John McPhee writes about shad. Shad are fish. That description should make you want to read this book. Go. Go! Maybe you read his shad articles in the "New Yorker". Maybe you think "Surely I now know everything that I could ever want to know about shad". You must, as a responsible scientist, test this hypothesis; you will find it to be false.
This book is about shad. It's the life of a shad, the life of a shad fisherman, shad's place in history, shad's place in the food chain. It's conversations with tackle-makers, biologists, fisher-folk, and ordinary citizens.
Why are you still reading this book report. Why have you not run to your local bookstore and purchased this book? Go. Go!
Between the time I read this book and the time I got around to posting this book report, I read a comic book about Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. That comic book does not mention that Booth was aided in his flight from justice by shad fishermen. McPhee mentions this. McPhee has the good stories. Go read McPhee.
(Though, now that I think about it, McPhee's book could benefit from some illustrations by Rick Geary, who did that comic book. But there is not much use wishing for books that do not exist, unless you are willing to become a book publisher. And that way lies ruin.)
Have you read the book yet? Go. Go!