Product Description

"Kaminsky makes flyfishing sound like a form of sanctifying grace, and his writing style is as lyrical and lovely as his sport." --Pat Conroy

The Moon Pulled Up an Acre of Bass is the story of a man's love affair with Montauk in the fall, after the crowds and celebrities have left eastern Long Island. Now in paperback, this is the story of an ocean teeming with life, and the people drawn to it: obsessed anglers, jealous guides, dedicated scientists, and the local people who have lived off the bounty of these waters for generations. But above all it is a story of a man's basic love of people and nature, one that will appeal to the many fans of Kaminsky's "Outdoors" column in the New York Times, his frequent work in Food & Wine, and anyone hungering for fine writing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #952960 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-25
• Released on: 2002-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The East Coast migratory striped bass has the same trans-species attachment with Long Islanders as the blue crab does with the Chesapeake region, and the cod with New Englanders; striper fishing is nowhere more exciting, or more socially complicated, than in early fall off Montauk, New York. After the summer tide of celebrities and vacationers leaves the beaches, local sportfishers form their own society around the parade of southbound migrations. Not the average "hook and bullet" reporter, Kaminsky took a sabbatical from his New York Times column to fly-fish Montauk Point through the October peak, lured by the life fantasy of one dream fly-fishing season, an angling "walkabout into something perfect and outside of time." The tides of his obsession with the fish in this place occasionally carry him way offshore into social history, local color and ecology of the bass. The real prose action is on the shallow flats of Great Peconic Bay and in the jockeying among guide boats and surf casters for prime casting positions for "blitzes" of feeding 40-inch bass. Kaminsky (whose cookbook, Elements of Taste, is due out from Little, Brown in October) is neither the first nor the most stylish voice for this fish and this place (the Montauk bass fishery has its own shelf in angling literature, which includes John Cole's Striper and Peter Matthiessen's Men's Lives). Nonetheless, most Eastern fly rodders will revel in Kaminsky's walkabout and feel as wistful as he does when the cold northeast winds finally put down the fish in November.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In this beguiling memoir, New York Times sportswriter Kaminsky recounts how he lived an angler's dream: fishing every fishable day at the peak of striped-bass season at Montauk Point on Long Island's East End. When Kaminsky wasn't pursuing bass with fly tackle from a boat, he was indulging his passion for cooking (while staying at the summer home of the late chef Pierre Franey) and observing life in the Hamptons. Saltwater and freshwater fly fishing differ greatly, and Kaminsky proves especially adept at explaining the differences, as well as offering sound advice for freshwater anglers hoping to succeed in saltwater. This thoroughly readable account works both as a fishing book and as a travel memoir: Kaminsky's sharp ear for dialogue is on display in his character sketches of the region's anglers, some of whom seem to have walked out of the pages of To Have and to Have Not. Recommend this either to aficionados of fishing lit or to anyone with an interest in the Hamptons. John Rowen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"An ebullient chronicle." -- New York Times

"Kaminsky is a master angler and masterful storyteller. Even if you've never cast a line, this is a great read." -- Tom Brokaw

"Peter Kaminsky knows how to live, and his book is a tonic for this manic age." -- Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century

"This may do for Montauk what Peter Mayle did for Provence." -- People

"Through his eyes we discover an angler's paradise." -- ESPN.com

Customer Reviews

flyfishing, New York style
While it is certainly the case that flyfishing has given rise to more good writing than any sport other than baseball, it is also the case that the pleasures of this literature tend to be somewhat refined. Flyfishing is, for the most part, the pursuit of the leisure classes, the rest of use spinning reels to baitfish or to go after bass with a variety of garish lures. We associate bass fishing with the sound of overpowerful boats and the sour smell of stale beer. Flyfishing gives off a faint whiff of soggy tweed, mixed with pipe tobacco and perhaps a fine brandy. Your ne'er-do-well uncle bass fishes, your successful granddad flyfished. All of which makes Peter Kaminsky's new book something of a rarity; kind of a more muscular, less cultured, less aristocratic, flyfishing memoir.
In large part this is owing to the setting that Kaminsky has chosen; no trips to Idaho or Montana here; no Australian Outback or Scottish Highlands; instead he spends the late Summer/early Fall out at Montauk Point, Long Island, fishing with friends and family, guides and sportsmen, locals and commercial fisherman for stiped bass, albacore, and the like. Both the type of fishing--for bigger fish, on rough seas, battling surfcasters and other boats--and the crowded and competitive conditions make this much different than the typical pastoral treatise on flyfishing. It's a very New York kind of fishing going on here, democratic and combative.
Beyond the unusual milieu, the book is a must read for the quality of Kaminsky's prose.... Fall's just around the corner now, and if you can't get to Montauk, this book's the next best thing.
GRADE : A

Great travelogue capturing the 'season'
Very readable account of the striper fishing frenzy in the fall at the tip of LI. As a (former) windsurfer I could relate to the pilgrimages you make to the right places at the right times to take part in your passion. Combine this with someone who knows what's important in life and knows how to write--and you've got a good book.

A great read for a non-fisherperson
A great read. I'm not a fisherman and in fact I've never gone fishing but this book is filled with such natural and lyrical beauty that I (and other non-fishing folk) could fully appreciate the wonderful portrait of Montauk and its people that Kaminsky has drawn. I may never pick up a flyrod but I will (and have) heartily recommend(ed) this book to the most stubborn land-lubber.