Snook Fever: How to catch a keeper and keep your family, too (Ways to Be Alive Book 8)

The fever makes you do strange things and makes those things seem normal. It lights up your blood and keeps you from sleeping. The bent of your existence turns on the desire to catch fish. And when you do catch fish, the fever doesn’t end. You just have to let it burn. It might consume those around you, too. Finally, though, in days, weeks, sometimes months, it consumes itself. But in its grip, the fever made you strong and made so much else expendable—money, time, work, effort, strength—all of it was worth using in the pursuit, whatever the cost.

This is an essay about snook fishing in Florida as a case study in fishing fever. It also explores what sport is, and why we risk so much in its pursuit.