From Departure Publishing:
Marquesa : A Time & Place With Fish
On August 1, 1994, Jeffrey Cardenas boarded a homemade houseboat and puttered out of Key West harbor toward a cluster of islands on the distant horizon.
The Marquesas rest near the western terminus of The Florida Keys where two great oceans meet in a swirl of perpetual current. Jeffrey’s plan was to spend a full cycle of the summer moon, alone, in this remote and idyllic atoll where he once made a living guiding fly casters for tarpon, permit, and bonefish.
With meager provisions, a library of books, a skiff, and his fly rods, Jeffrey immersed himself, literally, in a warm and salty realm where the vertical span between the seafloor and high ground is measured in inches. His daily ritual was determined by the tides. He fished, he read, he observed, and he wrote.
With an angler’s instinct and the eye of a naturalist, Cardenas returned to Key West after his six-week sabbatical and completed one of the definitive literary works of that era. If you have an affinity for saltwater fly fishing, Marquesa will change the way you observe and value the fish, birds, and marine life of our coastal flats and estuaries.
eBook $9.99
*Note: iPad users can purchase and download this book from Amazon by installing the free Kindle App on their device.
Sea Level: Adventures of a Saltwater Angler
From Montauk to the Yucatan and beyond, Jeffrey Cardenas, acclaimed author of Marquesa, takes us on a far-flung journey of angling discovery.
There are tactical passages in this book gleaned from Jeffrey’s many years of guiding in the Florida Keys, but he mainly serves as a passionate and acute narrator, angler, and observer.
He writes about the first 30 seconds of a tarpon hookup, well-endowed redfish in Cajun country, and pelagic marauders capable of burning a half-mile of backing off a fly reel. Along the way he details the intricate relationship between angler, guide, and fish–and he introduces us to a disparate cast of watermen: fly fishing legends, starving Cuban netters, a tuna captain named “Creature”, and a few longtime fishing buddies who molded and influenced Jeffrey’s perspective of the flats, oceans, and fishes.
For the die-hard salt caster or the beginner looking for that first adrenaline-stoked hookup, Sea Level offers a stirring view of the world’s inshore/offshore gamefish and the impassioned sports who pursue them.
eBook $9.99
*Note: iPad users can purchase and download this book from Amazon by installing the free Kindle App on their device.
Hunting and Fishing in Texas
A reprint of a Texas classic. Sporting essays and vintage photography from the war years and the Great Depression.
From the Texas Trans-Pecos to the Coastal Prairies, Hart Stilwell lived a dream life of hunting and fishing adventure. In this collection of essays and vintage photographs from the early 1900s, Stilwell documented the Texas outdoors with narrative detail, engaging anecdotes, and a prophetic sense of preservation issues.
An accomplished plug caster, rifleman, and wing shot, Stilwell honed his craft during a hardscrabble period when fishing lures, shotgun shells, and rifle cartridges were worth much more than an undiscovered stretch of coastal shoreline or a gate key to a fine deer pasture.
In Stilwell’s writings you’ll recognize traditions of sport that are still popular today. He loved a good bird dog, a fine pair of rattling horns, a proper set of working decoys, and a turkey call with just the right pitch. He professed a “constitutional weakness for any fish that jumps,” and among his circle of friends it seemed that campfires and good conversation were more important than big racks and bag limits.
Hunting and Fishing in Texas, first published in 1946, is a retrospective view of a simpler time. If you’ve ever cast a line or fired a shot in the Texas outdoors, you’ll appreciate Stilwell’s enthusiasm for sport, his keen sense of humor, and his suggestion of a precisely balanced mix of consumption and conservation.
eBook $4.99
*Note: iPad users can purchase and download this book from Amazon by installing the free Kindle App on their device.
