Hughes' thesis seems to be that angling is a rare pleasure to be shared in print as well as enjoyed in person.

– Steve Raymond, Flyfisher

His views on conservation are especially refreshing with a depth of historical perspective and a clean line of reasoning that will grab your understanding first, then your emotions, unlike much of the standard rhetoric that omits that first step.

– John Gierach, author of Trout Bum

Like his more formal works, An Angler's Astoria contains many lessons, the kind you come by honestly, if you grow up fishing a place you learn to love--homewaters, or heartwaters as it were--and ultimately become an aquatic entomologist-cum-expert fly fisher.

– Seth Norman, California Fly Fisher

An Angler's Astoria is full of the youthful exuberance of its author and his Pacific Northwest. Among so many books of doleful reminiscence (written by young men), Hughes's stories are oases.

– Fly Fisherman