Not all of Arthur MacDougall Jr.’s stories included the legendary Dud Dean. In 1949, “Doc Blakesley, Angler” was the published collection of six stories about a less known, but equally intriguing, character.
While he spent most of his life in Maine, MacDougall experienced his first taste of trout fishing in Granville, Massachusetts during his early childhood. It was here that he caught his first trout, and the place was solidified in his angling past.
“Doc Blakesley, Angler”, is a collection of six stories previously published in Field and Stream, Sports Afield, and Outdoors magazines. These fictional stories capture the essence of MacDougall’s childhood fishing experience in Granville, with a well developed cast of characters and the streams and ponds in which they fish.
The fictional Doc Blakesley portrays an influential character that shaped young MacDougall’s angling experience. Blakesley is the traditional turn-of-the-century town doctor, except that his passion for fly fishing certainly gets in the way of his work. No, that isn’t right. Blakesley would explain that his work gets in the way of his fly fishing, for the latter always seems to be on the man’s mind.
MacDougall is a child free from the shackles of everyday work, with only school and home chores to get in the way of his fishing adventures with Doc. He and Blakesley share many a fishing adventure together in these stories.
The town’s notorious first selectman plays the villain in many of the stories. The first selectman owns his own private lake stocked with large fish, and restricts access to the local anglers, which really chews at Doc Blakesley. The back-and-forth banter between the two men fills these stories with amusement. Other characters fill out their roles in the small town where Blakesley and MacDougall go on their angling forays.
When a Cloud Burst – The town first selectman’s wife is in labor. Though pregnant for many months, she failed to alert Doc Blakesley that she would need his assistance until the last moment. Doc has the afternoon set aside for fishing, and the last thing he wants to do is deliver a baby for the wife of his arch nemesis, when he could be catching fish. As he buys time and goes fishing, a cloud burst of epic proportions causes the levee on the selectman’s private pond to break. Doc’s joy of catching the selectman’s private fish in the stream is short lived, and he returns to reality, expecting to deliver a baby.
The Patient Died – One day, young MacDougall spots a huge trout in the mill pond near town, where one large carp is expected to be the only resident. A battle begins between MacDougall and Doc Blakesley and the first selectman, to be the first to catch the trout. The fight wages back and forth over the course of days, and ends with the capture of the big trout. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud during the battle and smiling at its conclusion.
Cow Pasture Bass – The first selectman impounded a stream to create his private pond and stock bass, which thrived in it. Of course, he denied access to the pond from anglers like MacDougall and Doc Blakesley. But something unexpected had occurred when the selectman created his pond. On one corner of the impoundment, water flooded the property of a neighboring farmer, and MacDougall and Blakesley took advantage of this bit of information once they discovered it. In the dark of night, they launched a boat in the small corner of water opposite of the barbed wire fence that demarked the boundary of the selectman’s land. The bass caught that night, and the showdown between Blakesley, the sheriff and the first selectman, create a story well worth reading.
Return of the Old Whacker – There was only one person Doc Blakesley hated as much as the first selectman, and that man was John L. Coolidge. Coolidge owned land for several miles around Huddle Brook, and posted the land to keep fishermen from using it. But like every mortal man, Coolidge fell ill. It just so happened that he was sick when April 15th, the opener of trout season, rolled around, and Doc Blakesley rode out of town to attend to Coolidge, and to secretly fish Huddle brook when he finished. The story progresses to the scene of Coolidge, Blakesley, and young MacDougall together on Huddle Brook with their sights on the five pound brook trout that has once again returned to this reach of stream.
Tactics by Cynthia – The first selectman is caught in an embarrassing situation when Doc Blakesley and Arthur MacDougall meet up with him while fishing the reach of stream owned by the old maid Cynthia. And numerous trout are caught.
Meat for Repentance – On a day otherwise reserved for fishing, Doc has a wedding to attend in the evening. But fishing is an important matter, and the fishing on the stream on this particular day happens to be exceptional. Doc and MacDougall get carried away. Doc’s attempt at redemption by presenting a gift fish to the bride is nothing if not hilarious!
While only consisting of six historic stories, Arthur MacDougall’s “Doc Blakesley, Angler”, is well worth reading. It reveals an element of MacDougall’s writing not seen in the Dud Dean stories, and the Blakesley stories are worth reading again and again.
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