A Special Fly for Little Lady
At the recent British Fly Fair International (BFFI) exhibition at Stafford, I met up with an old acquaintence who presented me with a very special gift for my daughter. It reminded me of the importance of friendship and how moments from our past can shape our future lives – and those of others.
Let me tell you the story of how my daughter, known as Little Lady, came to own a very special fishing fly.
The Big Fish
Back in 2015 I was lucky enough to participate in two screen auditions for a TV series commissioned by the BBC. The series was to be called Earth's Wildest Waters: The Big Fish. It was to be a competition where a handpicked group of British anglers would fish the world's best fishing desinations. One by one they'd get eliminated until an overall winner was crowned. It was to be six weeks of intense fun travelling all over the world to catch the fish of our dreams. What an opportunity. What an adventure. But it wasn't to be, at least for me.
I made it to the last ten but not the final eight selected for the series. Sadly my employer refused to grant me the time off work.
Bummer.
I was publicly upset but secretly relieved. Things were not as they seemed, at least to the other prospective contestants. You see, I'd been working with the BBC for two years to help shape the series. I'd put forward much of the original thinking and helped to create the showreel that secured funding. I'd even been mooted as a potential presenter or guest expert, but the producer thought it might be more fun to 'plant' me amongst the contestants to help encourage banter and some eccentric on-camera behaviour. So I felt a bit of a phoney standing there in front of the camera with the other auditionees. Good thing that I didn't make it through to the series. It was a scandal avoided.
One person who did make it onto the series was Jo Stephenson, whom I'd met during my auditions. Jo was already a noted fly-tyer and fly fisher known for her demonstrations at fly fishing shows. She was perfectly qualified for a place on the series, so I was delighted to see her make it to the semi-final. Eventually she suffered a hook pull while playing a huge sturgeon in British Columbia. If she'd landed it, she'd have progressed to the final which, in my opinion, she would have won. But she was sent home prematurely, albeit with pride intact and newfound celebrity status waiting.
Jo Stephenson is now one of the best role models for female fly fishers in Britain.
Girl power
A member of the Pro Teams for Partridge, Foxy Tails, Regal Vices and Bug Bond, Jo Stephenson is also part of the Hardy fly fishing pro team. She's come a long way since I met her in 2015. So it was fabulous to see her again at this year's BFFI show – to catch up and congratulate her on her achievements.
While I've been busy at my writing desk, churning out blogs and books, Jo's been 'out there' displaying her fly-tying talents, doing features for magazines and working part-time for a salmon lodge in Norway. How's that for making the most of the opportunities she's been given?
And of course, much as I try to remain the apple of my daughter's eye, Jo is Little Lady's hero. Not just because of her fish-catching ability and fly-tying prowess, but because she's an angler who wears pink. With Little Lady, everything has to revolve around the colour pink. Pink clothes, pink toys, pink sweets, pink sunsets. She is the archetypal 'girlie girl' who loves pink. Brown-green tweeds and wellies? "No Daddy! It's not pink!" I'll never win. Pink rules.
So I was thrilled when Jo offered me one of her flies as a gift for Little Lady. Not only was it pink, it was one of the largest flies I'd ever seen: a whopper that rivalled the size of many of the trout I catch these days. Assumedly for pike or predatory seafish, the two-tone pink streamer was six inches long and tied on a hook big enough to hang a joint of gammon from a barn ceiling. It was pink. It was glamorous. It was big. I knew Little Lady would love it, though of course – like Jo – she'd want to hook it into her pink baseball cap and wear it when fishing. Fashion must always come first.
A fly to inspire
Little Lady was, of course, delighted with her 'very special fly from Jo' that I presented to her when I returned home. She took it straight upstairs to her bedroom to show it to her teddies. I could hear her saying, "This is my new fly, tied for me by Jo, yes Jo off the tele, the one in pink, my friend, the one who tied this fly, the one for me, that I will wear in my hat, when me and Daddy go fishing!"
She then opened her bedroom door and shouted down the stairs, "Daaaddeeeee! When are we going fishing again? Those trouteees are going to love me in my new fishing hat. I'm soooooo going to catch more trouteeees now!" She then returned to her room where I heard her practising her fly casting: "Tick tock, tick tock; pick up the phone, put it down; up in the air, aim over there."
It was wonderful to see and hear how a gift as simple as a fishing fly could have such immediate impact upon a young person. I'm sure that the fly will inspire her to follow in Jo's footsteps to become a very competent fiy-tyer and fly fisher. All because...the Lady loves...pink.
If you like the work of lifestyle and countryside author Fennel Hudson, then you might like his book Fly Fishing. You should also subscribe to Fennel on Friday. You'll receive a blog, video or podcast sent direct to your email inbox in time for the weekend.