This book is a 2002 collaboration between the most knowledgeable trout/salmon biologist and the best illustrator! Tomelleri is the all time out standing trout artist. There are several books out that attempt to do a similar compendium like 'Trout' by James Prosek which is also excellent, and a great addition to your library. But the synergy between Tomelleri and Behnke is unbeatable. It a sad description of sub species of Salmo lost forever, but does offer a ray of hope for some species. If you have any interest in N.A. Salmonids this is a must buy. It is written for the layman: no high level back ground in Ichthyology is needed to enjoy it. Buy it - you will not be disappointed.

This is the most interesting book in my collection. I am shocked that since this volume has become avaiable, only a single review has been submitted. Being a fisheries Ph.D student and long time salmonid fanatic, this is the book I've been waiting for my whole life.
The design of this volume is great. Have any of you ever looked at a book's layout? This masterpiece should be studied in a graphics design course.
I specialize in scientific illustration (black & white technical stuff). Much of my work has been published in Dr. Balon's: Environmental Biology of Fishes and I dare say I have an eye for what's good within this field. While Tomelleri's early salmonids (see Fishes of the South central USA) are okay at best, the ones featured in this book are out of this world. Strangely, he includes some of his earliest works(p.71, p.261). These must have been added for sentimental reasons and have little value being included with the otherwise superb lateral views.
I find it strange to see the reaction of people when I show them particular pictures from this book. They seem to get equal enjoyment from all the illustrations, mainly because of the flamboyent salmonid colors. No one picks up on the astounding progression in style/technique that Tomellerri has gone through over the years. Yet it is very evident indeed. No one has pointed out that while all the renderings are lovely, stuff like the pink salmon on p.43-45 represent the technical limit of what can be achieved with color pencil realism. My favorite? The Presidio trout on p. 121. I hate to say it, but the pictures (and book overall) are too good. Anyone can pick up a leica and enjoy its smooth mechanical functions but how many of us can appreciate the beauty of German industrial design and fine craftsmanship? This book suffers a similar fate. It will sell because we all love pretty trout, end of story.
I can't stop reading and looking at this book. I fall asleep next to it and in the morning, look through it some more. Our family collects antique books and my love for books extends into other fields as well. This is the greatest of all my prize posessions.
I enjoyed Dr. Benke's text. He is able to convey scientific information in a style that appeals to naturalists, fishermen and those of us within the sciences. I first came across his writings in the magazine Trout and like many of you, I fell in love with his AFS book on trout of western North America. Maybe the fact that I am fascinated by phenotypic plasticity and morphological variation within species has placed me in a situation to better appreciate what this book has tried to accomplish, but I hope not. I only wish that some of you can feel what I experienced when I first received my copy of Trout & Salmon of North America. This book beautifully articulates the complex and fascinating world of salmonids through stunning pictures and wonderful text.

Dr. Behnke is one of the foremost authorities on the taxonomy of Salmonidae. I can think of no one who has done more to save fisheries management from the one-size-fits-all mindset that has dictated the stocking thousands of miles of streams containing healthy populations of native trout with non-native hatchery stocks of rainbow trout. The policy of planting poorly adapted (and often diseased) hatchery fish on top of healthy populations of native trout, caused the outright extinction or local extirpation of native subspecies and stocks of trout throughout the western United States and Canada. Many of these fish had unique life histories that enabled them to successfully exploit habitats that hatchery rainbows cannot successfully utilize (without the continuation of massive and expensive stocking programs). At the very least, they represent a diversity form and life history that would be impossible to replace with the limited gene pool available in hatchery strains. Many of these fish, such as the golden trouts, interior cutthroats, and redband rainbows are living jewels, breathtakingly beautiful and perfectly adapted to their respective environments. The loss of any of these remarkable fish would diminish any person who cares about our natural heritage.

Professional biologists, such as myself, may have wished for a little more technical information than the book contains, such as was available in his 1965 PhD Thesis, A Systematic Study of the Family Salmonidae with Special Reference to the Genus Salmo or his 1992 mongraph, Native Trout of Western North America. Dr. Behnke has published a continuing series of articles on salmonid taxonomy, distribution, and life histories in Trout, the journal of the Trout Unlimited organization. He has used these articles to bring the importance of preserving the diversity of life histories present in each species to the attention of anglers and managers throughout North America. Whether a population is a species, subspecies, 'race,' or 'stock' has little meaning from a management standpoint, if it displays unique life history traits that enable it to exploit habitat extremes or niches that are inaccessible to other populations or hatchery stocks. As with agricultural crops, the loss of wild genotypes can never be fully compensated for and adaptations to local environments make many of these stocks the only fish that can successfully maintain naturally reproducing populations adapted to local disease organisms and environmental conditions.

