New Book – Fishing Season

Let Philip Weigall transport you to your favourite river with this beautifully illustrated tribute to the art of fly fishing…

The flyfisher loves the sunlight dancing off a trout stream, the quiet reverie of an undisturbed lake, the reliance on intuition and instinct, the surreal beauty of his prey, his sport’s ambiguous relationship with time, the heart-stopping moment of a surface strike by a large trout.

‘I felt the first branches pluck the line like bony fingers on a guitar string, and then the trout was gone. I reeled in a broken tippet, simultaneously exhilarated and disappointed. What can you do with a fish like that?’

Take a journey through a Fishing Season, a year full of challenges and victories, disappointments and frustrations, but most of all, quiet happiness. Philip’s prose is lucid, and his reflection on the sport he loves is engaging.

Avid anglers will find plenty to love in Fishing Season, but this is a book that also appeals to a wider audience, opening the door to a world few of us experience.

Lively, entertaining anecdotes, whether lovingly remembered or wryly bemoaned, will have you itching to pick up a rod and undertake your own adventure.

A professional flyfishing guide and writer, Philip’s years of experience and time on the water have been sorted through and summarised in Fishing Season. What results is the most exciting book on this topic in many years.

Fishing Season is a gorgeous production and would make an excellent gift this Father’s Day.

‘It’s simultaneously a brutal and beautiful scene, carnage and life, and although I release most of my catch, in a way I’m part of it. For a moment I think of people who don’t fish, and feel sorry for them.’

Specifications: 195 x 135mm | cased with jacket | 196pp

Available August 2009. To pre-order please email sales(at)exislepublishing(dot)com or phone Exisle Publishing + 61(0)2 4998 3327. For media enquiries please contact Tahnee McCrossin tahnee(at)exislepublishing(dot)com.

REVIEWS:

“Fishing Season is typical Weigall fare, which will be music to the ears of many. The stories are short and extremely well crafted, full of creative and vibrant writing…Phil’s well-honed style is tried and tested, and Fishing Season is true to his reputation as a leading flyfishing author in Australia…Overall, this collection of short stories is solid, and should find its way into plenty of Father’s Day gift boxes (this is when you can expect to find it in your bookstores).”

—Daniel Hackett, Riverfly Tasmania (read the full review on Daniel’s blog).

“In his sixth book, Fishing Season, Philip Weigall takes us through a year of seasons as a fly fisher. Philip reflects on seasons past and events that have made them memorable to him and are worth sharing with others. The book contains 26 stories that vary from a tantalising four pages to more substantial offerings of about three times that size. This is a book to read and enjoy while you are relaxing, perhaps with a glass of red, although it’s so easy to become lost in Philip’s imagery that the latter can frequently be forgotten. This is a rare book, one that can be enjoyed by fishers and non-fishers alike. And I mean fishers, as the appeal of this book goes beyond those besotted with the lure of the fly.
Travel with Philip from the streams of Victoria’s highlands to the rivers and lakes of New Zealand to the tropical waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria and beyond as he reveals memories of his experiences as he chases fish on the fly. Learn why he is rarely asked to be responsible for meal planning, how giant rays hunt crabs on land and how every season is special if you enjoy what you are doing.”

—Freshwater Fishing magazine