Tennessee Fishing

The Ultimate Fly-Fishing Guide to the Smoky Mountains does more than any other book in print to bring success to a fishing trip. This newly updated landmark volume is an essential guide for anyone planning to fish the rivers, streams, and lakes in the Smokies — these fisheries are some of the greatest in the nation. For successful fly-fishing, this guide is as important as the right tackle.

The first half of this guide offers advice and history. The second half examines each of the 13 watersheds found within the park. Don Kirk and Greg Ward provide information about trail access, fishing pressure and quality, species, fly hatch information, and campsite availability.

Serious sport catfishing has gained tremendous popularity in recent years, but a dearth of serious catfishing information inhibits the complete angler. Jeff Samsel of Clarkesville, Georgia, fills the gap with Catfishing in the South, a comprehensive guide to finding and catching catfish in the southeastern United States.

No other catfishing book focuses on southern rivers and reservoirs, where this type of fishing is most popular. Beyond looking at species, habitats, gear, baits, and strategies from the perspective of the southern catfisher, Catfishing in the South includes detailed looks at several of the South’s premier destinations for trophy catfish. Samsel also presents information on catching smaller cats and on fishing from banks.

Relying on his own experience and on the expertise of individual veteran catfishers, some of whose faces show up in the twenty-nine photographs that illustrate the book, Samsel provides readers with all the tools they need for finding and catching all kinds of catfish from southern waters

The Author: Jeff Samsel is a freelance magazine writer, photographer, and editor. He is author of Georgia: A Guide to Backcountry Travel and Adventure. He contributed to Catfishing Strategies and has published articles and photographs in more than one hundred publications, including Bassmaster, Catfish Guide, North American Fisherman and Southern Sporting Journal.

“Wild Games reveals the intricate customs, prohibitions, and symbolic meanings that surround taking animal life for Finns, Basques, Native Americans, Kazakhs, and other contemporary cultures. Writings on the hunt that ignore these practices, and the ways in which they are tied to both individual and collective identity, will now risk being woefully simplistic.”
—Boria Sax



Humans understand at least some of what it means to be human, both literally and figuratively, in reference to wild animals. Our relationships with wildlife have traditionally been expressed in terms of hunting; more recently, these relationships have also been manifest as efforts to prevent hunting. Hunting and fishing traditions are, in fact, under fire by critics at the same time that they are receding of their own accord—perhaps becoming even more endangered than any of the pursued animals. These traditions form the major focus of Wild Games, a new collection of essays that looks at the folklore and culture of various hunting and fishing practices, documenting the central importance of hunting to many rural societies, even in modern times.

Editors Dennis Cutchins and Eric Eliason contend that hunters often don’t perceive of themselves as separate from the wild but, rather, identify strongly with a natural order—integrated with, rather than standing apart from, the fluctuation of ecosystems. And they frequently don’t see wild animals as “set apart” but understand them as food sources, competitors, friendly rivals, and even equals.

Featuring contributions from a variety of distinguished scholars and writers—including an essay by the noted folklorist Simon Bronner on the culture of the deer camp, a fascinating account of coyote tracking by Eric Eliason, and an examination of the role of gender in outdoor life by Diane Humphrey Lueck—this book shows how the traditions of hunting and fishing tend to bind hunter and prey into ancient patterns that often defy contemporary culture.

Dennis Cutchins is associate professor of English at Brigham Young University. His articles have appeared in Western Folklore, Literature/Film Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, and Florida Anthropological Quarterly and he is the coeditor of two upcoming books on adaptation studies.
Eric A. Eliason is associate professor of English at Brigham Young University. He is the editor of Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an American World Religion and author of the forthcoming Black Velvet Painting: Understanding the World’s Most Maligned Art.