'Power of Positive Fishing': Authors Adam Gamble, Michael Tougias find friendship & a book

The new book “The Power of Positive Fishing” reads like a feisty, offbeat personal journal, shared by its two authors, Adam Gamble and Michael Tougias. It offers a window into the ways two writers went about seeking change in their lives, and the friendship that helped pull them through some difficult times.

The authors are well-known to many Cape readers.

Gamble, who lives in East Sandwich, is the force behind more than 200 books for preschoolers in his blockbuster "Good Night" book series, and publishes his own nature and travel books, as well as those of others, through his company, On Cape Publications, Inc.

Tougias, who’s based in Massachusetts, has authored more than 30 books for adult readers and 10 for young readers, many on maritime, travel and adventure subjects. His list includes co-authoring the New York Times bestseller “The Finest Hours,” which became a major Hollywood movie in 2016.

Both have logged many hours in speaking engagements at lecture venues and on local and national radio programs.

Gamble will be talking about and signing copies of "The Power of Positive Fishing" on Cape from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 25 at The Goose Hummock Shops,15 Route 6A, Orleans, www.goosehummockshops.com, 508-255-0455.

Two careers steeped in stories of outdoor adventure, spiritual quest

According to the book’s early chapters, Tougias and Gamble’s “fishing friendship” took off aboard Gamble’s boat in Cape Cod waters. The 18-foot center console Scout functioned both as a “floating psychiatric couch” (Tougias) and “spiritual retreat” (Gamble) during more than two decades beginning in the early 2000s, and the two are still out there, casting.

The Scout, said Gamble, was “far more than a boat.” It took us “to places where we could explore our own true natures in ways we didn’t expect,” in “the broad, spacious environment out on the water.”

The enjoyment of fishing together became an important lifeline during a time of personal struggles for both men, as each separately struggled with rupturing marriages, job and career disappointments and personal battles with longstanding addictions.

Garage epiphany

In the early 2000s Tougias, who knew Cape Cod publisher Gamble only by name and publishing reputation, met with him to complete a deal for the latter to distribute Tougias’ books. The real “aha!” moment, though, happened as Gamble was leaving the meeting, exiting through Tougias’ garage. He spotted a jumble of fishing rods, and casually asked Tougias where he fished.

That was The Connect. Gamble soon introduced this former lake-fishing colleague to the joys of shallow water fishing in local ocean waters. Barely a week later, the two were out in kayaks near a Cape Cod sandbar, casting for stripers. It proved to be the beginning of an ongoing 20-year friendship, inaugurated by and then deeply intertwined with the pair’s mutual passion for fishing and outdoor adventures.

In an early chapter, Tougias said that “For Adam and me, fishing was the activity and the ocean was the setting which afforded us the opportunity to exchange ideas, to brainstorm, and get to know the true measure of the other person.”

It proved an effective glue to cement friendship between two very different personalities. Curiously, an age disparity of 12 years also seemed to enhance compatibility, providing multiple learning opportunities for both.

It’s a 'man thing'

“Positive Fishing” brims with philosophical, often very humorous commentary on the ways and means of how men talk when they get together. In an early chapter, Tougias observed that while women seem to more easily communicate directly “while meeting over a cup of coffee,” men often communicate best while “actively engaged in the same hobby, business interest or sporting event.”

During a phone interview, Gamble said he hopes the book “conveys the fulfilling nature of being engaged in an activity with a friend ... who’s interested in the same pursuit.” The book, he added, “dramatizes one antidote to loneliness,” which became a particular subject of interest during the 2010s and later, especially after COVID surfaced.

Goals made manifest

In interviews, both described how sharing adventures on the water had enduring positive effects in their lives, as each began to address personal and professional issues. Alternating chapters by each author are full of exhilarating, hands-on fishing stories, combined with straight-on, often wry armchair philosophy.

Helping glue their separate stories together was Tougias’ goal of “manifesting,” which the two began to use as time went on. “Be specific about what you want,” he said. “Visualize what it will feel like.” It’s about focusing on a “particular outcome,” with the “anticipation of good results (a) key component.”

Chapters alternating between the two writers harmonize and accentuate their journey and brim with salty stories and thoughtful honesty. “The Power of Positive Fishing” concludes with Gamble, now remarried, celebrating a new, young daughter and expanding publishing ventures, while Tougias shares the joy of a young grandson and growing success as an author.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'Power of Positive Fishing' tells how men caught fish, wrote a book