"Fishing with John" by Edith Iglauer

No, not our John, even though we do go fishing with him. When I can't be at my float cabin I like to read about people from Coastal BC. Fishing with John is a book I read some time ago. It was also made into a movie.

Edith Iglauer was a journalist with The New Yorker who came to Coastal BC to get a story about salmon fishing. What she found was more than a story. Fishing with John chronicles meeting and later marrying commercial fisherman John Daly. For four years they traveled and fished along the coast on his boat the MoreKelp. Through Edith's eyes the reader experiences the difficult yet sublime life on a trawler. John was typical of the many self-reliant people who live and work in Coastal BC. He was more comfortable by himself working in close proximity to nature. Edith first admired and then came to love his eccentric and philosophical approach to life. This story has it all - adventure, love and vivid descriptions of the beauty that abounds along our coast.

Each time I pass Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast I think about this book and Edith's story. She came to love the BC Coast almost as much as the man who drew her here.

The movie wasn't as good as the book, but it's worth watching if you read the book first. The title was changed to Navigating the Heart with Tim Matheson as John and Jaclyn Smith as Edith. The book and DVD are both available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. You can also find Fishing with John in most British Columbia bookstores or in BC Ferries gift shops. -- Margy