5 Questions with Paul Fersen , author of Great Hunting Lodges of North America

 

What inspired this book?
I'm lucky enough to work for the Orvis Company that specializes in the
wingshooting and fly-fishing lifestyle. One of our primary goals is to be a
complete resource for our customers on where the best hunting and fishing
can be found. Creating a book that shows how spectacular these places are is
something we wanted to do, not only for hunters, but for everyone. These
lodges not only offer great bird hunting, but in many cases are great
destinations for families to experience the outdoors in a number of ways.

The book has some stellar pics, which is your favorite?
That's a very hard question, particularly for someone who loves doing this.
All of them make me want to load up and go, but as a lover of great hunting
dogs, the picture of the Chesapeake Retriever on page 83 epitomizes the
intensity and desire in a great dog. Also the picture on page 46 showing the
two dogs working above the clouds on top of the canyon rim in Idaho. I was
there last fall and this picture really brought it back for me.

What's your favorite hunting destination?
That's like asking which of my children is my favorite. All these places are
spectacular, but interestingly if I had to choose one it would be hunting
quail in south Georgia. Probably because I was raised there and something
about that country simply stirs my soul.

What's a destination that is great that a lot of people don't know about?
People hear Montana and they think of great trout fishing, but bird hunters
are well aware of the incredible hunting out there. The country is so vast
and the opportunities so great. I was out there a few weeks ago hunting
sharptail grouse in a sea of grassland that stretched endlessly into the
distance. The mountain range in the distance was over 100 miles away. It was
remarkable. Places like that give me a feeling of insignificance which I
find oddly comforting.

What book are you writing next?
I'm working on a plan to write a book with a gentleman named Mike Stewart
who owns one of the best hunting dog kennels in the country. What makes it
unique is he imports British Labradors and employs British training methods,
which are very different from standard American training. He's become
somewhat of a celebrity and I want to document his methods in a book that
not only offers the training method, but entertains with stories and
pictures of these great dogs in the field.