Local author’s book on travel, fishing and saving the world – “A Naturalist Goes Fishing”

If you are seeking adventure and knowledge about a changing world, local Alabama author, James McClintock’s books do just that. From Antarctica to New Zealand to the bayous of Louisiana,  McClintock’s vivid stories take his readers on spectacular journeys, all without leaving their home.

McClintock, a professor, researcher, biologist and global explorer at UAB is renown for his work in Antarctica and his first book, the highly acclaimed, Lost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land.

 via Jim McClintock

He followed up his inaugural effort with A Naturalist Goes Fishing: Casting in Fragile Water From the Gulf of Mexico to New Zealand’s South Island.

McClintock writes in the style of fellow Alabamian and close friend Pulitzer Prize winning author and scientist E.O. Wilson.  His stories are personal and bear witness to the beauty of our natural world and the challenges to preserve it.

A Naturalist Goes Fishing is a must read for the angler and proponent for clean water and the world’s special places to fish.  Along with the aforementioned Antarctica, New Zealand and Louisiana, the book highlights 6 additional regions around the world, including Alabama’s own Cahaba River.

Check out this excerpt of the book from Scientific American magazine, about McClintock’s forty minute battle to catch a bull redfish in Louisiana.

“He’s running again!” I warned Pete over the whine of reel drag and rumble of engine idle. We had followed the fish for close to forty minutes. Hard rain, stiff winds, and a falling tide had conspired and left us wet and chilled. The only good news was that I had caught a glimpse of the fish. It was definitely a big red, its upper body carpeted in a mosaic of coppery red scales. The fish had to be at least three feet long, with a broad muscular girth that spoke to its bulldog strength. The fish slowed. Maybe it was tiring. I lifted my rod tip and pulled back slowly and steadily and reeled in line as my rod descended. Again and again, lift, pull, reel. With mounting excitement, Pete and I watched the fish’s tail fin break the surface near the skiff. Then, as if punctuating the end of a sentence with a deft tail kick, the bull red broke free and vanished.”

Discover McClintock’s books Lost Antarctica and A Naturalist Goes Fishing this Spring Break  at Books a Million. Not only will you travel the world without leaving home, you will be prepared to advocate for its protection.

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