Summer of the Bass

The black bass is not only the most popular American gamefish, fished for by millions, but is also one of the country's most iconic creatures, embodying many of the traits and virtues we like to think of as typically American. And yet, despite the hundreds of "how-to" books published on bass fishing over the years, few if any authors have stepped back to examine the bass's place in the natural world, to honor its virtues, and describe its remarkable adaptions to an ever-changing environment as it spread from its original home in the continent's middle to 49 out of the 50 states. Bass tournaments with huge cash prizes, overpowered bass boats, glitzy bass fishing programs on TV. That's what people think of when they think of bass--a heavily commercialized, over-the-top commodity involving big bucks and crowds. That the bass can also be a creature of the quiet, forgotten places, the beautiful wild places, is a story that has been drowned beneath all the bassy hype and buzz. In Summer of the Bass; My Love Affair with America's Greatest Fish, prizewinning novelist and dedicated fly-fisher W. D. Wetherell sets out to change our views of the smallmouth and largemouth, restoring them to their status as one of the world's truly great fishes. Part natural history, part cultural investigation, part memoir, Summer of the Bass, in its whole-hearted, lyrical celebration of the bass's many virtues, gives America's greatest fish the classic is has long deserved.