Preface / Lamar Underwood -- Song of the angler / A.J. McClane -- The return / Patrick O'Brian -- Jody's bass / Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings -- Fishing the run / John Graves -- Weather / Thomas McGuane -- Listen to this tale of woe / Philip Wylie -- The intruder / Robert Traver -- The music of the spheres / John Gierach -- Now I lay me / Ernest Hemingway -- The Marquesas / John N. Cole -- Down to zero / Ted Leeson -- September song / Robert C. Ruark -- Bruisers of the weed beds / Ben East -- Roll cast / Neil Patterson -- Adventures in solitude / Charlie Elliott -- Sachem River / Roderick L. Haig-Brown -- The beginning of the season / John Waller Hills -- Thoughts in coltsfoot time / Ernest Schwiebert -- The first thousand-pounder / Zane Grey -- Bright rivers / Nick Lyons -- Septer 18 / W.D. Wetherell -- Midstream / Le Anne Schreiber -- Fishing streamers and bucktails for trout / Joe Brooks -- Striped bass and southern solitude / Ellington White -- A trout stream named Desire / John Barsness -- A moveable feast / Christopher Camuto -- Thread of the river / Odell Shepard -- A creelful of Zern / Ed Zern.