In the summer of 2017 I was fishing with my good friend Craig and we had spent a week bouncing ideas around as to what would be a good name for the fly company which at that stage had been a work in progress for a couple of years. Craig comes over from the USA every year for a few weeks to stalk New Zealand trout in some pretty rugged places.

Over lunch on the river one day we were discussing the fact that apparently there are 3 different categories of fun.

 

Category 1.   Not fun to do, not fun to remember.

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Category 2.   Not fun to do, fun to remember.

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Category 3.   Fun to do fun to remember.

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After lunch we continued up river and reached an impassable gorge, there was no way to go up and over and our only option was to swim.

We threw what gear we could into dry bags and into the pack they went. I swam through first having first attached a rope to the pack and climbed out onto a ledge on the other side of the gorge. I then dragged the pack through and was re grouping our gear when I looked down into the gorge and saw Craig swimming through with a big smile on his face. I shouted down " Are you having fun there Craig" and at the top of his voice the reply was "Category 3 Category 3."

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The Category 3 Fly Company was born.