James Prosek, BR '97, wants to take you fly-fishing. "I'll take anyone who wants to go," he tells me, without a trace of insincerity. Any day, that is, but this Saturday at 2 p.m., when Prosek will be signing copies of his newly published angling guide, Trout, at the Yale Co-op. The book-which includes text and over 70 watercolor illustrations-has garnered Prosek the cover of the Yale Alumni Magazine (reportedly, the first undergraduate ever to do so), and a notice in The New York Times, which described the 20-year old English major as "a fair bid to become the Audubon of the fishing world." Despite all the accolades, Prosek remains unassuming and gracious enough to sit for an interview with The Yale Herald.
Yale Herald: So how did you start fly-fishing, James?
James Prosek: Actually, I started tying flies before I started fishing. Flies are the feathers and furs that you tie onto a hook to imitate real flies. I guess a friend of mine got me into that. I did that for about two years before I started fishing.
YH: So you just tied together these flies for years before ever actually fishing?
JP: Yeah. I guess it was just a good winter activity. [Laughs] Actually, I had been fishing that whole time that I was tying, just not fly-fishing. You can fish with bait, minnows, and spinning rods-all of which are equally fun-but fly-fishing is seen as kind of a more romantic, more skilled type of fishing. I still do fish with bait, but the majority of fishing I do is with fly. You kind of have to have a working knowledge of the insects before you start, so it was good to do some of that. Most people just jump into it.
YH: What was the attraction?
JP: I really don't know where my desires to fish come from. I guess it's a basic love of nature. My father introduced me to nature, he's a bird-watcher. Not professionally, just a hobby. [laughs] So we would take walks down the street, stuff like that.
YH: So do you live near the country?
JP: I'm from Easton, Connecticut, which is a pretty rural town. There are plenty of streams. Behind my house, there's a reservoir there with hundreds of acres of land around it. You're not supposed to fish in the property, but I would, because it was basically an untouched resource.
YH: So is that where you did most of your fishing? Right backdoor?
JP: In Connecticut? Yeah. But I've done quite a bit of traveling for the book, most of the Western states-Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, California. And I went to Alaska, just to catch a few of the rare fish.
YH: Where is the best fishing?
JP: I like Connecticut a lot. Some would argue that the Western states have the best trout fishing. But really, all over the country is good. It depends on what you like. I generally like small streams, just because they're closer to my heart. Big rivers are nice, too.
YH: So how did the book come about?
JP: I'd been painting birds a lot, since I was five. I always somehow had paint and pencils around, and then in April '89, my dad clipped out this little article about a rare type of trout called the blueback trout. And I went to the library to see if there was a volume on trout, equivalent to Audubon's book of birds. But there wasn't, so I started compiling a list of trout that I had heard of, and I started writing to biologists in different states. There's usually a biologist in each state that studies the native fish. And they all responded very kindly. Usually if you show a passion for something, people will respond.
YH: So then you would go fish the trout?
JP: Well, they would send photos, and I would paint from the photos. And if I was interested, and had the opportunity, I would go.
YH: These trout were rare?
JP: Yeah, for many reasons, trout have been decimated. Trout need very particular conditions for living-cold water. So if you cut down the trees next to a stream, it can heat up the water, and they can die.
YH: So when you go out fishing these rare fish, aren't you putting them in even greater danger?
JP: No, I let them go.
YH So it's just the thrill of catching them.
JP: Yeah, seeing them, photographing them-then I immediately let them go. And I'm sure that most of them survive, because I've caught the same fish four times. I didn't realize it was the same fish at first. But I compared the photos, and matched up the spotting patterns. Each trout has a unique spotting pattern. They're pretty gullible. That was over a period of two years. In the same pool. They're very territorial, so you can go to a certain stream, and know that certain fish is going to be behind that rock over there. You get to know a stream really well if you fish a lot. That's part of experience. After a while, you can just look at a stream and say, "There's going to be a fish in there."
YH You put all the fish back?
JP: Yeah, I'd say, of the couple hundred fish I catch a summer, I keep maybe five. The ones I keep are usually ones that are hooked badly, hooked in the throat.
YH You you're not a big trout eater?
JP: They're good. I like trout. But I think I'd prefer to let them go, just because I admire them so much.
YH: So you had been doing these paintings-how did the book come into being?
JP: I had always kind of dreamed about putting it together. But freshman year, over Christmas break, I put a proposal together. A friend of my sister's helped me finalize the idea. I had so many ideas on fish, but this guy had me package it as trout in North America. I sent it to about 10 publishers. I got lots of rejection letters. And then the last person I heard from was an editor's assistant at Knopf. I went up there in late March. And he said, "I like the idea. Do it." But it was kind of frustrating along the way. Even when I had all the stuff in, there were times when I wouldn't see anything happen. When he finally got around to it, he did the editing in a period of about two months. They're just very intense, at least he is.
YH: What was the editing process like?
JP: He just streamlined the thing. It had to fit in a certain space, so he cut it back. I tended to get a little too romantic at times. But he did a great job.
YH Did he consult you on the edits?
JP: No, he just chopped it. [Laughs] But then I corrected it, several times. I learned so much about the process.
YH: So did you get an advance?
JP: Yeah, I got an initial lump sum. It's probably pretty standard for a beginning author. The royalties are maybe a little low, but I'm very pleased.
YH: So what are you planning to do with the money?
JP: I put a lot towards school. It's pretty much gone. But it's been fun-I didn't have to work last summer.
YH: And the future?
JP: As far as future projects, I'd like to do trout of the world. I have proposals out on several books. One on my fishing mentor, Jo Haines. I'd like to get more on the writing side of things. I love to write. English has been a great major here at Yale. But I don't know if I can pay for the house insurance writing about trout; we'll see how the sales for this book go.
YH You cited Audubon as a model for this book. Who are your favorite authors?
JP: I don't really read much fiction. I like poetry. I like Wordsworth. I like Frost a lot. My dad read me a lot of poetry when I was younger. I do like The Old Man and the Sea. As for fiction, I guess Norman McClean [author of A River Runs Though It] is one of my favorites.
YH: If you were in A River Runs Though It, which brother would you be?
JP: [laughs] They're both kind of extreme. I'd probably be a combination of the two. I admire the skill of the younger brother, but I probably don't carouse as much as Brad Pitt-though I do enjoy that too.
YH: Which is better, catching the fish, or painting it?
JP: They're different. But probably catching the fish. I like being out there, it's a little more emotional. It's like you're immortal when fishing in the stream; you see your reflection in the stream, you're a part of this big immortal cycle. But then there are these daily cycles too, like the Mayfly's; they're hatched and breed, and die in the same day. And of course, there's the trout, which is kind of mysterious, somewhere in between. It's all these cycles at once. It's all very mysterious.
Graphic courtesy Knopf.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article may be freely distributed electronically, provided it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice, but may not be reprinted without the express written permission of The Yale Herald, Inc. Write to herald@yale.edu for additional details.