Best Selling Books by Roderick Haig-Brown

Return to the River remains one of the finest books ever written about the salmon and has won its place as an angler’s and naturalist’s classic. Drawn back again to spawn in the stream that hatched them, the deep-sea salmon, the great silver chinooks, return as inevitably as the September rains. Return to the River captures the whole sweep of the chinook migration in every significant detail: the departure seaward of the millions of small fry in the spring of the second year, the saltwater life of the free-swimming schools in the deeps beyond Puget Sound, the later return of the survivors—sixty- and eighty-pounders that leap against every obstacle, striving to complete their lives at last among upland shallows barely deep enough to contain them. Roderick Haig-Brown, observing with the trained eye of the naturalist what he records with a novelist’s skill, here sets forth the dramatic life history of one salmon from her hatching through her mating—the fulfillment of her life cycle. “The supple, rapid style, vigorous as the great fish itself,” wrote Joseph Henry Jackson in the San Francisco Chronicle, “makes this account as easy reading as fiction.” Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Filled with wonderful essays selected by Roderick Haig-Brown's daughter, this book deserves a spot in every fly fisher's library.

Roderick L. Haig-Brown welcomes us onto his lush farm for a year of insights and observations. In this eloquently written account, Haig-Brown, his wife Ann and their four children tour us through each season, and teach us the ways in which the Earth governs the events in our lives. Haig-Brown observes salmon, blue grouse, blacktail deer and robins, with a soft eye and gentle appreciation for their trials. He discerns how the weather interacts with the land, and how the land interacts with our attempts at civilization. Haig-Brown also discusses his work at a magistrate, and the challenges of marriage, amateur book collecting, the craft of the writer, and the meaning of community. A snap shot of rural BC in the 1950s, Measure of the Year is a country story, told by a man happy in his chosen way of life.

Sixteen year old Don Morgan plans to spend the winter up in Starbuck Valley trapping marten to earn enough money to buy his own salmon troller. He sets out with his friend Tubby Millergo to the wild, unexplored valley and sets out his trapline. Their cabin is gloomy, the trapping is poor, and Don begins a friendship with their nearest neighbour, a notorious character named Lee Jetson.

Beautifully illustrated children's story about Canadian wildlife by famed Canadian conservationist and Governor General Award-winning author, Roderick Haig-Brown.First published as a limited edition in 1980 by Colophon Books, ALISON'S FISHING BIRDS by BC's acclaimed author and conservationist Roderick Haig-Brown is the story of a young girl's encounter with some of BC's most intriguing river birds. Alison's favourite bird, the Dipper, lives along the river by her house. She spends many hours watching the "fierce and splendid" bird as it fishes for dinner, "bob, bob, bobbing" as it skitters and dives below the surface, always emerging with a tiny fish. Farther up the river bank, Alison catches a glimpse of the Belted Kingfisher hovering above the water, just waiting patiently for the perfect moment to "drop like a stone, headfirst in the water" only to emerge a few seconds later with a tiny wiggling silver fish in its beak. Alison encounters many other birds on her adventures and, true to Haig-Brown's other stories, every bird, whether it is the Osprey, the Heron, or the Merganser, all have a lesson to share about their life and the natural world around them. For almost a century, Haig-Brown has been teaching children and adults alike to explore, learn, and respect our forests, oceans, and rivers. As one of Haig-Brown's lesser-known stories, ALISON'S FISHING BIRDS is a gem that is long overdue on the shelves of popular children's fiction. ALISON'S FISHING BIRDS is richly illustrated by acclaimed and talented artist Sheryl McDougald, and includes a preface by Valerie Haig-Brown.