Neversink: One Angler's Intense Exploration of a Trout River

Wright's ``intense exploration'' of his home stream in New York State's Catskill Mountains yields a scientific and literary angling book that is placed firmly in the tradition of the 19th-century bon amateur. Wright's quest is for more and bigger Salvelinus fontinalis, the distinctly North American char, in the water he first rents, then owns, on the Neversink, arguably the ``First River'' of American flyfishing. The gentle diary-like tone of his report belies an angling passion that propels Wright from observation of small details made while fishing into wider inquiry that calls upon 20 years of experiments in stream improvements, stocking and feeding. Like Wright's recent how-to books (especially the underrated Superior Flies ), this account offers up odd angling epiphanies in an urbane writing style. In Wright's case, familiarity with a river breeds endless wonder. (Nov.)