Wellington Fish & Game has honoured three members of the Kāpiti Fly Anglers Club for their voluntary efforts to the club and wider community.
Leigh Johnson, Michael Murphy and Gordon Baker were recognised in the Wellington Fish & Game Council Recognition Awards.
Johnson felt “proud” to be awarded for outstanding contributions to the promotion of participation by women in freshwater angling in the Wellington region.
“My focus has been to get more women involved in fly fishing.”
She created the Women on The Fly project to get more women into the club which was so successful it became Wellington-wide.
But she returned to it “as a retirement activity” and is now “fully engaged — I love it”.
Her first association with the sport was as a child when she saw a “split cane rod on my widowed great-aunt’s garage wall and I wondered what it was”.
“And then I had a relative who was a keen fisher and then a work colleague who fished, and then I thought I should try it out.”
Johnson said flying fishing gave a wide range of enjoyment.
“It has benefits to your mental, physical and social health.
“I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed the therapeutic benefits of just being out on the river and nature.
“There’s quite a lot of problem-solving and learning involved too.
“I’m also motivated to stay fit and healthy because I need strong legs, I need to look after my knees which are a bit dodgy, and I need to have good balance.
“And socially there’s something about a group of women fishing, supporting and encouraging each other.”
Murphy was “quite humbled” to be awarded for outstanding contributions to the promotion of freshwater angling in the Wellington region.
He has been involved in fly fishing from a young age, especially as his father was into it, but it wasn’t until he was in his late 50s that his passion increased.
“I’d been involved in hunting, tramping, yachting, four-wheel driving and more over the years, but then got back to what I started [fly fishing] as a young fella.”
Murphy noted many benefits too.
Michael Murphy with a trout which he is about to release back into the river.
“It’s an amazingly good way of keeping reasonable fit and the whole mental wellbeing part isn’t well known.
“There’s nothing better than getting out there and spending time on the river.
“It’s hugely important for me, and some of my friends, to do that. You’re in the moment — all the time — and the normal day-to-day things we worry about tend to disappear.”
Baker was “quite honoured” to be awarded for outstanding contributions to the Wellington region’s recruitment and training of anglers.
He joined the Wellington Flyfishers Club in 1989 and was with the club for many years before moving to the coast and joining the Kāpiti club in recent years.
He became involved in fishing after his mother passed away in 1987 and he got some money as part of her estate.
“I didn’t know what to do with it but I thought what would she like me to do with it?
“I thought she would like me to spend it on something I enjoyed.
Gordon Baker has enjoyed fly fishing over many years.
So he bought some saltwater fishing gear and read various books about the art of fishing.
But after staying with some friends in Mangaweka he was introduced to fly fishing.
“I went back to the library and started to read about flying fishing and then bought a fly fishing rod, and within a short time joined the Wellington club.
“That was a big step because I was starting to fish with people who knew what they were doing and made a dramatic difference from learning from a book.
“And now I’ve got an international fly casting instructor’s qualification and I teach fly fishing, fly tying and take people fly fishing, and that kind of stuff.”
Like Johnson and Murphy, fly fishing brought lots of enjoyment to Baker.
He loved the “different challenges and degrees of satisfaction” rivers offered as well as maintaining his fitness, making his own flies, reading fly fishing literature, and camaraderie.
There was also another aspect.
“You can even sit on the riverbank and watch fish swimming about which can be pretty satisfying.”