I was hoping the book would include appendices that described all of the new technical information available about the family Salmonidae. Instead the book is a wonderful publication for the general public, containing a though and highly readable description of the wonderful diversity of form and life history represented by North American salmonids. Combined with Joseph Tomelleri's incredibly detailed and lifelike representative illustrations, this is a welcome addition to the library of any angler or biologist.

In addition to his contributions to the establishment of saner management policies for native fish, Dr. Behnke described or collaborated in describing literally dozens of distinctive populations of salmonids. Many of these fish; such as the Sheepheaven Creek Redband, Humbolt River cutthroat, fine-spotted Snake River cutthroat, and Whitehorse cutthroat; were simply described as a new subspecies without assigning a subspecies name to them. Dr. Behnke generally only assigned new scientific names, where a species or subspecies designation was incorrect, and a prior name already existed. Hence, the Yellowstone cutthroat became Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri instead of O. c. lewisi and the interior Columbia/Fraser River rainbow became O. mykiss gairdneri, rather than O. gairdneri. This brings me to one of my few quibbles about the book.

In the 1995 book, Many Rivers to Cross by M.R. Montgomery (a Boston Globe columnist), the author included the descriptive information from Dr. Behnke's monograph, Native Trout of Western North America, under the name Oncorhynchus clarki behnkei. I'm a fisheries biologist, rather than a taxonomist, but as I understand the process of naming a new species (or subspecies), the name should accompany a species account that includes a description of the species and information on the collection where the type (type specimen) is or will be deposited (perhaps Mr. Montgomery included all of Dr. Behnke's original description in his book and this is sufficient). This information is usually published in a journal or book (but I'm not sure if it has to be published by a professional taxonomist in a professional publication). The first name assigned has priority. If a non-professional can assign a name in any form of publication, then I believe that Ernest Schwiebert beat Mr. Montgomery to the punch by a couple of decades in his 1978 book, Trout, when he assigned the name Salmo carmichaeli (after a Wyoming tackle shop owner) to the Jackson Hole cutthroat and included an excellent illustration of a fine-spotted cutthroat from Blacktail Spring Creek in Wyoming. While its true that Schwiebert gave it species status, the same can be said of the rainbow trout, which was originally named Salmo gairdneri before it was reassigned the name Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri (gairdneri was assigned to the interior Columbia/Fraser River subspecies). Will some taxonomist please name a trout after Dr. Behnke?!! He certainly deserves the honor. It would be a nice gesture if a committee of taxonomists would decide which of Dr. Behnke's many unnamed subspecies of Oncorhynchus most deserves subspecies status and assign it the subspecies name, behnkei. The fine-spotted Snake River cutthroat seems like a fine fish to name after Dr. Behnke, but I'm sure any of the salmonids he has described over his long career would serve as a fine honor.

This is the type of book that can transport you back to the stream in a moment. In the dead of winter while I'm tying flies this book would help me remember the take, the run, the awe and release. But I didn't wait and I'm glad. This book is a treasure of sights and words that works any time of year. Charles Lindsay's photo's are very unique and yet at once familiar to anyone who has fished a stream. Dream-like and enchanting. If you fly fish, buy this book, buy two, one for your best fishing buddy too.

Tom McGuane is hands-down our best fishing writer. His observations are always provocative and invariably dressed in memorable language. The surprise here is Charles Lindsay's photographs. Lindsay does not give us familiar shot of the country's top fly fishing destinations, as do most tomes in the photo book genre. Rather he offers a look at the shape and whirl and textures of fly fishing. He gives us the trout as it noses up out of the element to take a fly, or as it leaps from the water, sending a spray of water. He offers rainbows schooling beneath the surface, the water purling over rock so that it is hard to tell where the water stops and the rock begins. A lovely meld of words and pictures.

I've enjoyed reading all of Mr. Lyon's books and this volume is a wonderful collection of his essay's. I think that both old fans and those just discovering Mr. Lyons will find a lot of gems here. I especially enjoyed following him on his journey from a young angler with a certain philosophy to a more seasoned angler with a wealth of wisdom to share with others.

This is the type of book that you can read straight through or revisit over and over again.

