October 2023 MBR The Hunting/Fishing Shelf

The Hunting/Fishing Shelf

Waterfowling These Past Fifty Years
David Hagerbaumer
Stackpole Books
www.stackpolebooks.com
9780811772471, $39.95, HC, 182pp

https://www.amazon.com/Waterfowling-These-Past-Fifty-Years/dp/0811772470

Synopsis: "Waterfowling These Past Fifty Years" is a waterfowling classic that recounts the esteemed artist and skilled duck hunter David Hagerbaumer's half century of experiences hunting brant and other species along the Pacific Coast.

Since his early days on the marsh in the 1920s, Hagerbaumer perfected the art and sport of waterfowling both painting wood ducks and mallards and hunting every sporting bird species across North America. He especially appreciated the black brant of the Pacific, saying they symbolized all that is wild and free.

Critique: In this recognized classic which was originally published in 1998, and is now newly re-published for a new generation of appreciative readers by Stackpole Books, David Hagerbaumer presents a compendium of his best-loved stories and recollections of waterfowl hunting and is enhanced for his readers with his finely drawn grey/white illustrations throughout.

Editorial Note: David Hagerbaumer is waterfowler, naturalist, and artist who grew up during the Great Depression and began duck hunting, trapping, and fishing at the age of eight in order to help support his family. He went on to spend most of his life drawing and painting the birds he loved. (https://www.artnet.com/artists/david-hagerbaumer)

The Crimson Wave
Bill Horn
Stackpole Books
www.stackpolebooks.com
9780811772426, $39.99, HC, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Wave-Sockeye-Rainbow-Alaskas/dp/081177242X

Synopsis: The word "Alaska" conjures visions of jagged icy peaks, smoking volcanoes, vast crimson tundra, sweeping blue rivers and lakes, shaggy brown bears, bush airplanes and pilots, remote Native villages, flashing rainbow trout, and rivers teeming with crimson salmon. These visions are realized, on a stupendous scale, in southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay region. Each year 60 million or more wild salmon pour into the Bay to fight their way upstream past nets, anglers, bears, swirling rapids, and cascading waterfalls in lake and river systems with magical names -- Iliamna, Kvichak, Naknek, Alagnak, Becharof, Egegik, Nushagak, Togiak, and Ugashik.

Sport anglers travel to the region to pursue all five species of Pacific salmon, dolly varden and arctic char, grayling and giant rainbow trout that provide unmatched thrills on the end of a line with their explosive runs and twisting leaps. This unparalleled fishing (driven by the salmon) makes Bristol Bay the place of fly fisher's dreams.

With the publication of "The Crimson Wave: Sockeye Salmon, Rainbow Trout, and Alaska's Bristol Bay", author and Alaskan fishing expert Bill Horn provides a detailed and compelling account of the natural history and life cycle of these fish as well as a glimpse into the culture, management, and politics that are part of the sockeye salmon story. "The Crimson Wave" also offers essential information for anglers planning a trip to the region, including best times of the year for fishing, strategies and fly choices, and planning your trip.

Critique: Beautifully illustrated throughout with full color photography, "The Crimson Wave: Sockeye Salmon, Rainbow Trout, and Alaska's Bristol Bay" by Bill Horn is informative, inspiring, and a 'must' for anyone who has ever aspired to fishing the fabled waters of Alaska. This large format hardcover edition (7.75 x 0.66 x 9.36 inches, 1.43 pounds) of "The Crimson Wave" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Hunting/Fishing collections and supplemental Fish Biology curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "The Crimson Wave" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $28.99).

Editorial Note: Bill Horn has had a fifty-year connection (professional and personal) with Alaska. He was part of a 1972 Trout Unlimited team making recommendations to the U.S. Department of the Interior for salmon and trout conservation in the Bristol Bay region. He then worked for the Alaska Congressional delegation on the major Alaska Lands Bill enacted in 1980. From 1981 - 84 he was Deputy Under Secretary of the Interior overseeing implementation of the 1980 Act and continued that role as "Mr. Alaska" within the agency when he was nominated and confirmed in 1985 as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Following government service, Horn joined an Alaska law firm and represented an array of clients in the state including sport fishing lodges, bush pilots, Native corporations, hunting guides, the State of Alaska, and Trout Unlimited-Alaska. Throughout these decades, he always found time to pursue char, grayling, salmon, and trout in the Bristol Bay region. His on-the-ground angling experience includes all of the major river and lake systems of Bristol Bay and all of the angling seasons there. He has written two previous books, Seasons on the Flats (Headwater Books/Stackpole, 2012) and On the Bow (Stackpole, 2021).

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