WOMEN IN WADERS - 2019 has come and gone...

Bridgette Stegen

2019 has come and gone, I’m still trying to figure out exactly how it all happened that fast.

Reflecting on where 2019 took the Women in Waders, it was a year of stepping outside comfort zones and into new experience. We explored the Bushman’s with the charming & uber talented Peter Brigg, we fished our way into the finals of the Tops Corporate Challenge (TCC), we explored different techniques on the river that we had only seen on TV or heard the “buggers” chatting about, we learnt to tie new knots, embrace new rod sizes and, saving the best for last, we travelled to a new country to fish different waters. Our 9 th place win at the TCC took us, four women, on a road trip to the abrasive yet abundantly beautiful land of Lesotho. This trip was an experience I will never forget & I plan to spill the tea in an upcoming issue but for now let me whet the pallet a little. We never in our young dreams of starting this group of lady fly-fishers thought we’d be living the glossy pages of a fly magazine, but that’s truly how we felt. Enduring blistering heat, gale-force winds, hikes that scaled mountain faces technically more difficult that climbing Kili (as told by a Kili climber herself, Lydall Blaikie), extreme drought waters and takes so fierce we still have wild dreams about them. Lesotho was a “pinchme” moment that for a long time seemed wildly impossible, yet it is on our doorstep, accessible to anyone with patience for winding roads, hiking to find the sweet spots and comfortable with the bare necessities.

2019 was the Women in Waders “red letter year”.

Personally, it was a momentous year for me too. I leap frogged from being my own boss to working for the man, a decision that changed my flexibility from free flowing to wall bound. This was the right decision for

me, but it hasn’t been without the (I’m told, normal) claustrophobic, stressful feeling of being caught in the rat race; and the increased urges to be ‘feet on the ground’ aside of a body of water, breathing in crisp air, distracting the keyboard stress with the familiar “kooor” of the Ringneck dove.

I suppose we all dream of living a life of flowing water flexibility. One where our hobbies can become our daily practice, and we don’t have to long much to be out there, we can just go. I never quite valued how much I should have taken advantage of my “backyard” while I had the chance until I made the decision to start clocking in. Per haps one of the bigger lessons (blessings?) 2019 taught me was to treat work stress like a commodity in my life, not in the sense that it can be bought or sold but because without it we wouldn’t place the same value on our retreat. Without it, that fly trip you planned would simply be that fly trip you planned. With it, you are entering a new realm of reality. Suddenly that fly trip you planned is an escape, an opportunity to reset, re-charge and re-focus.

So where to from here. I have always loved a new year. It’s a blank page, an open diary, a fresh beginning. I’m a dreamer though. Personally, I want to spend a lot more time enhancing my skill in the river. Familiarizing myself with the bodies we have around us and better understanding depth, fly choice, knots & new techniques. Since I started fishing as a kid with my step-dad in the lagoons, river mouths and rivers of the South/ Wild coast I have always been keen on knowing everything from beginning to end, I want to embrace the learning curve with wide and open arms. A couple months back I went fishing with fellow WIW Sindi and her fiancé, a great friend of mine, Andrew Beach. Unlike my normal river fishing spots, he chose to fish the deeper pools of the Bushies, my first time. To help get us comfortable with the depth of the water and familiar with the new type of river fishing we were doing, Beachy gave me a little strike indicator. Naturally, I was waiting for this thing to be violently eaten, fully submerged before hooking the sucker that chose my fly. In my mind I was envisioning a red and white bobber on the Kei river mouth. After about 5 minutes of having my gun in the water, retrieving with the current, Beachy turns to me and says, “what was that?”. I looked at him perplexed. It was nothing. “You just missed it” he said. I could have sworn nothing happened; my float never dunked.

I did miss it, I came to realize when I saw the flash of its tale in the afternoon sun as it zipped back around to tell all it’s mates it almost got duped but the chick

on the other end was too slow. That day I expanded my knowledge on the art of subtlety on the river. A mere turn, twitch or twist and the strike is on.

The Women in Waders have two big weddings to plan this year, myself and Sindi are tying the knot (we knew learning to fish would pay off). As such we haven’t got any big festival plans, but we intend to initiate more get-togethers with like-minded women who are eager to share a story (and beer), or two on the banks of our beloved waters. Look out on our Instagram and Facebook pages for more details.

Instagram: @women_in_waders_sa

Thank you for the overwhelming support we received last year. We look forward to bringing you more adventures in the life of a female fly angler & remember, with a small change in perception, stress can be viewed as a commodity that brings new value to old hobbies.

Tight lines and tall tales, Bridge Stegen.