Taupō women prepare for the world fly fishing stage

Taupo Fishing Club members make up the entire Fly Ferns team. From left to right: Suzie Foggo, Rachel McNae (Captain), Heather Carrington, Louise Stuart, Sarah Delany

New Zealand’s first-ever women’s team at the World Championship Fly Fishing Championships will be made up entirely of Taupō Fishing Club members.

The team of seven anglers, known as the Fly Ferns, will head off to the week-long event in Kamloops, Canada this September.

Team captain Dr Rachel McNae said the team was “extremely proud” to have been selected.

“This is the first time that New Zealand has sent a full women’s team to the World Championships.”

The team is comprised of anglers Rachel McNae, Louise Stuart, Suzie Foggo, Heather Carrington and Sarah Delaney, alongside co-managers Lesley Hosking and Chris Pritt.

For McNae, this is the latest in a line of international competitions. She was selected to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Championships in 2020, and is the only woman on the New Zealand Development Team.

The rest of the team also bring a lot of experience to the table.

“We’re experienced anglers. Many of us have been competition fishing for years.”

Lesley Hosking and Christine Pritt of Taupō Fishing Club are the NZ Fly Ferns' co-managers.

However, going from the waters of the Taupō and Tūrangi areas to the wilds of Canada will require some training and preparation.

With different conditions, rules and techniques - including the limited use of one fly instead of New Zealand’s typical three - the North American competition will pose fresh challenges for the team.

As well as trawling the internet and conferring with experienced guides, “we’re dialling into as much local intel as we can”, McNae said.

This means adapting their practice as much as possible.

“We might not be able to replicate the conditions, but we can replicate the techniques.”

Each angler will take on a series of three-hour long sessions on lakes and rivers. They are placed into a boat with a competing angler from another team, along with a skipper who also acts as the controller, measuring caught fish before they are returned.

The team’s final score will be tallied based on the number caught, along with the length of fish landed.

The Fly Ferns hope that the profile of the event will attract more women and girls to try their hands at fly fishing.

McNae and other women at the top of the sport want to spread the message that it’s accessible to all, particularly for locals around the world-renowned waterways of the central North Island.

It’s a personal cause for McNae, whose own experiences as a woman in fly fishing at times felt isolating.

Learning from her father and brother, she didn’t see many female role models around her. This is something she wants to help others to avoid.

“I’ve often fished alone, because I thought I was the only woman.

“As we grow that body of women in the sport, there’s always someone to fish with [now].”

There has been a “conscious and deliberate strategy” by Taupō Fishing Club and others like Women on the Fly to show that the traditionally male-dominated sport is for all.

“It’s about illuminating a pathway and showing what can be possible.”

For now, though, the focus is to show what Aotearoa’s women can do on the international stage.

“To wear the fern is certainly not taken lightly. To take that New Zealand cap is something we’ve all worked towards for years.

“It’s a first for us; it’s exciting.”