Excerpt from Ten Was the Deal – A Collection of Outdoor Stories

“The small building had that quiet, cluttered feel of all country stores.  It offered just about anything you could imagine for a day on the lake.  There were shelves of brightly hand-painted corks, display cards of black-and-white porcupine quill floats, and hooks in small die cut boxes either all the same size or in assortments.  There were sinkers of all shapes and sizes from the smallest split shot on up.  An array of various length shellacked cane poles hung in racks from the wooden rafters.  There were small glass jars of dyed pork rind in black, green, and dark purple colors.  There were cardboard displays of white and yellow Shyster spinning baits.  Glass-front cabinets held boxes of individual plugs like Jitter Bugs, Hawaiian Wigglers, River Runts, and Pal-O-Mine Minnows.  It was a place where a fisherman could spend hours.”

This fishing story, “Bigger Fish to Fry,” can be found in the book Ten Was The Deal by John P. Faris, Jr. To read additional excerpts from John’s book collection, to include a complete chapter from this first book, click here.