From Publishers Weekly
Burke, "a devoted angler" and a Forbes staff writer, chases down the most famous characters in the years-long quest to top the world record for biggest largemouth bass, at 22 pounds, four ounces, set in 1932 by a 20-year-old Georgia farmer under now-questionable conditions. Burke admirably brings to life the people who enter into such a chase, and he finds good drama in the techniques and sacrifices necessary to pursue such a goal. Readers meet Bob Crupi, a Los Angeles cop whose single-minded pursuit of the record provides an escape from his stressful job, but also threatens his marriage and makes him a stranger to his kids. There's also Mike Long, whom Burke calls "the best big-bass fisherman alive, period" because of the number of largemouth Long has yanked out of the waters of Southern California. Long's fame and reputation have allowed him to cast with the likes of Robin Williams and Nick Lachey, but that fame comes at a price, as would-be record-breakers clog the lakes and ponds Long frequents, threatening to steal his big haul. Throughout, Burke sprinkles ruminations on the science and details of bass fishing, nicely sewing together a well-paced tale about "what we humans will do, what we will gain and what we are willing to sacrifice, in attempting to reach a goal." (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Those who think largemouth-bass fishing is a minor hobby should explain that to the 11.3 million "hard-core" bass fishers in America (those who spend at least 15 days a year fishing). Some observers compare largemouth-bass fishing today to the status of NASCAR just 10 years ago--on the verge of exploding into national awareness. Burke's engaging, informed account of the sport, which began as an article for Forbes, explains just why bass fishing has become so popular: the proliferation of largemouth bass in lakes nationwide, their fight on the rod, and a professional circuit that supports some 500 bass fishers. There are also the fame and cash that come from landing the Big One, the record fish having been caught in 1932 at a whopping 22 pounds, 4 ounces. While Burke profiles several of the thousands of deadly serious bass fishers fixated on the record, he points to the loopy way that that fish might be caught: "Anyone could break it. Whereas you or I will never top the single-season home-run record in baseball, we could land the next world-record bass." Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Monte Burke is currently a senior reporter at Forbes. A passionate angler and outdoorsman, he has written many articles for Field & Stream and other periodicals.

About the Author
A devoted angler and outdoorsman, Monte Burke has written many articles for Field & Stream and other periodicals.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
There's a popular slogan in Alcoholics Anonymous: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results." Sounds perfectly reasonable -- unless you're completely obsessed. Well, Burke has met his share of obsessives and strangely enough, they all have one thing in common, the desire to catch the world's biggest largemouth bass and break a record that has stood since 1932.

The more delicate trout has served as literary inspiration for years, but the more "inferior" bass were "sought after by uncouth Southerners￯﾿ﾽ[and] backwoods rubes hiding in their outhouses," writes Burke. Technically not even a bass, the largemouth is just an overgrown sunfish, indigenous to Florida but now lurking in a lake near you (if you live in any state except Alaska). But bass fishing today is "where NASCAR was ten years ago," and some have even begun to refer to the $12 billion industry as BASSCAR.

So who are these anglers, looking to hook a portly fish topping 22 lbs., 4 oz.? They're men who fish every spare minute, madly in love with the chase (and with the sunburned necks to prove it), men who throw away marriages and families, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to "grow" the record-breaking poisson. Like all great journalists, Burke (an avid fisherman himself) lets these crazy characters tell the story themselves -- would that it were just a big ol' fish tale. (Summer 2005 Selection)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, a fascinating look at obsessed fishermenand their quest for fame, fortune, and the seventy-two-year-old record for the heaviest largemouth bass

On a rainy morning in the spring of 1932, a farmer named George Washington Perry decided it was too wet to plow and went fishing instead. That day, a star was born in McRae, Georgia, when George landed the largest largemouth ever recorded—twenty-two pounds four ounces, to be exact. The fish has inspired and frustrated hundreds of also-ran anglers for decades. They've dedicated their lives to the pursuit of ￯﾿ﾽSowbelly￯﾿ﾽ—a nearly mythical fish, whose swinelike girth holds the key to their dreams. Now avid fisherman Monte Burke captures their stories.

Sowbelly features a motorcycle cop from Los Angeles who came within ounces of besting the record, the tiny lake in suburban San Diego where competition has turned especially fierce, a biologist from Texas trying to produce the next world-record bass through scientific research, an Alabaman who has lost his marriage and his daughter to this futile pursuit, and even an excursion to Cuba. Tracking each story with an entertaining, stranger-than-fiction eye, Burke brings readers unprecedented access to the key players in this legendary race.

Published just in time for fishing expos and Father's Day, Sowbelly reels in the ultimate catch for the eleven million fishermen pursuing largemouth bass.

Author Biography: A devoted angler and outdoorsman, Monte Burke has written many articles for Field & Stream and other periodicals.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Burke, "a devoted angler" and a Forbes staff writer, chases down the most famous characters in the years-long quest to top the world record for biggest largemouth bass, at 22 pounds, four ounces, set in 1932 by a 20-year-old Georgia farmer under now-questionable conditions. Burke admirably brings to life the people who enter into such a chase, and he finds good drama in the techniques and sacrifices necessary to pursue such a goal. Readers meet Bob Crupi, a Los Angeles cop whose single-minded pursuit of the record provides an escape from his stressful job, but also threatens his marriage and makes him a stranger to his kids. There's also Mike Long, whom Burke calls "the best big-bass fisherman alive, period" because of the number of largemouth Long has yanked out of the waters of Southern California. Long's fame and reputation have allowed him to cast with the likes of Robin Williams and Nick Lachey, but that fame comes at a price, as would-be record-breakers clog the lakes and ponds Long frequents, threatening to steal his big haul. Throughout, Burke sprinkles ruminations on the science and details of bass fishing, nicely sewing together a well-paced tale about "what we humans will do, what we will gain and what we are willing to sacrifice, in attempting to reach a goal." (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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