Catfish Ponds And Lily Pads: Unclear Writing Muddies Topic
Written: Nov 03 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Homey, back-porch stories...
Cons: ...but no point to the book.
The Bottom Line: This book isn't worth buying or reading. Avoid it, and look for a more useful pond building guide instead.
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| hadassahchana's Full Review: Louise Riotte - Catfish Ponds & Lily Pads: Creatin... |
Catfish Ponds And Lily Pads is a book supposedly intended for those who wish to build a fishing pond for private use. Author Louise Riotte watched her son build such a catfish pond, and bases her book on this experience. The various sections in the book discuss not only pond building, but also choosing plants for the pond, fishing, fish stocking and farming, and the capture and eating of frogs and turtles.
Pond building
Unfortunately, Riotte's lack of personal involvement in the actual pond building shines through in this text. Although instructions for building the pond are included, they are scanty and really don't give enough information to create such a pond. One can guess that a person who has already built a pond would understand the few paragraphs devoted to pond building, but a novice would really be left with no clear idea of what to do. I've spent this past summer building wildlife ponds with a local ecological restoration landscaper, and neither of us could figure out what was intended by the instructions included in the book. Therefore, I feel that this book fails as an instruction manual.
Aquatic plants
The section on choosing plants was also not really complete, and the information provided wouldn't cross over into a different geographical location. The author lives in Oklahoma, and many of the species she recommends are not hardy in northern climates. Furthermore, as she really doesn't include many native plants for pond use, anyone following this guide would find few if any species of wildlife coming to the new pond. Riotte claims that building such a pond will attract frogs and turtles, but most frogs and turtles aren't able to live on exotic species and hybrids. Therefore, by depriving them of their food and shelter sources, that will cut down or totally eliminate them from the kind of ecosystem described.
Fish
Again, as in other sections, this book tries to include information about a wide variety of subjects. Riotte tries to cover everything from raising enough fish to feed one's own family to running a serious aquaculture farm. And, as in the other sections, insufficient information ruins the usefulness of the book. For example, she includes an eleven-page chapter on aquacuture, and in this chapter she discusses kinds of fish, water sources, plans for building, financing schemes, buying land, and marketing. Needless to say, this chapter is too broad and provides little actual information about the subject.
Frogs and turtles
This section made me nearly fall off my chair! I was expecting more cute personal stories about frogs. During this past spring and summer, I have spent a fair amount of time wading in local marshes and creeks, compiling lists of frog populations and recording such things as limb anomalies, water purity, etc. I love frogs, and find them to be extremely charming animals. So, when I received this book, it was only natural that I would choose to flip through to the frog chapter first. By now, probably many of you are smiling in anticipation of the next bit - but it never once occurred to me that anyone would write an entire chapter on how to catch and cook frogs! I was in tears at this point. While I am sure that this is, in fact, a popular sport in Oklahoma, it failed to capture my imagination as it did Riotte's. Around here, the bullfrog is an endangered species, and during the entire summer, I heard only one bullfrog. The thought of anyone chasing them with sharp spears just gave me chills.
Turtles fare no better in Catfish Ponds. She provides some misinformation about turtles, and advises that a pond owner make sure that they are removed from the pond. She then provides a couple of recipes for cooking turtles, neither of which sounds edible, in my opinion.
Overall impressions
I really feel that this book was a waste of time. It is lacking in focus, and I can't figure out who it was written for. There are lots of sidebars filled with anecdotes, some amusing, others merely present. There are interesting tidbits of folklore, which I did enjoy. However, in my opinion, the book fails in its stated purpose, as a guide to pond-building, fishing and fish farming. None of these topics is covered at all in depth, and furthermore, much of the information provided is just downright confusing. Therefore,I can't recommend this book to anyone at all.
Recommended:
No
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hadassahchana
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