Rating: 
Summary: Drags a bit.
Review: As an avid fishkeeper and fisherwoman, I felt compelled to buy this book. I enjoyed it, but felt that it dragged on. I wanted more information on the natural history, physiology and relation of the fish to history than we got. The book spent too much time describing McPhee's fishing and lure choices. What can I say? I love to fish, but think reading about someone else fishing is BORING. So overall, I like the book, but think it would have been better if it had been shorter. It's still worth a read though.
Rating: 
Summary: They're In the River!!!!
Review: Finish-up those tax returns folks because they'll start passing Lambertville around 4/15. I heard about this book for a long time before I finally got around to reading it. I read it three times right away and still pick it up to read selected parts again and again. I am a sucker for natural history books and I also happen to be an enthusiastic shad fisherman. But this book also covers ecology and fascinating slices of American history. I grew up around Valley Forge and always heard about how the American Shad saved the Continental Army. Really? Better read the book. Also, check-out the part about
Gen's George Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee. An excellent read on more levels than I have room to discuss here. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: All McPhee all perfect all fabulous.
Review: His one paragraph comment on bow-fishermen (page 94), should hold enough shame to preclude both more bow-fishing and the breeding of more bow-fishermen.
For you McPhee collectors; 'nuff said. For you neophytes; start with something simple like "Looking for a Ship" or "Oranges". Go from there.
The best non-fiction writer in the language.
Rating:
Summary: The "Compleat Shad"--and more
Review: I just had a few miscellaneous comments on this book.
I enjoy McPhee's books although I rarely have the time to read them through cover to cover. But I'll often dip into them and enjoy his insights into the people and things he writes about. McPhee has a fine ability to evoke what is special about a place, the people who live there, and what they do, and this book is no different. With his usual low-key but engaging and conversational style, McPhee regales us with accounts of the people who fish for shad. Before reading this book, I had no idea there was a particular, well, subculture of shad fisherman who were distinct from, say striped bass or salmon fisherman or others. In one of the funnier sections in the book, McPhee and a couple of other shad fisherman friends are discussing the difference between shad and striped bass fisherman. They agree that shad fisherman are polite and more cultured, whereas the striper types are "the wrestling crowd," "have missing teeth," and are "rude." However, they are also, as one of them says, "kick-ass fisherman." (I don't know how true it is, but as I know nothing of fishing culture I will give McPhee the benefit of the doubt).
The book is replete with accounts of the present day as well as the historical importance of shad. Washington's troops feasted on a large shad catch during the shad's up river swim to spawn one season, which Washington knew about, and where and when to get the best catch. What they couldn't eat at the time, they salted and stored away for future use. In fact, McPhee states that Washington himself was a shad fisherman.
I had one minor criticism. One of the fisherman who is also a fish biologist, Kynard, says that fish don't see the way we do, and that they see by light using up a photochemical by the name of rhodopsin. However, this is no different from the way all vertebrates see, including humans. All vertebrates have rhodopsin in their retinal cells and the amount of rhodopsin activity is proportional to the amount of light. Where fish differ from us is in having many more cones, the basis of color vision. We have only three cones, red, green, and blue, but fish have 6 or 7, and reptiles and amphibians have 4 or 5. Hence, they likely see even more colors than we do and have better vision there.
Kynard makes one interesting observation, however, which is that he thinks that shad have trouble going up river under very bright light conditions since their eyes become depleted of rhodopsin. For example, they have trouble with whitewater which could be because it reflects a lot of light, and it confuses the shad, whereas salmon and other fish seem to have no trouble. I thought this was an interesting speculation. I suppose this is possible, although rhodopsin is recycled at a furious rate in the retina.