"Thomas McGuane lives here" I was told last year during a Montana visit. "Who cares?" say I, never having heard of him. Oh, how I wish I had known, wish I had read this wonderful book and taken the time to visit Mr. McGuane and thank him for wonderful vacation reading a year later. Raced through this book; raced back to the bookstore for "Some Horses", embarked on "An Outside Chance" and contemplated sending Mr. McGuana a fan letter! Seldom does a book make me laugh out loud and have to put it down until I recover. This book is delightful and you wonder how anyone can possibly think up a story like this.

'The Missouri Breaks' caps a short list of "anti-western" films that marked the death of the classic western as an American Icon. Writer Thomas McGuane skillfully weaves the counter-cultural mores of his own generation into the fabric of this non-conformist screenplay in which the "good guys" are the cattle rustlers and the "bad guys" are the law (or what passes for law in the west). Jack Nicholson (as a rustler) and a very scary Marlon Brando as a looney bounty hunter head up this cast, which reads like a rogue's gallery of great character actors such as Frederick Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton and Warren Oates. Many mainstream American critics panned this film, largely because of its refusal to fit within well-defined story arcs, yet foreign critics praised it for its rawness and superb acting. If you're a fan of films that stretch the limits of their genre, then 'The Missouri Breaks' is a must-see Western.

The Sporting Club plays out the alpha male/other guy dynamic in a really fresh funny way. Its the story of two grown young men of privilege, reunited at the sporting club in Michigan that they played and hunted at as kids. Stanton, the tough guy with the cojones collides with Quinn, the sensitive brooder. They start with pranks on each other and their peers and eventually get to sabotage and guerrilla warfare. Absolutely hilarious. Think Caddyshack meets Fight Club. The writing is superb. Crisp prose, fully fleshed characters and imagery. Mcguane has quite the vocabulary. He's obviously smarter than you, smarter than me but thankfully without self-indulgence. He doesn't write for his own sake or merely for the sake of writing, and the prose clearly has the reader in its sights, or is it sites? At any rate, great book, page turner, tons o' fun.

Nicholas Payne is one of those quirky, independent characters that I normally love, but Payne crosses over from eccentric to obnoxious. This book was published in the early 70s when rebellious youth triumphing over pompous members of the "establishment" (to borrow from the contemporary vernacular) was a popular theme, but looking back from the 21st century, Payne seems more of a spoiled brat than an iconoclastic rebel. McGuane is a good writer with an impressive command of the language, but at times, the obscurity of his words leaves one with the impression that he writes with an open thesaurus. Still, an interesting read with some funny moments.

Complicated, challenging, endlessly entertaining and very amusing. Nick Payne is unpredictable and wild and hapless and completely his own person. The book is cinematic in a way a movie could never be, and McGuane's humor switches effortlessly between the dryest irony to outright slapstick. This is a good book by an inventive author with an impressive command of the language.

Nicholas Payne is one of the most memorable characters that's ever existed in American literature, and that goes for Huck Finn and Sal Paradise. A hilarious ride from start to finish, The Bushwhacked Piano combines side splitting humor with irony, satire, and reflection. The Bushwhacked Piano is funny, sad, and everything in between. But, most importantly, it's funny. Not many genius writers/masters of language have McGuane's keen sense of humor, which is what makes the book tick. Here's my formula for a good time:

1). Read The Bushwhacked Piano
2). Drink malt liquor
3). Talk to a pretty girl
4). Get smacked in the face, or, if you're lucky, get lucky!

Nick Payne straddles the line between jackass and heroic visionary...if we could all only be so lucky. McGuane is the best living writer in America today. Non Serviam. Read this book to increase your vocabulary and mental health.

This was my first, but will not be my last, novel by Thomas McGuane. Frank Copenhaver, the central character, has hit a rough patch in his life. His anchors have left him. In the opening scene he is taking his wife to the airport. She is leaving him. After some brief background info, McGuane lays before us a man who's life is torn out from underhim and who doesn't really seem to know how to get back on track. Ultimately it is a story of betrayal, love and relationships. Husband and wife and daughter. In between there are great descriptions of Montana flyfishing. Although not as good as The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, this book does come pretty close.

Thomas McGuane is a remarkably gifted writer and here he is at the top of his form. This book captures the beauty and the tragedy of the west, is full of characters who are real and pathetic and loveable and maddening. The territory of Western pathos and failed relationships covered briliantly by Richard Ford, but McGuane in this book brings a consistent over the top humor and sense of the ridiculous which distinguishes him sharply from Ford. Picaresque bar fights alternate with lyrical descriptions of the fishing streams of Montana, the protagonist's series of soulless affairs constrasts sharply with his desperate love for the wife who has left him. The book is fascinating, and beautiful, and terribly funny.

