Jimmy Jacobs talks about latest book with Jim Hogan of Savannah Lakes Village. BRANT SANDERLIN/STAFF

Fishing books hook readers for Jacobs

Web posted June 21, 1998

By Bill Babb
Outdoor Editor

The transition between being a magazine editor and becoming a book author at the same time has been a smooth one for Jimmy Jacobs, in his 10th year of editing Georgia Sportsman and other Game and Fish Publications magazines.

It's been a happy one, too, because his books are selling well.

Perhaps his most difficult challenge was dealing with an all-woman publishing company whose executives insisted on being gender-inclusive.

``They changed all references to fishermen to `fisher persons' or anglers,'' Jacobs said during an interview last weekend at Augusta's Barnes & Noble bookstore where he autographed copies of his latest book.

``But they did hire an outside editor who knew a little about fishing, but lots about grammar. The book is selling, so I'm not complaining.''

It's easy to predict the area one of his next books will cover, since his first two books, Trout Fishing in North Georgia (Peachtree Publishers Ltd., Atlanta, 1993) and Trout Streams of Southern Appalachia (The Countryman Press Inc., 1994) deal with mountain trout. His latest book, Bass Fishing in Georgia (Peachtree Publishers Ltd., 1998), covers the state, so his remaining frontier has to be the Atlantic Ocean.

``Funny you should mention that,'' said Jacobs. ``I've been asked to consider writing a salt water fly-fishing guide covering not only Georgia's coast, but the area from North Carolina to Texas,'' he said. ``Another of my publishers has suggested I write a bass-fishing guide for Alabama.''

Jacobs, ``guesstimates'' he's edited some 500 stories for Georgia Sportsman, Alabama Game & Fish and Florida Game & Fish magazines. That's helped further his outdoor education.

He got his fishing start as a child growing up in Atlanta, mostly thanks to his parents.

``Dad lived on a farm in West Georgia and we'd fish everywhere we went. My mom started fishing a bit later, but she became the one we always had to drag away from the lake.''

Most readers don't realize magazine editors must work months in advance of a story's actual publication date.

Jacobs spent 17 years of his life at Sears, Roebuck & Company where he was responsible for home fashions and men's wear in the annual Sears catalog.

``I had to prepare the copy for six months down the road and that gave me the proper mind-set for magazine editing,'' he said.