There's a number of new books that I've been reading that can help you with your outdoor history, fishing trips and outdoor experiences in general, and they deserve mention.
First, while I was staying at Parcher's Resort on Bishop Creek a few weeks ago I hiked up to backcountry lakes with Jared Smith, owner of Parcher's, and he mentioned a book that he has written entitled Fishin' Trails, trails very much like the one he and I hiked up to fish Marie Louise lakes for brookies.
This 100-page book covers 25 short hikes that anglers can take to find Eastern Sierra wild trout, and it's well worth the price to avoid hiking to a lake and finding out there's no fish in it, or you're not prepared for the type of fishing required for the species or lake. The book is available at Turners Outdoors, many of your local tackle shops, or online at Amazon.com.
Another book about fishing is the recently-released Trolling Truths by Sep and Marilyn Hendrickson, covering trout, kokanee and landlocked king salmon. Nobody needs to be told anything about how much time these two spend fishing, but in case you've been living in a cave, they live and breath fishing.
Their new book covers the entire spectrum of trolling, including depth and temperature, downriggers and use, sideplaners, lures, attractors and even saltwater applications for trolling. A must-have book! You can find Trolling Truths at Amazon.com, or go to Seps.com and order it there.
Nobody needs an introduction to Tom Stienstra, outdoor man extraordinaire, and one of the most prolific book-writers in California if not the nation. Most know about his "California" books: such as California Camping, California Fishing, California Lakes and the list goes on. But he now has e-books coming out, too, where a trip to the bookstore isn't even needed. The first e-book, Sierra Crossing, is out in the stores now and the launch dates are set for another two titles in upcoming weeks.
You can find out more about all of his books by going online to tomstienstra.com/, or just stop by any bookstore and see the vast array of outdoor books now available. Stienstra has won a myriad of awards, including two in 2012, among them the Excellence in Craft award from the Outdoor Writer's Association of America (OWAC).
And for those of you who own a dog — and who doesn't? — Maria Goodavage has a new book out entitled Soldier Dogs, the untold story of America's canine heroes. Did you know that when Navy SEAL Team Six radied Osama bin Laden's compound, that they were joined by "Cairo", a Belgian Malinois dog that has since captured America's imagination and heart?
The book tells fascinating stories about heroic dogs, garnered from inside government facilities where the true stories were told by Maria Goodavage, who has been a reporter for USA Today and the San Francisco Chronicle, and author of The Dog Lover's Companion to California and The Dog Lover's Companion to the San Francisco Bay Area. Those interested in more information or purchasing the book can do so at Amazon.com or go to www.soldierdogs.com.
Finally, the true history of trapping and what impact it had on the settlement of the United States is told in the book Fur, Fortune and Empire by Eric Jay Dolin. The book is a historical novel about the development of the fur trade, based mostly on beaver, and how European nations vied with each other here in America for control of what was then the most lucrative product around.
I'm sure that very few of us have any idea of the involvement of all the various European nations in development of America, beginning on the east coast, and how land changed hands from the Indians to one nation, then another….finally becoming the United States of America. The historical detail, and in depth research of this book is amazing, and I'm still deeply engrossed in the middle of it! To get one of the books, you can go to any of the online bookstores like Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, and many brick and mortar stores carry it, too, or they can order it.
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