I have read several of McPhee's books and loved them. This one with the accounts of how fish were transplanted and buying shad darts seemed to be a Mulligan's stew of anecdotes about shad - I found myself wondering what the point was.The story of fighting the 4 pound shad for two hours and thinking it was a sturgeon or a muskellunge was laughable. A soft-mouthed shad on for two hours stripping the gears on his reel huh? This wins the most ridiculous fish story of the year. Did he run into bigfoot riding on Nessie that day, as well?