Anyway, I apologize for waxing so nerdy, but I was trained as a sensory neurophysiolgist once. Overall, I enjoyed the book and it's another example of how McPhee can bring his journalistic expertise and talents to the enjoyable exploration of what might seem to be a very narrow or specialized field, but which in McPhee's case, can become a microcosm for life itself, the conversations ranging from the shad specific to marriage to work and life in general, often looked at from the perspective of the home-spun wisdom and common sense of the intrepid shad fisherman. Of course there's a huge amount of fascinating info about shad fishing here, and much of it is specific to shad. For example, I learned more about how to make shad lures and darts than I probably ever wanted to know. :-) But it was interesting and enjoyable to read about nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting journey
Review: Joh McPhee creates a masterpiece here writing a book that follows the oldest fishery in the United States. Long before George Washington first cast his seine for American shad, native Americans no doubt enjoyed these tasty fish that obligingly swam up the rivers each spring. McPhee takes us on a journey up and down the East Coast of North America in search of this ancient fish. Along the way we talk to guides, local commercial anglers, noted biologists, and expert historians to learn all about American shad and the impact this species has had on society from the earliest colonial days up until the present. We trace the life history of the shad as life begins in the nursery waters of the great eastern rivers in North America. We follow the young as they head to the ocean at the end of their first summer. We learn about the life of shad in the oceans, and we stand with the anglers, hip-deep in the waters of the shad's natal rivers, as they wait to cast to the mature adults struggling upstream to begin the cycle again.This is a wonderful book, full of lively stories and interesting information. It combines fisheries science, sociology, history, and angling advice in a broad colorful tapestry that transcends normal "fish books." This is a book that will appeal to people from all walks of life, because it approaches the subject from so many angles. In a way, to know the American shad and its story is to know America. As the founding fathers struggled to hammer out a new country and defend it from strife both within and without, the founding fish- the American shad- and the lucrative fisheries that built up around it were inextricably interwoven with everyday life. Although we came close to destroying these wonderful fish through habitat detsruction, the American shad stands tall today as a wonderful testament to the value of nature and the ability of America to recover an animal that was so vital to the young country. Read this book. I think you will treasure it.
Rating:
Summary: McPhee on top of his game
Review: John McPhee can make _anything_ interesting. Oranges? Yep. Birchbark canoes? You bet. Well, he's done it again with a fascinating look at the American shad. This is no trendy fish, but don't let that fool you. There is more material here than in any two books written about trout or bass. Perhaps the most captivating aspect of the book is McPhee's ability to interweave history, science, and personal narrative. I was amazed to learn what an important role the shad has played in the history of the United States, and what an equally important role Americans have had in shaping the history of the shad. But most satisfying is what we learn about McPhee himself, both his shad fishing exploits and misadventures. With a dry sense of humor and mastery of understatement, the author kept me chuckling throughout. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history, science, fishing--or who appreciates reading remarkably tight and engaging prose. McPhee is a master writer, and we all stand to learn a great deal from him.
Rating:
Summary: The Remarkable Shad
Review: John McPhee has the ability - which I prize as a reader - to write engagingly about any subject, and Founding Fish is no exception. In this case, the subject is the American Shad. The fish is prized by anglers and gourmands and pops in and out of American history. But this is not "the cultural history of American Shad" (are we tired of these "cultural history of..." books yet?" Instead he weaves history with science as well as plenty of personal observation. The myriad digressions are like seams of precious metal. McPhee's world is populated with fascinating characters - ichthyologists, shad dart makers, and a seine fisherman from the Bay of Fundy. If you have a taste for non-fiction and would like a book that is diverting and pleasurable (rather than "hard-hitting" and topical) try reading John McPhee.
