The Women of Fly Fishing; Why Are There So Few?
By Tom Chandler on Aug 27, 2007 in Underground Entertainment
As we’ve noted in the past, fly fishing isn’t exactly booming right now. Still, one segment is kicking butt, and that’s the women’s market. Women are taking to fly fishing in growing numbers, but they remain few enough that they still turn heads on the river — and in the fly shop.
For example, Cinda Howard manages an Orvis store in Scottsdale, AZ, and the fact that she’s a woman was enough for the Arizona Republic to do a story about that fact. She’s the only female fishing manager among Orvis’ 35 stores, and we’re caught between congratulating Orvis for hiring her and wondering why women are so few and far between in the industry ranks.
Other women are breaking into this largely male sport, including Charity Rutter — half of R&R Fly Fishing of Southeast Tennessee — who regularly packs her seminars at the major fly fishing shows.
There’s even an 18 year-old woman (Heather Seitz) who recently placed 20th at the Youth World Fly Fishing Championships.
I’m just going to say it; I think more women should occupy key positions in the sport, hoping the industry can better appeal to women fly fishers, thereby lowering some of the non-chauvinist-related barriers to women entering the sport.
Women are 50% of the population, and as much as I’m sometimes happy to see the sport shrinking and my river less crowded, the ugly truth is the water wars are coming, extractive industries are always eyeing new victims, and the remaining “wild places” need all the friends they can get.
And frankly, lifetime of experience suggests women are just basically smarter than us men, so pulling a few million of them into the sport couldn’t be a bad thing.
But then, some of the Undergrounders might have differing opinions, and damnit — we want to hear ‘em.
Technorati Tags: fly fishing, fishing, women fly fishers
Timo | Aug 27, 2007 | Reply
This point comes up a lot and still warrants discussion. WOmen in the the sport is a good thing.
My wife is now a flyfisher as of this summer. I haven’t shown her how to tie yet, but I think she will like that too.
In my careful experience with my wife, I would say that women tend not to like bugs, slimy things, cold and/or wet places, crawling around to not spook fish and river crossings, which kinda makes it a challenge to get women to like fly fishing.
The things women (my wife) would tend towards, are places of peace and quiet away from her students, time with the man, open ended challenges and non competitive scoreless sports. She loves casting and the action of just watching a perfect float. Plus, shopping for all sorts of gear and apparel doesn’t hurt either.
Some of the things we ran into were that most vests don’t fit quite right in the front, are limited in colors and are meant to be the only one in a fishers closet (i.e expensive and tough). Waders (even Women’s sizes) don’t fit right on average, and rod sales are usually designed around shooting a lot of line and aggressively chasing holes.
All in all though, I would say that my wife focuses on different aspects of fly fishing, but still enjoys it for the same basic reasons as I do, and that is a great selling point. Fly fishing offers such a wide range of challenges skills, experiences, that it is just a matter of figuring out what aspects women want… but figuring out what women want is always the challenge for us men isn’t it?
John Hughes | Aug 28, 2007 | Reply
This post is being considered for The Sacramento Bee’s roundup of regional blogs, which appears Sunday in Forum.
The Sunday newspaper column is limited to less than 800 words. Blog posts included in the column are often cut to fit. No editing is done other than to add ellipses to indicate deleted passages. The blog’s main address will appear in The Bee, and the online copy of the article will contain links to the actual blog post.
If you have questions (or you DON’T want your blog post considered for inclusion in the newspaper column), contact me at jhughes@sacbee.com
John Hughes
P.S. Forum editor Gary Reed, who normally trolls the regional blogs for suitable posts, is on vacation.
KW Morrow | Aug 29, 2007 | Reply
VM Hoyt | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
I just returned from a fly fishing class for women at Weatherby’s at Grand Lake Stream, Maine. Our instruction by Selene Dumaine was excellent. Another attendee was from Massachusetts, near Boston, and she is a member of a women’s fly fishing organization there. I am envious of her being able to meet with and fish with other women. I enjoy fishing with the men but would like to have occasions when I can sit down with other women and tell fishing stories. Do you know of any fly fishing organizations for women in southwest Missouri?
Tom Chandler | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Grand Lake! Cool. The L&T Nancy and spend time every summer on a West Grand Lake camp a seven minute canoe ride from Weatherby’s.
I’m afraid I don’t know of any women’s fishing clubs in Southwest Missouri, but you can’t swing a dead fly line over your head out here without hitting one.
Alternately, you could always contact this shop and ask them if they know of any:
http://www.riverrunoutfitters.com/
Good luck!
KW Morrow | Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
Yeah, Carolyn Parker at River Run Outfitters in Branson is a board member of IWFF. Back in the beginning of summer she told me that there was a chapter forming in Missouri. There are also a lot of women in the Federation of Fly Fishers clubs in Springfield, Neosho, and Bolivar. Those clubs are Southwest Missouri Fly Fishers (SMFF), MAKO, Missouri Trout Fishers Association, and I don’t recall the name of the Bolivar chapter. But there is a husband-wife team up there that are pretty much the heart and soul of that chapter. Carolyn is active in the Trout Unlimited chapter in Branson. But I don’t recall any other women in that club.
We also have 3 women volunteers with Project Healing Waters around here: Sharon Yoker, Wilma Morrow, and Char Bloom.
You can find links to all of those clubs on my blog page in the links section.
Julie | Mar 29, 2008 | Reply
I love to fly fish! But…I just moved to North Carolina and fly fishing (especially for trout) is almost non existent and unfortunately salt water fishing is a whole new game. But when I was fly fishing a lot I tied my own flies and was even interested in entomology and matching the hatch. I think the fishing industry is slowly coming around to women. I swear more and more pink equipment appears on the market every year…and I like that:)