Catching On: Love with an Avid Fly Fisher

Description

At the beginning of Catching On, Ed, a Northwest native, assures his fiancee’ Carol that “marriage can be like fishing, the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable”. Carol, a born and bred Southerner, knows a whole lot about the elusive part.

In 150 pages of nineteen entertaining vignettes, some humorous, some spiritual, some probing, Catching On follows this relationship, as Ed’s fly-fishing passion and the couple’s inherent differences (he’s a brown trout and she’s a rainbow) threaten to cast a pall over it, illuminating issues familiar to anyone who’s ventured loving and being loved— insecurity, misunderstanding, jealousy, vulnerability, and joy.

In Carol’s efforts to catch on to marriage and to Ed’s “magnificent obsession”, she gets help and hindrance from well-meaning observers. Matt, Ed’s best friend who’s single but looking, has definite opinions about how women mix with fishing. Ed’s father, Harry, adds a colorful combination of Shakespeare and stability. Carol’s friend Shasta, whose husband Tommy has been bit by the fly-fishing bug himself, swears to Carol that “Ed’s just a big old bigamist. They’re all married to something else, you know.”

But love and determination prevail. At the end of the book when Ed tells Carol sincerely, “I’m not married to fishing. I’m married to you,” the reader, and Carol, are convinced.

“As long as there is passion, there is hope”, Elie Wiesel said. Catching On is a tribute to women, to men, to fly fishing, and to celebrating our loved ones’ passions.

REVIEWS
“Lately I don’t read many books to the end; this one I did. Peppered with wry observations and quick, unexpected humor, Catching On is about love, fishing, and God, not necessarily in that order. This is a wonderfully written, feel-good love story, not so much about the love of fishing but of loving fishermen and their magnificent obsession. A Southern gal’s falling for a Northwest fishing guy, landing him on light tippet, and not throwing him back makes for a joyful and satisfying read. Compared to the old Sicilian folk saying, ‘He who would seek revenge should dig two graves,’ Carol Morrison doesn’t even pick up a shovel. This book could save marriages.”
--Paul Quinett, Ph.D., author of Pavlov’s Trout, Darwin’s Bass, and Fishing Lessons

It was amazing how many of these stories hit home. We found ourselves chuckling and nodding the whole time. The southern tone made it all the more fun! A must for every woman who’s ever rolled over in a warm bed at five a.m. and realized she’s been abandoned for a cold trout stream.
--Sally Bastine and Lori Dorn, wives of avid fly fishers

“If Patrick McManus was from the South and a woman and a psychotherapist and a closet preacher who was lousy at fishing but still fished and didn’t care, and was fiercely fond of married life despite striking out at it twice and prayed the third time was the charm, and who after work Friday wrote a sermon and Saturday fished and Saturday night did a stint at a local club now and then as a stand-up comic and Sunday delivered her sermon then Sunday afternoon went fishing again, and fished gratefully, however lousily, and returned home to her spouse even more gratefully, I guess she wouldn’t be Patrick McManus. But she would know the pleasure of having written a book as amiable and gentle-hearted as Carol Morrison’s Catching On.”
---David James Duncan, author of The River Why and My Story as Told by Water

“In this moving, poignant, and willing to laugh at herself journey, the reader witnesses, and becomes immersed in, the author’s emotional and spiritual evolution as she appreciates her husband’s fly-fishing passion and where she fits into it. The heart contained in these stories can serve as a model for relationship. Should be read by anyone learning to love and be loved.
---Elizabeth E. Landrum, PhD., Clinical Psychologist, Relationship Specialist