A knee injury playing her favourite sport changed the course of Kathy Ruddick's life, and now the Maple Ridge Senior Secondary School grad has landed a spot in Canadian fly fishing history. Once a dedicated women's field hockey player for the provincial-finalist MRSS Ramblers squad, a graduation-year knee injury on the field prompted a lengthy recovery, several surgeries and a leg that couldn’t support any high-impact action.
Her love for fishing began at any early age, back when she was known as Kathy Turner out on the waters of the Alouette River with her mother. Since her early casts with a basic rod and reel, Kathy has become something of an anomaly in the traditionally male-dominated sport—an incredibly successful fly fisher.
She has taught the craft of fly casting to the rich and famous, and travelled the world seeking exotic water-borne quarry. Now the co-owner of Ruddick's Fly Shop, her talents for fishing have earned many accolades since her days in Glenwood Elementary and Haney Central, when she fished with the local Dogwood Fly Fishing club and once caught more fish than all of the men.
After a decent showing at the prestigious American One Fly competition, she moved to the big time in competitive fly fishing as part of Team Canada in the 1997 World Fly Fishing competition.
It was two years later in Australia where Kathy showed the world what she is truly capable of. Fishing against 109 other anglers—all of them men—she said her well funded and experienced international competitors viewed her as the token female of the event. But Ruddick gave them all a wake-up call in one day.
Back at the lodge resting after the first day of competition, she realized that all the strange looks after all the fishing had been more than mere chauvinism. She was actually ahead of the pack, and number one in the world.
Overall, Ruddick finished in 10th place, one of the best-ever finishes by a Canadian at the world level. Buoyed by her results, the Canadians finished seventh out of over 20 countries in the competition.
"I was the first woman on the Canadian team and one of the few in the competition. I would have never thought, in a million years, that I'd be doing what I’m doing."