The Striped Bass Chronicles

The hitherto unsung striped bass, disparaged by anglers in favor of glamour fish like the salmon and the trout, comes into its own in this account by the author of Profiles in Saltwater Angling. There are interestingly informative bits here, like the bass's tolerance of all salinity levels, which enables it to live and reproduce in lakes as well as in oceans, and the fact that the striped bass in the Pacific are descendants of fish carried across the country from the Atlantic. But to get at these nuggets, readers must wade through a prolonged history of the fish from 1623 to the present, including problems like determining which genus it belongs to. And much of the second half of this slender volume results from Reiger's concerns with the waxing and waning of the bass population on both coasts of this country from overfishing; this part is primarily a conservationist plea. Only those deeply interested in bass fishing will want to read this book. The line drawings by the author's teenage son are effective. (Apr.)