THE FISH IN MY LIFE

Self-appointed spokesman for the Izzak Waltons of the modern world, the author takes nearly epileptic pains to justify the unorthodox approaches to the game. When is a sport not a Sport? When such puritanical pruderies as the bait catechism (never a worm), the ""fun"" dogma (fish are not, contrary to the habits of half the world population--to eat), and the Sportman's creed (underworld methods turned against fish are punishable by excommunication) are totally ignored. As long as the biggest one doesn't get away, no holds are barred. Having waged the battle, Man vs. Pisces, in nearly every kind of aquatic environment from New England cesspool to the Pacific, as seen from the gunwhale of a freighter, this incompleat angler chronicles the history of what he calls his ""piscatorial falls from grace."" Humorous, but only for those hooked by the same addiction to water-breathing, craniate vertebrates that the author is defending. If you've never spiked a mullet, forget it.