It's something I've been wanting to do for 20 years. The Kentucky River is so interesting and offers so much opportunity.

Knowing the place names for various stretches of the river comes in handy when you're inquiring about local fishing activity.

The scale is 1 inch equals 2,000 feet, or about 21/2 inches per mile. The maps don't show underwater depth contours because they change so much due to the heavy current.

I encourage everyone to send in the update form so I can send them new map pages, which they can easily add to their book.

'Mystic River' just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.

As a youngster I worked the river boats going down the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pushing barges to Chicago, then all the way down to New Orleans.