This unpretentious but affecting book by Jim Stenson is several books in one. Ostensibly a memoir about growing up in one of the world’s most legendary fisheries— South Florida’s estuary systems, “where the sweet meets the brine.” — Stenson guides us to crowded piers, mangrove forests, quiet havens and rip-roaring fish rodeos. Along the way he waxes nostalgic about his boyhood angling paradise where the fish were huge and plentiful, but fell victim to greed, pollution, and heedlessness. These days Stenson, a magazine publisher and angling destination maven, propounds a powerful conservation mantra we would do well to follow. This book will grab you and hold you tight.

Norm Zeigler
Author of “Rivers of Shadow, Rivers of Sun” and “Snook on a Fly.”