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James Prosek began painting when he was five and fishing when he was nine. At the ripe old age of 18, the New York Times hailed him as “the Audubon of the Fishing World.”

The renowned author of “Trout, Joe and Me,” and “Early Love and Brook Trout,” Prosek, now 29, completed his third book in 2000 titled, “The Complete Angler: A Connecticut Yankee Follows in the Footsteps of Walton.” This enlightening and thoughtful work is resplendent with the young author’s philosophies and numerous, stunning watercolors of trout and landscapes. This work will undoubtedly cement Prosek’s position as one of our nation’s important writers and artists.

“The Complete Angler” begins with Prosek attempting to pitch to the judges of the Yale fellowship committee his idea to travel to England and fish the same waters that Isaak Walton fished and wrote about in the 17th century, telling the committee that “Walton’s words spoke to me. Fishing is my passion, and his book defended every facet of the art of angling more lucidly than I ever could.” He lied to the committee. At that point, Prosek had not yet read any of Walton’s works. Only after being awarded a $1,500.00 fellowship to fish Walton’s English chalk streams did he read “The Compleat Angler,” the third most frequently reprinted book in the English language, cover-to-cover.

Prosek writes, “I’m a simple Connecticut Yankee whose intention is to enter the rarified world of upper-class English society; to fish in the backyards of lords and princes, and make them my friends. Fishing was the common bond that would break all boundaries.”

While in England, Prosek is indeed welcomed by noblemen to fish their private waters on the Dove and Lea rivers to catch wild brown trout - no doubt the offspring of ancestral fish that swam in Walton’s time 350-years earlier. Prosek soon finds his influential and wealthy hosts to be, like him, fishermen, first and foremost.

In 1674, Charles Cotton, on the bank of the Dove River, built a small stone cottage – a fishing shrine - in honor of his closest friend, Isaak Walton. Above the door, carved in stone are the words: Piscatoribys Sacrvm (Sacred to Fishermen). Prosek’s visit to England would not be complete without visiting the “object of his journey”, this “temple to all fishermen,” but because the structure is located on the Cotton family’s private land, he was denied passage…so he trespassed, the American way. “I touched the stone walls and peered through the small windows,” writes Prosek, “and while I sat in a clearing on the bank of the Dove, looking at Cotton’s shrine, I found myself waiting for the door to open.”

As Izaak Walton wrote in 1653: "'The Compleat Angler' is not about fishing, but about life. Or rather, it is about fishing - but fishing is life." Prosek’s third work, like Walton’s inspirational book, is timeless and will no doubt appeal to anglers and non-anglers alike. It is a book rich with the young author’s life lessons and the goodness that results from leading a quiet, contemplative existence.

Dan Brown’s weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankies Bait and Marine in Chisago City and St. Croix Outdoors in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

Dan Brown is a director at the Chisago Lakes Achievement Center in Chisago City. In addition, Brown is a fly casting instructor and trout fishing guide at Seven Pines Lodge in Lewis, WI. Recently Brown was featured on Ron Schara’s Minnesota Bound and ESPN II’s Backroads with Ron and Raven, as well as KSTP channel 5’s Eyewitness News Morning Show. He is a Taylors Falls resident and can often be found on the area lakes, trout streams and the St. Croix river.

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