Hunting and fishing is perhaps the oldest tradition in Adirondack storytelling, originating, presumably, with guides. Excellent hunting and fishing was the principle reason that people from elsewhere began coming to the Adirondacks, and fiction about it helped to spread the word.
Though fiction continues to be produced in this genre, it was more popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—two thirds of the works in this subgenre were written before 1950. Hunting & fishing stories often also include either humor—a sort of punch line tall tale—or some sort of reflection, often on family, the past, or nature.
