Introducing Active Tracks: A Collection of Angling Chronicles
Earlier this year, I completed work on what will likely be my last fishing book. It's a collection of 23 of my favorite fishing stories and meditations, many of them previously published in this magazine, over the 27 years in which I've been submitting work here. Some are parts of other books I've written and published about coastal fishing. I wanted the pieces included in the book to have fresh edits.
I made tiny adjustments to most of them, since I had thoroughly revised them before publishing them previously. I dabbled a bit more extensively with some of the older pieces, mostly because I've evolved significantly as a writer over these decades, and I find a need to change more details in things I haven't touched in a long time.
This is not something I learned about myself while completing the book. I already knew I have a hard time truly letting go of any piece of writing which becomes personally significant to me. I suspect many writers suffer from this affliction. Though we're forced to sign off on a piece and offer it to the world when we publish it, we never really feel free from the need to scratch an itch and tweak it just a bit more, when and if the proper context for doing so presents itself.
Placing all these stories and ruminations together in one place did reveal some things to me which I had not previously appreciated, at least not with such clarity. For one thing, I realized how often I find myself setting stories in a specific part of Baffin Bay. The actions occurring in many of the included stories happen in the Badlands. The site where I and my friends and clients made many memorable catches, the place is nearly sacred to me.
I also realized how hard I've worked over the years to try and accurately present an archetype to my readers. I think of this figure as a kind of cowboy angler; he's Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter, a solitary figure who seems to know many things the rest of us don't. I've spent plenty of time and a whole pack of words trying to vividly describe what we all know as an 'Old Salt.'
Many of my favorite characters (most imagined, a few real) emerge on the pages of this anthology, including The Phantom, The Hermit, Angler X, Father Time, Mother Nature, two Karankawas, two King Ranch Hands, the trio in The Crew, the probably naked wader, ghost-seeing Johnny and my old friend Jesse Arsola. In addition to making fresh edits to the stories which gave life to these and other figures in the book, I created a short introduction to each included piece, to give readers better insight about why it's important enough to me to justify inclusion in my collection of favorites. In some cases, I mention the sources which helped me invent the piece; I debunk myths about a few others.
To say I found satisfaction and pleasure while working on this book is a gross understatement. I'm both proud and humbled to have found a home for all these separate pieces, to have placed them together for all eternity. I've copied and pasted the introduction to Active Tracks below, hoping to provide further insight into what the book means to me.
"In the early 1990s, when I developed a serious interest in fishing the bays and coastal waterways of Texas, GPS technologies had barely burst onto the scene. After I bought a boat and began trying to learn how to use it, I relied mostly on paper maps, a compass and my wits. I made plenty of mistakes along the way to becoming a capable captain.
In 1997, I started fishing competitively, still operating my 18' Kenner without the aid of a GPS. By then I'd developed decent navigation skills and proven myself capable of making excursions under the cover of night, using a Q-beam to light my way. In 1998, I studied the books and other materials necessary to pass the Coast Guard's tests, earned my captain's license and began running charters.
Over the years, I've guided people on trips targeting speckled trout in all the Texas bays lying between the Louisiana Shoreline in Sabine Lake and the Land Cut connecting the two Laguna Madres. I spent most of my guiding career on the waters of Baffin Bay and the Upper Laguna Madre. When I started guiding full time in 2005, I did so in a 22' Triton, using a hand-held GPS device with limited capacities to enhance the safety and productivity of my trips.
Soon after, I bit the bullet and bought a better boat, one with a bigger, more sophisticated GPS mounted on the center console. Over time, I came to realize the many ways this amazing technology can make fishing safer and more productive, especially when the efforts take place on wide, wild and treacherous waterways. Knowing exactly where one is, where other things are, where one has been and where one is going simplifies the complex game of fishing and navigating coastal waters. Marking obstructions, sweet spots and anchor sites allows one to avoid dangers and return repeatedly to the same exact locations, even in darkness and/or dense fog.
Placing track lines on the screen makes this process easier to execute safely and precisely. As my catalog of waypoints and tracks became more extensive, I came to think of the Active Track Lines on my screen as roads. They take me back to familiar places, places where I've had success, back to where I want and need to be.
Concurrent with these developments, I began writing about the art of fishing with lures for trophy speckled trout in 1998, when I published my first article in Gulf Coast Connections (now Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine). Gradually, the writing and the fishing developed a productive, symbiotic relationship. Because I wanted to write well, I needed to fish well, and vice versa. The need to fully and accurately articulate all aspects of the endeavor drove me to fish more seriously and analytically.
I greatly enjoy both avocations, but I've come to realize something significant about my creative, sporting spirit. One thing inspires and fulfills me more than any other. I derive more satisfaction from writing than from any other single activity. Nothing makes me happier than producing a narrative I believe is done to the best of my ability. Getting the words right moves me.
To date, I've published somewhere north of half a million words on the topic of coastal fishing. The stories and musings included here rank high on my list of favorites. These characters and events, some real, some imaginary, will always dwell in my memory. The truths they reveal and the emotions they evoke all inspire me.
While compiling this book and reworking some of the included pieces slightly, I realized some things. One of the most significant truths the process revealed to me is the profound and influential role a specific place has played in my life. For me and many others, especially anglers bitten by the big trout bug, the area lying adjacent to the west side of the intracoastal waterway in Baffin Bay feels like a hallowed place, uniquely qualified to help us realize our dreams. Many of these stories are set in the Badlands. After completing this book, the statement "I have active tracks in the Badlands" means more to me than ever before.
Another meaningful discovery I made on the road to the completion of this piece centers on my continuing search for ways to adequately describe the archetypal angler I both know and seek. Subconsciously, I seem drawn to a spiritual world when thinking of 'Old Salts,' when trying to accurately describe their attributes and qualities. Repeatedly, I portray them in ways which make them seem both real and ethereal. I feel their ironic, emblematic essence in most of my stories.
Like track lines on a GPS screen, the words in this book take me back to familiar, productive places. Like country roads, they take me home. In the navigation device mapping memories in my mind, these narratives appear as Active Tracks. They originate in my heart and terminate in my soul. I hope their truths shine favorable light on the substance of my legacy."
Paperback copies of this 118-page book can be purchased on Amazon.com for $9.99 and digital copies, in PDF form, can be purchased on CaptainKevBlogs.com for $7.99.
