Women in Waders a peculiar obsession by Louise Steenkamp.

Take a primitive ancestor of the bony fish, with more chromosomes than a human and a brain smaller than a peanut M&M, and what do you get? A creature so mysterious, one has no choice but to become completely obsessed with trying to outwit and outsmart it.

If I had read about such lunacy just over a decade ago, I would no doubt have felt some pity towards the author for not realizing their place in the food chain. Little did I know…My infatuation with fly fishing (and in particular trout) wasn’t immediate – it took hubby years of persuasion before he finally convinced me to give fly fishing a real go. Of course he had the unfair advantage of knowing that once the proverbial bug bit, and with my “somewhat” competitive nature, the deal would be sealed quickly.

I’m not even sure why it’s so addictive – I do know however that my story is not unique – just Google “obsessed with fly fishing” and it produces over 17 million hits!

I think it lies somewhere between the thrill of finding the fish, the adrenaline rush when you feel a good tug and know (or think) you got something right, the intense focus to get this elusive beast to the net and released safely, and the overarching feeling of gratitude towards it for being a valiant opponent and participant in your conquest.

There’s also the academic pursuance that becomes inevitable at some point, if you’re at all inclined to be curious. Researching entomology, ecology, trout feeding behaviour, rod actions, polarisation methods, etc. becomes part of everyday life. Finally there’s the philosophising over how somehow all of this is a representation of life itself –like trying to solve a puzzle where the picture keeps changing, with the inherent knowledge that even a whole lifetime is not nearly enough to really figure it out…