When we were growing up, dinner-table conversations at our house were quite the event. There were 10 of us sitting elbow-to-elbow around the the long timber table, with conversation flying and the banter continuously funny, if not biting. You had to be quick-witted to survive. Often we would ask my dad about his life. He would then launch into stories of what it was like in the military, or his childhood growing up in Baltimore, or maybe what we were like when we were younger. Inevitably, though, it would come back to Uncle Joe. The stories were always of how my grandfather, at the pressing of our grandmother, had to bail Uncle Joe out of jail, often because of his run-ins with the police due to drinking. We did not know of Joe Brooks’ status in the fly fishing world; we were not kids who grew up fishing, let alone fly fishing. April Vokey called Joe Brooks a mythological icon she had heard so much about. We will endeavor in this article to shed some light on this hero, this mythological icon to millions.
the story of
JOE BROOKS by Mike Brooks and Joe Brooks
50 TA I L F LY F I SH I N G MAGAZ I N E
