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The Alaskan Road-Fishing Guide

The Highway Angler IV by Gunnar Pedersen Who must have this book: Any resident or long term RV visitor who is looking for new fishing spots. Who should have this book: In reality, this makes a great reference, but it is most valuable to people who will be in state for long periods. ISBN: 0385486804

Note: There is a new fifth edition of this book out 5/2007. I will review it when I get my hands on a copy. You can buy it at Amazon at this link.

This book is an great general reference. It covers over 750 fishable bodies of water. This is More than any other book I have seen. So, if you are spending the summer wandering the road system in an RV or if you are a resident looking for a new spot nearby, this is a book for you. Nearly every fishable piece of water you can drive to is listed in this book.

Unfortunately the trade off for having so many locations is that the book doesn't go deeply into any single body of water. So this is not an in depth guide of how to fish any one spot, but a great, broad resource to look for possibilities.

Overview

The book opens with a brief description of how to use the book. People new to fishing in Alaska may want to mark page 6 so you can go back to decode out the abbreviated fish names (AG for artic grayling, KO for kokane and I'll let you figure out BB. This section is followed by brief descriptions of the game fish of Alaska. Then comes the meat of the book, the river and lake information section.

The book is illustrated with a handful of black and white fishing photos, some line drawings of fish, and some minimalistic maps. The maps are rough and only give a rough idea of locations. If you are trying to find a specific location, it would be wise to have a better map or gazetter on hand. There are directions in each location description, but it would be good to have a better map with you. A gazetteer would be most helpful in case you decided to hike away from the road. Remember, hiking a few hundred yards often gets you away from crowds and nearer to a Alaskan wilderness experience.

One more word of warning, be careful any time there are references to regulations. Alaska's fishing regulations can change literally overnight. It is important you keep up to date on regulatios. Pedersen does a good job of avoiding direct references to regulations. Also he has kept the information up to date through his four editions of this book.

Authur

Gunnar Pedersen has been fishing the waters of Alaska for over twenty years and has authored and co-authored several great books on the topic. These include the first three editions of Fishing Alaska's Kenai River, Highway Angler, the Highway Angler: Ice Fishing, and Alaska Fishing with Renee Limeres - which has come to be the gold standard on the subject.

Other books by the Author