Author and artist James Prosek casts a line

May 28, 1999
Web posted at: 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 GMT)

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(CNN) -- James Prosek's talents for painting, fishing and writing have served him well. Only 24, he has completed his third book and already has plans for a fourth.

For his latest work, "The Complete Angler: A Connecticut Yankee Follows in the Footsteps of Walton," Prosek traveled to England to fish the same waters fished by author Izaak Walton over 300 years ago.

Walton's 1653 book, "The Compleat Angler," is considered a classic work on the art of fly fishing. Prosek describes fishing as his religion and Walton as the angler's "Messiah."

On a fellowship from Yale, Prosek explored key places of Walton's life: his Stafford birthplace, London, Winchester and the Lea and Dove rivers. These waters, he says, "were some of the best trout waters in the world."

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The resulting book is "322 pages of my life philosophy," says Prosek. "Everything I ever do, whether it is fishing or not, is fishing."

The book contains watercolors of fish painted by the young author. His previous two works, "Trout" and "Joe and Me," have made him well known for his artistic abilities. His watercolors have been compared to the work of John James Audubon, one of his great influences.

He sells the majority of his original artwork. The paintings from "Trout" are available through Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have sold for $2,500 to $3,200. Watercolors from "The Complete Angler" have sold for $4,000 to $4,500, and Prosek has been commissioned to do original works.

For his next project, he is planning to circle the world fishing along the 41st parallel, which is the approximate latitude of his Easton, Connecticut, home. It will be called "Latitude 41."

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Read an excerpt

Prosek began fishing when he was 9, the same year his mother left home. He says fishing provided a "kind of much-needed solace." As a child he also had an appreciation for birding, which he learned from his father and the works of Audubon. His first watercolors were of birds.

His fishing became more serious after he was befriended by local game warden Joe Haines. Haines caught the 14-year-old Prosek fishing illegally in a "no trespassing" reservoir. He took the young man under his wing and taught him that he could catch just as many fish in legal waters. The book "Joe and Me" is the story of the friendship between the men.