Steelhead Country

A wise sportsperson writes about the fishing he or she knows: what Raymond knows best is fly-fishing the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. This time it's for steelhead, a singular sea-migrating Western trout species the color of worn silverplate. After 25 seasons on such rivers as the Sauk, the Stillaguamish and the Green, Raymond ( Kamloops ) is able to make of fly-fishing for steelhead a metaphor for all of angling's particular truths and joys. Readers will be drawn upriver by fine strokes of description of the waterways and the fishing--``The steelhead bolted out of the slot and into the quiet water of an upstream pool, then jumped high, throwing spats of silver spray''--and by Raymond's magnetic sense of place in steelhead country. Add this book to the shelf of choice regional outdoors writing from the Pacific Northwest. Drawings not seen by PW. (Oct.)