of humor (“It’s since been made clear to me that mosquitoes are like gases; that is, they fill whatever volume they’re contained within. Even if it’s only one …”), and you have a book that on cold winter days will have icebound anglers smiling on their sofas, philosophizing, and dreaming of Alaska’s all-too-slowly advancing fishing season to come." |