A Book Review: "So Man...

This tome, all 860 pages, if sold by the pound would be worth far more than its purchase price. Finding the proper place for it was not easy - my coffeetable creaked under the weight, so it is clearly not a coffeetable book, and my bedside table collapsed, so it is clearly not suitable for light reading. Therefore, placing it under the couch, I have positioned this work as a reference book.

You might assume that the premise of this book is "the grass is always greener...". The subtitle "1,001 of the World's Greatest Backcountry Honeyholes, Trout Rivers, Blue Ribbon Waters, Bass Lakes, and Saltwater Hot Spots" would seem to indicate a philosophy that finding a new/better place to fish was vital to a fisherman. While, it is possible to come away from this book with the notion that we must never be satisfied, but must always seek "better" fishing, the author tries in his Introduction to make clear that good fishing is completely subjective. Mr. Williams provides us with some insightful, varied, definitions of good fishing - lots of fish, big fish, record fish, beautiful scenery, familiar faces, familiar scenery, many different species of fish, nostalgia, etc. For these paragraphs alone the book will have paid for itself, if it makes the reader consider why he fishes.

The author covers, as the subtitle would indicate, a vast array of waters. I found some near home - not those which I enjoy, but those most commonly written about and sought by trophy hunters. Mr. Williams presented nothing on those streams that hadn't already been published in other books and magazines, but redundancy is not necessarily a fault. We can't expect novelty when describing flowing waters that have been flogged by anglers for several hundred years - this is, after all, a compilation. Interspersed between the descriptions of the fishing spots are Mr. Williams personal anecdotes and/or observations. Sometimes these are witty, usually however they contribute little except what C.S. Lewis dubbed "steam of consciousness". Perhaps such writing is an acquired taste. However, I didn't benefit from learning that all the men and women at Williams' high-school reunion were fat and balding except for an attractive lady that Williams dumped in his youth because she was trailer-trash. Had he expressed regret for his callous action I might read on... however he only regretted having missed out on a good thing, which says little for the author and doesn't create interest in his prose. More to the point, the anecdote contributed nothing illustrative of the fishing.

You may wish to purchase this book as a reference work - it will serve as a starting point when investigating new waters. You can find it at Amazon.com