Wanaka-based author Derek Grzelewski's latest offering, The Trout Bohemia; Fly-fishing travels in New Zealand, puts himself in the unenviable position of following up his great first book, The Trout Diaries (2008).
Diaries garnered deserved acclaim. Trout Bohemia is the second instalment of a trilogy, enhanced with quality illustrations and photographs.
Grzelewski resumes with adept and accurate portrayals of like-minded fly-fishing characters he meets journeying the North and South Islands, many obscure, but also some well-known identities of southern waterways.
Bohemia, like Diaries, isn't a ''how to'' book, but offers ample, thought-provoking trout-stalking observations, split-cane rod nuances or obscure bow and arrow casting for purists.
Grzelewski's barbed environmental observations remind those of us who truthfully do little about protecting waterways, that the time to act is upon us.
For non-fishers, Grzelewski effortlessly swings from the humorous; a fishing couple in a convertible appearing in torrential rain to a master mariner, pedal-boating a lake in pursuit of trout.
He deftly weaves in pathos, that of an acid-scarred fly-fisherman's struggle to regain his eyesight, then sketches the dusk of his mentor's fishing life, a well-travelled 82-year-old Frenchman.
A recurring theme is Grzelewski's engagement with several couples among his myriad of characters, exploring where, how and why they fish together.
Somewhat disconcerting is analysis of his own relationship woes, sitting in insolation amid the fluent fishing philosophising, and other couple's apparent happiness.
History abounds in Grzelewski's yarns, be it Thomas Brunner's epic 1846 18-month attempt following the Buller from source to sea, Bill Hamilton's equally epic jet unit development, or chronicling numerous characters of a Whakapapa riverside settlement.
Trout Diaries is set to be a classic, having earned its bookshelf spot alongside outdoors' authors Nelson Bryant and John Gierach, while Trout Bohemia is an engaging companion to Diaries.
- Simon Hartley is ODT senior business reporter and an occasional fly-fisher.
