Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes, Second Edition (Peterson Field Guides)

Bought used through Amazon. Book arrived in excellent condition and in a timely manner. The Peterson Guide is the gold standard of Field Guides. I'll be using this for my new hobby of micro fishing in rivers, streams, and creeks on the east coast. The plates and descriptions of the fish in the book are superb and easy to understand. Beautiful pictures. The book is compact but weighty. Will fit in a small day pack nicely.

Love this book!

This guide is a great go-to book to identify nearly any freshwater fish you would come across in North America. That is the main purpose of this guide and it does it very well. It is not overly geared for icthyologists although alot of the descriptive terminology is not in everyones vocabulary, there is a glossary to define these terms used, so you can always find out exactly what a "caudal fulcrum" or any other term you are unfamiliar with means. It is set up for people interested in fish that want to know what they are. The plates are organized with similar looking species together and short descriptions and arrows are used to show you what to look for to seperate the different species. If you have narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities but still not quite sure, you can go to the page with more complete decriptions for each species and it tells you morphological characteristics, range maps, habitats, and similar species so you can be more sure of your identification. It also has more detailed pictures of certain parts to look for if two or more fish are very similar in appearance. I can not think of a better way for such a complete guide to be organized. The plates do what they are intended to do, and that is to give you a visual guide to identification in one place, so you dont have to flip through 600 pages of descriptions for each species with a picture next to each one. This book is useful to everyone from the professionals to a kid who netted his first darter out of a stream and wonders what it is.

I accidentally donated my original copy of this book to the library before I moved. Thankfully my wife re-bought the book and I have the pleasure of knowing other folks can get it through the library. It's a great little book crammed with all kinds of information for fishermen, or just outdoor lovers, alike. Over 600 pages in a compact book.

Lots of details with the book, many examples of places where they're from, tons of information. Just wish there was more pictures of each fish.

All of the fish I catch in Tennessee whether they be known or the oddballs are in this book, even sorted by male and female to help with identification! Then it goes in depth about each species from where they are found to what they eat!

I purchased this for our 7yr old grandson knowing that he may be too young for it but he absolutely loves fishing. He was so excited to be able to learn about so many fish! Hopefully this guide will serve him well into adulthood.

I have owned Peterson Field Guides since being an outdoors kid roaming the mountains, waters and forests of Eastern Washington. They have been my constant companions whether I was trying to identify a bird I had never seen before or figure out what kind of insect that was that just bit me. I was happy to find after purchasing this guide that not only did the guide include all information , descriptions and illustrations I loved as a kid but they have organized it in a more efficient and user friendly format.

Non ammissibile che una guida da campo contenga solo all'inizio un ristretto numero di disegni (con tutti i limiti degli stessi) e nessuna foto. Dove vi sono le descrizioni delle specie nessuna foto e nessun disegno. Interessanti invece le mappe delle distribuzioni delle singole specie ed è per questo che gli do la seconda stella.

all good. very technical, good illustrations. informative

Un petit ouvrage maniable pour connaître un peu mieux le monde des poissons

There are 4 problems with this book. 1. The plates are separate from the text, and it is annoying to flip between the two. 2. Of the 57 plates, 15 (26%) are black and white. Included in the black and white plates is a plate featuring Cichlids; one of the most colourful groups of fish. 3. The quality of the colour plates is only average, and this is not helped by the small size of each illustration. This is particularly noticeable on the plate of Cutthroat Trout, where 19 tiny illustrations have been crammed onto one page. 4. The book advises that fish identification is achieved by first using the plates, and then the text for confirmation. However, although 909 species are featured in the book, 227 (25%) are not illustrated. The "not illustrated" species include the Atlantic Stingray and the Tench. Both of these fish have a unique appearance, therefore you would be unable to narrow down an identification by looking at the plates for similar species. The format and quality of this book reminds me of field guides from the 1960's and 1970's. Comparable European field guides now achieve a much higher standard.

Wenn man sich für Fische aus Nordamerika interessiert, führt an diesem Taschenbuch nichts vorbei. In seiner jetzt vorliegenden 2. Auflage gibt es einen aktuellen Überblick aller gültigen Arten. Aufgebaut ist es nach Fischfamilien. Alle Spezies werden mit dem wissenschaftlichen Namen und der umgangssprachlichen Bezeichnung aufgeführt. Es gibt Verbreitungskarten zu den Arten, wichtige Informationen und Zeichnungen bzw. Bilder. Mit Pfeilen ist markiert, anhand welcher Merkmale sich Arten im Feld schnell von ihrer Verwandtschaft unterscheiden bzw. überhaupt bestimmen lassen. Sicherlich ließen sich noch weitaus mehr Informationen über jede Art zusammentragen, aber dafür gibt es die entsprechende Fachliteratur. Als Taschenbuch für einen schnellen Überblick oder zur groben Bestimmung direkt vor Ort macht dieses Werk allerdings eine sehr gute Figur - was ebenso für seinen verhältnismäßig geringen Preis gilt.