Good Fishing in the Adirondacks
By Dennis Aprill
Everything anyone needs to know about fishing from Lake Champlain to the Streams of Tug Hill is the promise, and that's what you get!
COVER PHOTO: ALICE VERN
Sports Afield called this handy book, one of a series of four on fishing New York from Backcountry Publications, " A treasure trove of firsthand knowledge of the area . . . solid clues on where and how to fish and for what."
Edited by Dennis Aprill who teaches at the State University of New York, Platsburgh, this excellent book uses a dozen or so editors with local knowledge and a series of 32 clear maps to detail the fishing in and west of Lakes Champlain and George, north of Highway 90 and east of Highway 81.
Collections of authors, if lovingly selected as is obviously the case here, offer the advantage of specialization. Use experts like Ron Koldziej, who knows Great Sacandaga Lake where Peter Dubuc once took a world record pike, and Fran Betters of Ausable fly fishing fame, and you get the right stuff for the right trip to the right place at the best time. Even better you reach the information sources, guide referrals and other details that improve your trips when your schedule doesn't match the prime fall or winter action.
While the focus is on trout, landlocked salmon, smallmouth and northern pike, you get the chance to see how to take yellow perch and less publicized species and the musky information on the St. Lawrence deserves a look. Solid sections on ice fishing insure year-round fishing.
Even though it's now clear Authur Lawton's "world record" 1957 muskellunge from the St. Lawrence was bogus, Allen Benas properly points out exceptional changes of big musky here and that the Bass Angler's Sportsmen's Society claims that there are more bass per acre in the St. Lawrence than anywhere else they hold contests. There's not a doubt about that the third weekend in June with bass season opens.
An exceptional value for anglers within a half day's drive as the modest cover price would be instantly repaid by the gas you save looking on your own.
Soft cover, 238 pages, b/w illustrations and maps created by Larry Boutis, drawn by Jim Capossela.
Dennis Aprill
Star Route, Box 221, 279 Duprey Road
Schuyler Falls, New York 12985