I've read the book and found it to be a enjoyable read. Interestingly enough last year I bought a fly rod off a guy on Craigslist who lives in my neighborhood. We got to talking and turns out he's a retired PSU professor who had the author as a student as well as fishing companion and shared so insight into where certain areas of the book were based,because I had my theories as well. So his input/theorries from knowing Duncan is that most of the book is based around the Nestucca river and the portland creek where he saves the little trout was the then highly polluted Johnson creek. Well that's my input on the thread..lol