Open Season: An Angler's Life In New Zealand

Dave Witherow

Oct 2014 · Sold by Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited

About this ebook

A charming collection of fishing stories drawn from over 30 years of persistent pursuit of the elusive trout. Dave Witherow is an angler: an adventurous, risk-taking, articulate, passionate angler. He’s spent the best part of his life fishing the rivers of New Zealand. He's also a story teller of rare talent. His stories are beautifully and hilariously imbued with the camaraderie of men, of fellow anglers, seeking a world away from domesticity and daily cares; ‘getting away from it all’ and finding their inner hunter-gatherers.Two-Pies, Kevin, Bubbles and others appear again and again, their characters and quirks masterfully portrayed – these are friends who for many years have fished some of the most remote areas of New Zealand. The author wore-out one small plane and built another in order to visit the more secluded river spots where one doesn’t come across the 80 per cent of fishers, or the guides and the well-outfitted tourists disembarking a helicopter. His encounters and adventures are always highly entertaining, appealing and down-right hair-raising. Lyrical, erudite, ferociously astute, Witherow captures a New Zealand that few experience. Throughout, the penetrating, concise mind of the hunter, the grace of the fly-caster and the cool-headed approach to a river crossing are brilliantly balanced with the antics and utter joy of the author and his fishing mates. Open Season is the perfect book for the keen angler, the armchair traveller and the many tourists who venture to New Zealand just for the season.

About the author

Dave Witherow was born in Northern Ireland, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1971, after living for a time in Canada and Australia. He began fishing in Ireland, but did not become fully addicted until discovering the wonderful trout and salmon of the British Columbian wilderness. But the long winters persuaded Witherow to have a look at warmer climes, and he moved to Whyalla, in South Australia. There he learnt a bit about sea-fishing, took up scuba-diving, and 'read a book about New Zealand, which up to then I hadn’t heard about'. Another migration ensued, this time to Edgecumbe, in the Bay of Plenty, where he again found brilliant fishing. 'My favourite streams were the Wheao and the Whirinaki, and to me it was close to paradise'. Before long, however, the Wheao was destroyed by a power-scheme, persuading Witherow to find a location where, as he says, 'There would be so much fishing that no matter how fast the bastards wrecked it, it would last the rest of my life.' He has found this nirvana, he hopes, in the lower South Island, where he lives in Balfour, close to the Mataura River. He writes a regular column for Fish and Game magazine, fishes, hunts, and flies his two-seater microlight. Dave Witherow is a natural storyteller and is well-known in fishing circles, especially with Fish and Game, where, as a long-serving council member, he’s been a passionate advocate for New Zealand rivers. A former scriptwriter for Natural History New Zealand documentaries, he is also a charming, irreverent comic who has an infectious love of the great outdoors.