When Matt Patterson was born, his mother joked that he was doomed to a life of fishing with his father. After 29 years of sharing countless hours on the water, Matt and his father, David Patterson, are both happy she was right.

The two have traveled throughout the state searching for different species of fish, and decided two years ago to combine their mutual love and knowledge of fishing to create their first book, “Freshwater Fish of the Northeast.”

The two have very different careers: Matt as an artist and illustrator who trained at the Art Institute of Boston, and David as a high school biology teacher, but the activity they have always enjoyed together has been fishing. For Matt and David, a day on the water is more than a way to pass the time, it has been a medium the two have used to connect and share time with one anther.

“It’s always been something we’ve done that’s helped bond us,” David said. “Now that Matt is older now, and is married, we’re still best buddies as well as father and son. We like a lot of similar things besides fishing, but fishing is certainly the thing that gets us out together.”

Angling is a tradition that has been passed on from father to son for generations in their family, they said. In fact, the book is dedicated to David’s father, Alexander, who first introduced him to fishing as a young boy.

“He started me fishing when I was 5 or 6 years old. I can remember getting up at 4 a.m. and going out for opening day for the trout season,” David said. “Then Matt came along and we’ve been fishing together since he was that age. Now I have a grandson who also fishes. That’s four generations of fishing that all started with my dad.”

Both men, who say they find time to fish several times a week, admit that if it weren’t for their father who woke them up to go fishing — even if they might have preferred to sleep in — they likely would have never experienced the rush of feeling “the big one” tugging at their line, and certainly never would have had the opportunity to produce a book together.

Matt and David began the process of creating the book by sending out samples to publishers in 2008. They started with the idea of creating a guide about freshwater fish found in New England. Matt created full-page illustrations of the fish, and David wrote the text describing the species and how to catch them. After some feedback from potential publishers they decided to expand their potential audience by including freshwater fish from the northeast region of the U.S., instead of just New England.

“That also increased the number of fish species,” Matt said. “We started getting into some unusual fish, in New York, for example, that aren’t found anywhere in New England.”

The final book includes color illustrations and descriptions of 61 unique species. “Freshwater Fish of the Northeast” isn’t so much of a field guide — it won’t easily fit in a pocket or tackle box — but more like a coffee table guide for people wanting to know more about the fish they catch.

Writing the book helped the two expand their angling experience. They searched for fish they had never tried to catch before - some they had scarcely heard of. They even had a competition to see which one of them could catch the most number of species.

“When we started working on the book we were fishing almost every day. I liked to call them ‘business trips.’ Doing the book gave us a real good excuse to go fishing,” Matt said.

It was also the perfect opportunity to share time and create unique fishing memories together. One of the first fishing trips they took after starting the book was to the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire.

“We made anchors for our kayaks out of a flower pot filled with cement. But we kept letting them down and down. We had 100 feet of rope out and it was still going down,” Matt said.

They had to use both of the ropes they brought and share an anchor in order to reach the bottom of the lake with almost 140 feet of rope, all while fighting wind and large waves.

“That’s a fishing trip that we won’t forget,” David said. “And we want to do it again this summer.”