WORKING wife Dawn Hodgson believes she has come up with the perfect way of getting rid of stress - by taking up fly fishing.

For her, there is no better way of switching off than casting out over a reservoir or river for a trout or salmon.

Dawn, who helps to teach life skills to teenagers, joined the Weardale Fly Fishers, in County Durham, a year ago. She is the only female member of the 62-strong association, which fishes waters at Tunstall Reservoir and on the banks of the River Wear.

"I have a very stressful job," said 28-year-old Dawn, who lives at Hill End, Frosterley. "But I have found that fly fishing enables you to get away from it all and switch off. Some of the places you fish in are so quiet and beautiful, and you become so absorbed in trying to catch a fish that everything else just goes out of the window."

It was perhaps natural that Dawn should take up angling one day as her childhood home was packed with rods and reels.

Her father, Ivan, a farmer, her brother, Ian, a gamekeeper, and her husband, Jeff, are all anglers.

"It's a real challenge when you first start," said Dawn. "Trying to get the casting right is really diffucult, and I suppose I am still learning. I have spent hours with a little piece of coloured wool on the end of the line, practising."

So far, Dawn's biggest catch has been a 2lb rainbow trout, landed at the Derwent Reservoir, but she is hoping soon to be among the trophy winners in her angling association.

Steve Bissett, secretary of the Weardale Fly Fishers, said they would welcome more women members.

"There are very few women fly fishers here in the North, although the sport seems to appeal to more females down south," he said.