Home Care In Balsam Grove, NC

GERALDINE DINKINS Halifax Media Group

BALSAM GROVE, N.C. — Fly fishing is all about make-believe — and as anyone who has ever cast a line knows, fish can be surprisingly discerning.

If it doesn't look right, they won't bite.

Luring new devotees to the sport of fly fishing requires a good show, too, but Brevard College graduate and newly minted YouTube small-town celebrity Abbi Bagwell won't pretend to be anything she isn't, just to bait newcomers to try what she loves.

"I don't want to be another girl in a bikini in the river," says the 24-year-old Brevard resident, who also happens to be the business operations manager for Flymen Fishing Co., a Brevard-based, new-technology fly fishing business.

Instead, Bagwell says, she is offering a front row seat to her passion — tricking fish with artificial flies — with a bit of entertainment and humor thrown in.

"People think it is boring, but it is so artistic and meditative," she says. "I want to inspire others to try it. Being in the river is good for almost anyone."

Even fully dressed — in baggy waders, no less — Bagwell is quickly capturing a growing following of viewers to her semi-regular series on YouTube called #somestreamerchick.

The first streamerchick video clip, depicting Bagwell casting in the Davidson River in Pisgah Forest and hooking a branch, followed by a respectable rainbow trout, garnered almost 5,000 views on its first day online. Subsequent episodes — showing Bagwell failing to park a boat trailer or teasing her river-shy mother — continue to garner views in the four digits.

Though still about two digits off from Grumpy Cat, Bagwell's escapades are decisively more popular than an out-of-focus knitting tutorial or a 10-minute silent expose on seagulls.

Another gauge of Bagwell's budding fame are the 200 friend requests waiting for her on her Facebook wall on a recent weekday morning.

"I'm not quite sure how to handle that yet," she admits, while clicking through a long list of people with whom she may or may not share friends.

Since the second episode of #somestreamerchick, she says she has stopped posting personal photos and comments and is limiting her online persona to work and fly fishing, which, in her case, are closely linked anyway.

The videos, filmed and edited by Bagwell's coworker and fellow Brevard College alumnus Caleb Welborn, are snappy — the average length is just around two and one half minutes — and depict Bagwell in a way few commercial fly fishing videos would.

The music is reminiscent of any snowboard or skateboard short film, and the narrative focuses tightly on Bagwell. Video highlights are made of the kind of footage that would likely end up on the cutting floor of any traditional fly fishing film production.

Instead of sun-dappled greenery and softly gurgling streams, #somestreamerchick shows Bagwell doing everything from dropping flies, to eating hash browns — she apparently likes ketchup — to getting "skunked," a term used for failing to hook a single fish during a fly-fishing outing.

"You are constantly assessing and re-assessing, water levels, the flies to use, the light — it is such a challenge," Bagwell explains of the particular episode showing her and a friend packing in the fly rods with nothing to show for it.

Certain days, she adds, fish see right through the ruse. "These fish in the Davidson have a Ph.D.s — they are not stupid fish," she says. "But I still have fun, and I still learn something every time I go to the river."

With that irreverent tone and realistic outlook, Bagwell, in her signature trucker hat and librarian glasses, will mock frown, hook things other than fish and aim her appeal at a new generation of possible future anglers in a sport weighted down by time-honored traditions.

"We try to keep it open with no preconceived themes," says Welborn, who may spend as little as an hour or as long as a weekend behind the camera — also in waders — to "stitch together" another #somestreamerchick episode.

"The story emerges as we shoot and as I edit," says the 21-year-old business major, adding that his subject and star of the series "is so smart and witty (that) working with her makes it easy to always find a story."

For Martin Bawden, 49, Flymen founder and owner and the man who pays the bills for new #somestreamerchick episodes, the story line is simple — aside from the obvious marketing value to his company.

"We want to entertain and educate; show a new, not so tried-and-true side of fly fishing," says Bawden, who immigrated to the United States from South Africa in 2004 and started Flymen with an improved nymph head fly-tying component four years later.

"There is a modern way of fly fishing that makes it a lot more accessible to many. It doesn't have to be so intimidating," he says.

Aside from dry-run casting classes, wanna-be fly anglers can try out their might without ever getting off the couch — on YouTube and other online forums dedicated to fly fishing.

"What we now have is this amazing world of self-education," Bawden says. "It is fantastic that it is all out there for anyone to see."

Bagwell hopes that many of her followers are women, who perhaps will be inspired.

"There is a definitely room for young females — that's a market that hasn't fully responded to fly fishing yet," she says, "but there is no reason why they shouldn't."

It is still unusual for women — alone or in groups — to book a guided trip, says Ryan Kaufman, 31, a local fly-fishing guide.

"It is still mostly with men, a husband with a wife or a whole family," he says of how he most often comes to guide women.

Jessica Merrill, 28, the operations and marketing manager at Headwaters Outfitters in Rosman, echoes that observation. "It is still somewhat of a male-dominated sport," she says.

Both Merrill, a fly fisher herself, and Kaufman say that while culture and convention may keep women away from fly rods, physical and mental abilities shouldn't.

On the contrary, "women have a natural advantage over men, they tend to be more graceful, flexible and loose-jointed," Merrill says. "There is a good chance for a woman to being fairly good at it in a relatively short time."

According to Kaufman, who at 31 has been guiding for more than a decade, the odds are actually stacked in favor of female fly anglers.

"I usually have an easier time teaching women. They tend to be better listeners, more open to follow instructions and have a tendency to work with finesse rather than strength.

"I can't count how many times I've seen a husband go 'whatever' when I say that, and then there is the wife casting these perfect loops, while the guy still struggles," Kaufman says, adding, "And I'm not even sure if I want to admit that."

These area businesses can help you test the fly fishing waters: At The Ridge – Trout Fishing, 828, 877-2172 Blue Line Anglers, 828-367-7363 Davidson River Outfitters, 828-877-4181 Headwaters Outfitters, 828-877-3106 Marcum's Buck & Bass, 828-966-4484 Salmonid Farms, 828-966-9646 Visitors interested in casting a line may also want to visit www.ncwildlife.org for information on permits, licensing and North Carolina's aquatic life.

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