McGuane is easily among our most talented contemporary authors. There were times that I caught myself laughing out-loud as well as smiling at truly remarkable descriptions written with such skill that I felt as if I were standing in a river somewhere in Montana. He is able to pull the reader into his world of complex and entertaining characters that operate in an equally wonderful backdrop of Montana's ranches, rivers, and small towns. If you are a fan of other McGuane titles such as "Nobody's Angel" and "Keep the Change" you will not be disappointed with "Nothing but Blue Skies." I can't think of higher praise than to be truly sad to turn the last page and realize that such a beautifully and skillfully written story is over.

Faulkner, who needs Faulkner when you have McGuane...the only thing better than Some Horses would be Some More Horses. No horse lover should be without this book, no McGuane fan should be without this book and no reader should miss it. Amazon...call us when the second and third and ?parts appear...I can't wait.

SOME HORSES is a new collection of essays by Thomas McGuane. They tell of a number of horses he's owned, of cutting, roping, trail rides, road trips, and other such things related to his relationships with horses and horse people. Well written (no surprise there), insightful, and occasionally inspiring. Certainly worth reading, especially if you're a horse lover.

What a wonderful book for all horse lovers! I enjoyed every page, and am looking forward to reading more by the author on this subject. This is not another piece written on "horse whispering" in order to cash in on the latest craze. McGuane reveals himself as a true horse person with just the right amounts of humor, insight and truth. Great Christmas gift for your horse lover friends, whether they are into cutting, dressage, or just being around horses.

When McGuane writes of his home waters, his prose is crystalline and his thoughts, and our responses, are direct and illuminating. Alas, as the first half of the book ends (with the eponymous essay), McGuane suddenly begins flying us all over the world with his rich, often sodden, often depressing fish-snob buddies. In these later essays, his prose sinks as brand names enter the essays. He begins to collect rivers as trophies (the essays about Russia and Labrador are particularly bathetic). Though McGuane asks for absolution for his fishing faults (including helicopter rides to steelhead pools), I'm not sure that readers (or rivers) should grant it. My advice? One: read the first half of the book to understand the power of local knowledge and the joys of home water. Two: throw away the second half of the book, unless you enjoy reveling in disillusion. Three: join your local conservation groups and work, work, work to save your local waters, rather than flying your carcass off to the ends of the earth to catch (and brag about catching) that last wild fish.

It is unusual to find an author of a fishing book who is as fluent with words as he is with a fly rod. In probability, The Longest Silence will disappoint many diehard anglers anxious for 'how to' or 'where to' information. But it will delight those who relish good writing.

Drenched in atmosphere and with a warmth that glows like the embers of a campfire, this book is about the fishing, rather than the fish. Haunting, mesmerising and tremendously readable, The Longest Silence is a piece of literature that will become a fishing classic. It has been criticized for McGuane's affection for high-cost fishing holes and there may well be some merit in this, but it is the writing and not the locations that generates the fascination.

"You can't say enough about fishing; but that won't stop me," Tom McGuane wrote half a lifetime ago. He has quite a lot, indeed, to say about fishing. In "The Longest Silence," his precision of language and love of sport conjoin in a life's body of fishing essays.

McGuane is the angler we all hope to emualte. As for imitating his writing, well, lower your head, shake it and smile--it ain't happenin', bro--not in this life. And, of course, this book is nothing short of genius.

If you follow sporting writing in general and McGuane in particular few of the entries in this collection will be new to you, especially the seminal title piece: "What is most emphatic in angling is made so by the long silences---the unproductive periods." Not a problem. Few of us keep our old issues of Sports Illustrated, Men's Journal, Esquire or Sports Afield--rather, we look to compilations such as these to round out our collections. Besides, these essays are only fully appreciated after multiple (re)readings.

If McGuane is a new discovery to you, well, I can only envy you. His fiction--bought, borrowed or stolen--must be read; it is among the finest this country has to offer late in our century.

It's hard to imagine but there are probably those who enjoy McGuane's fiction but are not familiar with his sporting prose. At any rate these writings, many collected here--are without equal. Be McGuane's sporting work new, savor it. If, however, you find it familiar, then let in the dogs, light the fire, build a drink and dig in. It doesn't get any better than this.

Highly, completely and without reservation recommended. Buy this book, read it, cherish it, tell a friend.