There aren't enough books written about fishing.
Home Pool. The Fight to Save the Atlantic Salmon. By Philip Lee. Goose Lane Editions and New Brunswick Publishing. $24.95.
This is a powerful piece of literate journalism about the decline of one of the world’s great game fish. Lee’s book developed out of a series of investigative reports published by The Telegraph Journal in the fall of 1995. The newspaper articles won some awards, but Lee realized that to tell the story fully he had to broaden the scope. You don’t have to be an Atlantic salmon fisher to appreciate the importance of this book. It laments the destruction of salmon runs and powerfully makes the case for increased conservation and stewardship. Reckless logging, overfishing, industrial pollution and bureaucratic ineptitude have all played a role in destroying once-great runs of Atlantic salmon. Sound familiar? Home Pool makes the case that salmon are national treasures, and it’s high time we started taking care of them.
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Fishing The Miramichi. Wayne Curtis. Goose Lane Editions. $14.95.
From the macro view in Home Pool to the microcosm of one river. But what a river. The Miramichi is North America’s most productive Atlantic salmon river, and may be its most famous. The name is full of magic, and has to be on the must-visit list of anyone who fly fishes. Curtis is a guide and the son of a guide. He draws his material from that background, and is a fine story teller. His book, however, will be more of interest to those who’ve fished the Miramichi (or plan to) than to general readers.
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 Fly Fishing in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Chris Hanks. Frank Amato Publications, Inc. $14.95.
There are few places in the world that are as exciting to fish as the Northwest Territories. And few about which so little is known. Hanks does a pretty good job of introducing this vast region, which is full of amazing fishing opportunities. From the Kazan River, in the barrenlands of the Eastern Arctic, to Great Bear Lake, in the Mackenzie Lowlands, Hanks fishes for giant pike, lake trout, Arctic char and greyling. The Northwest Territories seems a world away, but it is linked by roads to British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon territory. The road from B.C. goes up through the northeast corner of the province, leading to the Mackenzie River basin. Another highway traces across northern Alberta, reaching the head of the Mackenzie River and going on to Yellowknife, a great jumping off spot for floatplane trips. The Yukon road - an epic roadtrip - crosses into the NWT up near the Arctic Ocean. This book is as good a place as any to start planning a trip. Unfortunately, Mr. Amato, who publishes some beautiful fishing books, kept the purse strings tight on this one. It’s a small, soft cover with black and white pictures. Too bad, because it deserves to be in a big format, with lots of color.
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