But if you teach a man to fish… he’ll write a book about it. For fishermen and best-selling authors Adam Gamble and Michael Tougias, fishing has proven a lifetime journey inextricable from their growth as writers, and as men. Gamble is the founder of Good Night Books, the series of over 325 titles drawing from the wells of the classic Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Walt Whitman’s iconic poem, “Song of Myself.” Tougias is best-known for The Finest Hours, which captures “the Coast Guard’s most daring sea rescue,” but he has authored 37 books. Now, the two friends have co-authored a new one, The Power of Positive Fishing, in which through alternating chapters they share how their time together on the water, often in what Tougias calls “outer nature,” has provided them the courage to commit to writing and to persevere through challenges—while finding joy, humor, and friendship along the way. In the tradition of great fishing stories, they illustrate their love for the sport, but they reveal far more about making sense of life.

Gamble and Tougias organized The Power of Positive Fishing in chronological order, starting just before the turn of the century, when Gamble recalls, “We were both struggling in our careers. On our early fishing adventures, we would brainstorm about writing and publishing.” This led directly to their decisions to go for it, to embark upon their landmark projects. “Both of our careers exploded as a result,” he says.