Provides a wealth of information on eastern North American freshwater fishes as would be expected from someone whose ichthyological legacy includes E. Raney, R. Suttkus, and R. Bailey.

Until C. Lavett Smith published Fish Watching, good fish books were as scarce as unicorns.... An emeritus curator of herpetology and ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, Smith crafted Fish Watching as a book about fishes. Not about catching them. Not about keeping them. Not about cooking them. Just about them.... The result is a most pleasant and surprising work of natural history writing devoted solely to fishes. The surprise is how successfully Smith keeps Fish Watching simple.... For feeling good about loving fishes just for what they are, I'll read Fish Watching.

This book should delight anyone who is interested in the natural world, and should help fish watching take its rightful place alongside the better known pursuits of amateur naturalists.