BOOK
REVIEW
A Book Review
By Jonathan Herbert
Through the Eyes of a
Fisherman” is an
exceptional memoir
about fishing, faith and
guidance for finding your
purpose. Author Dennis
Blue writes with undeniable
passion on every page of
this all-inspiring book. His
contagious spirit and
unwavering faith bring the
reader inside his world of
successes and failures, all the
while entrusting his natural
instincts when encountering
friends and clients around
the world, “If you wish to
know a person’s true
character, take them fishing.”
Dennis Blue grew up on a
farm where he learned religious values that
continue to guide him to this day. He followed a
lengthy corporate career at Ford Motor
Company, living around the world with his wife
Luanne and their children for 14 of 30 years. After
retirement in 1988, he immediately started a
charter fishing business, True Blue Sports Fishing.
Dennis tells the story of starting simultaneous
fishing businesses in Michigan and Florida, where
he learned a valuable lesson early on:“There were
many differences between having fun taking
friends fishing and having a customer pay you for
your expertise in order to have you produce
results.”
Fly-fishing has always been an important part
of his life. He writes, “My first experience with a
fly rod was November 1990 in Mazatlán, Mexico,
where I attended a one-week fly-fishing school
hosted by Billy Pate and Jack Samson. Both Billy
and Jack were fly-fishing legends and pioneered
many of the techniques used to catch large fish
on a fly rod. At the time, fly-fishing was primarily
a freshwater sport, and the thought of catching a
sailfish on a fly rod seemed like a formidable, if
not an impossible, challenge. I did catch my first
sailfish on a fly during the fly-fishing school, and
that was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with
fly-fishing. Although it was my dad who introduced
me to fishing, I think I was born with a passion
to fish. I don’t ever remember not wanting
to go fishing.
“The sailfish came in.
behind the bait, striking at
the bait with its bill, as the
mate slowly retrieved
(teased) the sailfish to the
boat. My heart pounded
with excitement. The
mate lifted the bait from
the water as the captain
put the boat in neutral. I
cast several feet in front
of the sailfish – one, two,
three strips, retrieving the
fly, when suddenly the
sailfish turned on the fly,
its bill protruding a foot
out of the water. The line
came tight and I set the
hook with an aggressive
strip strike, pulling hard
on the fly line in my left
hand, and immediately the
sailfish leaped clear out of the water 20 feet
behind the boat. ‘Que vista hermosa,’ (What a
beautiful sight), the first mate shouted. The sun
reflected off the water droplets and the
iridescent colors of the sailfish.”
Faith is a focal point of his writing, “My faith
began to take root growing up on the farm. Being
outdoors and around animals instilled an early
awareness and respect for God’s creation. As a
family, we attended a small evangelical church not
far from home. It was there that I first heard
about the love of Jesus. I came to know Christ in
a personal way in my early thirties, and my faith