Customer Reviews

Ken Schultz's Field Guide to Freshwater Fish

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book with the intention to use it as a fish identifier. It serves its purpose well. The pictures are on almost every fish you can find around here. Well described, to the point, and informative. I would recommend this book to someone who just wants to use to to see what they have on the end of their line. Not very much information on how to find this type of fish in a lake or anyhing. Very good overall.

On the plus side, this book has good pictures and the text is full of information useful to fishermen and others. It is also less expensive than comparative guides. As an identification guide, it is considerably less useful, however, since the fishes are organized ALPHABETICALLY and not systematically. Thus, if you know you have a perch, for example, or a carp, you still have to look through the whole book unless you happen to know the name of the fish (in which case you have already identified it of course), and related and unrelated fishes are jumbled together throughout the book. It would also have been nice with maps showing the distribution of each fish.

I found this book to be incredibly helpful in identifying two "mystery" fish caught this summer in an inland lake Northern Michigan. This book provides a fairly in-depth summary of each respective fish, of which there are many, and interesting facts about habitat, identification, and much more. I would highly recommend for any fisherman (or fisherwoman) who occasionally hooks the unknown fish!

A fisherman's favorite book . A book about every fresh water fish you can think of and evan more. Before I read this book I couldn't tell anyone what kind of fish I had caught. But now after I read this book I can name just about every fresh water fish I see. Its really amazing how much stuff there is to learn about fish. Oh yah evan if your not A fisherman and you just want to learn about some fresh water fish and there habitat this would be a good book for you. This book will tell you where you can find certain types offish and where they like check this out it evan tells you all about what fresh , how big they get , and he guide to fresh water fish is evan small enough to fit in you talkie box to bring along fishing with you . Over all i thought this book was great .
A.J.D

I bought two copies of this book prior to seeing it. One for my brother and one for myself. Overall, my brother and I are both pleased with it. I will say that this book is NOT a necessity to the average fisherman, but any fisherman will appreciate it for its information. The reason I say this is because most fishermen already know what they are going to catch, or what they expect to catch when going to their local fishing hole. That being said - here are a list of my pros and cons about the book.

Pros:

-Good descriptions in identifying a large amount of freshwater species.
-Fish are broken down by region, class, diet, etc.
-Decently drawn color photos of each fish for visual aid.
-Informative for someone new to fishing.
-Book small enough to throw in a bag to go fishing.

Cons:

-Not all freshwater fish identified. (Example: in one fishing trip in Florida, I caught 3 species that were not in the book and had to look up online to identify, defeating the "field guide" feel).
-Although the book describes each species main diet, there are no tips on what baits to use or how to catch the fish.
-The book is paperback. This serves its purpose, but when you fish, wet hands from lake water or fish juices have the potential to destroy the book.

Although adequate, this book could use improvement. First, the text contains no range maps, which are valuable to learn if certain fish species live within a geographical area of interest. Second, information on the food value of the various species was inconsistent. Third, the text could have done a better job of grouping related species together. Lastly, the information about each species was not consistent enough to allow comparisons between them. For instance, it would have been useful if categories with average/maximum for weights and lengths were included for each entry. The illustrations appeared to use painted pictures rather than photos, which is really the best method since photos of individual fish can vary greatly and seldom portray all the typical characteristics for a species. Although the text contains some interesting information, the book is better used as a supplemental text rather than as a field guide. Anyone looking for a field guide should consider another purchase.

Great field guide. I wanted a book on fishing. My mistake getting used to purchasing books through kindle

I like the pictures given of the fish and the written descriptions of the fish, but i would also like a map to show general areas where the fish can be found. Other than lack of maps, its an excellent field guide.

MY SON LOVES THIS BOOK. IT HAS ALL THE FRESHWATER FISH WITH DESCRIPTIONS AND GREAT PICTURES. WELL WORTH IT.