Hawke’s Bay Fish & Game hoping to get women hooked on fly-fishing

Olivia Templeton, Paula Burden and Diana Scott attended the first of four Hawke's Bay Fish & Game fly-fishing classes for women, which cover catching, filleting and smoking a trout. Photo / Paul Taylor

A new series of fly-fishing classes held at Hawke’s Bay Fish & Game aims to get more women hooked on the sport.

The first of four “Ladies on the Fly” sessions was held on Thursday last week at the group’s grounds in Greenmeadows.

Fishing guide Paula Burden said New Zealand now had an all-women national fly-fishing squad, which showed the extent of interest in the sport

“There has been a big move in fly-fishing around the world, there are more and more numbers of women getting more of a presence on the rivers and I guess the numbers of women buying licences to go trout fishing has increased dramatically over the years,” Burden said.

“There are a lot of women out there who are doing it or are kind of interested in it but don’t really know where to go to be able to do that activity.”

Burden is a beauty therapist in her day job and is either trout fishing or helping to teach others at the weekend.

“This will be my fifth season. I converted from saltwater fishing,” she said.

The “Ladies on the Fly” sessions aim to help women network with other female fly-fishers and to give them the knowledge they needed to equip themselves and begin fishing. They cover all aspects of the sport from catching technique to filleting and smoking trout.

Paula Burden is currently running four small sessions, but Hawke's Bay Fish & Game is open to organising more as people express interest. Photo / Paul Taylor

“It is to encourage and support other women to get out on the rivers and just enjoy,” Burden said. “It is great for mental health, relaxation and fitness.”

Anyone interested can call Fish & Game Hawke’s Bay, which will take their contact details down and pass them on.

While it seemed like numbers were down after Cyclone Gabrielle, there were still fish around if one knew where to look, Burden said.

She is looking at running more sessions with Fish & Game later this year.

Hawke’s Bay Fish & Game Council inter-term manager Chris Newton said the group intended to run courses such as “Ladies on the Fly” on a regular basis.