Confessions of an Eco-Redneck: Or How I Learned to Gut-Shoot Trout & Save the Wilderness at the Same Time

by Steve Chapple

Confessions of an Eco-Redneck collects the best of outdoor writer Steve Chapple's short pieces. This is outdoor adventure writing at its best, in a league with Tim Cahill, Randy White, or PJ O'Rourke, and the essays range from fishing: for tigerfish on the Zambezi, tarpon in the Keys, trout on the Yellowstone; to hunting: the "Bambi Syndrome" (Hollywood's bias against the sport), "Dinner Bell Grizzlies," and stalking televisions in Montana; to the larger questions: "Now or Never for American Rivers," and the great unasked question about the Lewis & Clark expedition: "How were the bugs??" Underneath Steve Chapple's laugh-out loud wit there's a serious plea to environmentalists to remember that sportsmen (the eco-rednecks of the title) are among the most passionate and effective advocates for conservation of the environment that we've got.

Genres: Nature

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

Reviews

[sncottle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book mainly because my father knew the author from college; also partially because most of the terrain covered was familiar to me because my mother lived in the same town in Montana. Some of the essays in the collections were interesting and entertaining, some not as much. Overall, I enjoyed it. It's interesting and, frankly, disturbing the extent to which the environmental and conservation issues that he wrote about in the late 90s are the same ones that we face today.

[Kei · Rating 1 out of 5]

The voice it was written in wasn't for me, nothing intrinsically wrong with the content. (From as far as I managed to get, anyway.)

[Michael Huang · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're into fly fishing and hunting and all that, you might enjoy it a bit more than I do. Imagine the author as a random eco-redneck in a bar, who is pretty experienced as a fly-fisherman and who hasn't talked to a soul for ages. Now that you are sitting next to him, he started to tell you about everything, his opinion on this, his belief on that, the trips he made to Hawaii some time ago. Heck, on his 24th beer, he'll even recite a poem to you. So, if you know this is going to happen, and choose to sit down next to him, then grab this book.

[Toph White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the essays refer to fishing, but the focus on conservation and outside enjoyment runs throughout. I did enjoy the talk with Ted Turner, his chapter on hunting TV's and his point on discussing damming American Rivers.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of dozen travel/outdoor articles set in locales from Montana to Hawaii to Disney World. The author offers some mildly amusing musings about his personal hunting and fishing experiences with details of scenic locales and characters he’s met.