Rating:
Summary: Everything About Shad, And Everything Connected to Shad
Review: John McPhee has written numerous pieces for _The New Yorker_ and over a score of books on such subjects as oranges, canoes, and geology. His wide range of interests now centers on an object of personal obsession; in _The Founding Fish_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) he tells us about his own passion for fishing for shad. As you might expect, he can't help but tell us a lot more, about history, ecology, and human oddities. If you don't know about shad, and even if you don't know about fishing, and don't care to know about it, you won't feel alienated away from these pages, which contain McPhee's fine prose and wry humor. (For instance, he is surprised to find a snake in his net: "I lack the sense of companionship that some people seem to have with snakes.") Shad is worth knowing about, it turns out, and so is McPhee, who has seldom put himself as a character in his own books. Of course, there is much advice about fishing for shad, which seem to be a particularly elusive fish. McPhee quotes extensively from his fishing diaries, and starts his book with a funny description of an epic battle with a shad on the Delaware River starts. McPhee has seventy feet of six-pound test line "suddenly pulled by a great deal more than the current." The battle goes on for pages and pages, eventually ending in the netting of a 4 3/4 pound shad. A fighting fish, to be sure. Or a clumsy angler. Shad is not an endangered species, but of course they have been affected by the humans changing their waters. Beside the problem of pollution, there are thousands of dams on rivers that used to present only milder natural obstacles for the returning fish. Some of the dams are, surprisingly, coming down, and McPhee takes us to a dam-removing ceremony. As the title implies, shad have played a role in American history. George Washington seined for shad on the Potomac. He didn't eat them; only one shad bone has turned up in the excavation of his garbage pit at Mount Vernon (and McPhee can't help an interesting digression upon "archaeozoology"). His slaves got them, and he used shad as a fertilizer. Despite the legend, his men at Valley Forge were not saved from starvation by a providential, unseasonal run of shad up the Schuylkill River. Thoreau worried about shad in their thousands meeting a new commercial dam, and wrote the lament, "Poor shad! where is thy redress?" Thoreau advised the fish, "Keep a stiff fin and stem all the tides thou mayst meet." Words to live by. Once again, McPhee has picked an unlikely subject and made everything about it vivid, interesting, and important. If you fish, you will love this book. If you don't fish, here is a book to give you an idea about why intelligent fishermen go about their often frustrating hobby with such evident pleasure. _The Founding Fish_ is a delightful small encyclopedia on everything connected with shad.
Rating:
Summary: Meandering fish tale...
Review: John McPhee is rightly regarded as a masterful writer, with a bent to outdoorsy activities. Here in Founding Fish he examines his "obsession" with a particular species, the American shad.
The shad is a fish that spawns like a salmon, living in the sea but coming home to a particular river or stream to lay eggs. McPhee covers every aspect of the shad, its habits and habitat, and the people who fish for shad. As always his writing, when viewed in chapter-sized chunks, is crisp and sparkling and fascinating.
The book, however, is somewhat dull. While a good fishing yarn requires some patience, this book meanders like a sluggish river, touching this or that topic, from dam removals to fishing habits as it wanders and wanders, twisting and turning over the same material, back and forth, in a kind of passionless amble. It takes, well, an appreciation of or obsession with the shad to carry you through this material, I think.
Anything by McPhee is better than 90% of what you'll read elsewhere (Sturgeon's Law in effect). I want to rate the book more highly because McPhee does bring to life people and events that touch upon the history of the shad, but the book as a whole is a yawn. Read it if you are a McPhee fan, otherwise I'd suggest Secret Life of Lobsters to wake you from it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Mark Twain of science
Review: John McPhee is the Mark Twain of rocks and scientists and fish. Like a Cartalk.com that covers all of natural science, McPhee takes you through skeleton of a fish, the nutritional history of our Revolution and more lovely fish stories than one could hear in a life time, all done in his private blend of intellect and folksiness.
I am attracted by his love of the scientist, the multi-syllable word, and his ability to walk you through the human side of science while never feeling a strain on the line. I am hooked deeply by McPhee's ability to write, whether it is about the myth of George Washington being saved by the shad run, a fish rodeo in the gulf coast, an autopsy of a shad cleaning, the tides of the Bay of Fund or his tale of trying to land a fish on one side of the boat while shaking out a snake from his net on the other.
More delicious and digestible (and shorter) than Annals of a Former World, this book is a keeper.
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