For more than forty years, I have shared my images with fishing audiences around the world. My photography has always helped carry the message. From slide projectors to PowerPoint presentations, visual imagery was how we educated and entertained. Whether it was Lefty Kreh, Ernest Schwiebert, Gary Borger, or any of the other presenters of that era, we all relied on photographs to bring our stories to life. That was true until one evening, many fishing seasons ago, when I attended a program featuring Nick Lyons.

I found a seat in a packed room, and as we waited through what seemed like an endless introduction, I noticed something unusual. Behind Nick was a screen but there was no projector.

When he finally stepped to the microphone, he greeted us with a quick hello and said that he wanted to share a few of his favorite fishing stories. I remember thinking, Okay, we'll hear a couple of funny stories to warm up, and then the slide show will begin.

It never did.

Instead, one story flowed effortlessly into the next. Some were funny, some were touching, and some were bittersweet, but every one of them held us spellbound. It was simply magical. Thirty minutes became an hour in what felt like only a few moments, and when Nick finished, none of us wanted the evening to end.

I'll never be Nick Lyons, but I remember leaving that night thinking, Someday I'd like to try that.

So when my friend Bill Skilton called and invited me to be your guest speaker, I thought,

Why not?

At the banquet, there won't be a slideshow. Instead, my stories will begin on the banks of the Letort and wander wherever the evening takes us. I promise you they're all true?and a few of them are so unbelievable that you simply couldn't make them up.

Barry Beck