Thirty years ago, two couples met for dinner, and while sipping a glass of wine, Susan (or it might have been Fanny) said, wistfully, “It would be nice to know other women who fly fish. ” This was the leading statement. Next, Fanny (or it might have been Susan) said, “Let’s find out who they are and start a club!” Husbands John and Mel wholeheartedly agreed.
Before actually starting the Golden West Women Flyfishers (GWWF), I talked to some of the best-known fly fishermen in the country. Mike Lawson, Mike Fong, Jack Dennis, and John Randolph were all enthusiastic about this new concept of a women’s fly-fishing club.
We sent out 22 invitations to the first meeting, hoping for 6 women to come. About 20 came. That was it! We needed a name, a place to meet, a charter, and a set of rules and goals.
It was thus that in 1983, Golden West Women Fly Fishers was founded — you should have seen and felt the excitement! With it came the acceptance, support, and recognition of the entire fly-fishing community.
We were one of the first women’s fly-fishing clubs in the country, but not the first women to fly fish. In old English books, there are pictures of women wearing long black dresses and hats, standing in rivers and holding fly rods. There have been women fly fishers long before we came along.
In 1486, in England, Dame Juliana Berners published A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle. She was prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, a lady of a noble family, and celebrated for her learning and accomplishments. That was centuries before Izaak Walton.
When I decided to learn to fly fish, to keep up with my husband, I went to the Golden Gate Angling Casting Club (GGACC), and I felt as if I was from another planet. At that time, the GGACC did not accept women as members. Eventually, some of the guys came over to help me. I kept thinking, “This seems so easy — I can do it, too.” Then I spent hours learning to cast properly — quite a challenge. Somehow, it all came together. From that moment on, I was hooked. (Please forgive the pun.) This was more than 35 years ago. I began to venture into streams to fish. What I discovered was that very few women were out there.
It was puzzling to me. Why weren’t more women fly fishing? One reason was that to be outfitted as a fly fisher, it took courage, patience, and humility. Back then, when a woman wanted to get what she needed for fishing, sometimes she could get her husband or boyfriend to give her waders, a vest, a rod, and flies he no longer wanted. When she went into a fly shop to procure gear, though, she often was ignored by the salesmen, who always took care of their male clients first. A woman often stood unseen. Then, when she finally tried on men’s small waders and small wading shoes, she looked uncomfortable, and I must say not very attractive. There were no female sizes . . . you remember that, don’t you?
Then a combination of things happened. Catch-and-release fishing became more accepted, and the sport seemed less bloody. Women, perhaps somewhat empowered by the feminist movement, took up new sports such as fly fishing, hunting, surfing, even boxing. They felt that macho sports were no longer exclusively for men. About 30 years ago, the ratio of women attending fly-fishing schools used to be about 1 woman to 10 men. About 20 years ago, it changed to 5 or 6 women to 10 men. Progress was being made.
Suddenly, fly shops couldn’t do enough for their female clientele. They even hired saleswomen. The industry took the hint, and appropriate female clothing appeared. Even rods were made for women. We had arrived, and we loved it!
When the GWWF launched, to the best of my knowledge, there was only one other such fly-fishing club in the country. There are now over 50 women’s clubs all over the United States, and new ones are cropping up all the time. There are also many more clubs in the rest of the world — at least 10 in the United Kingdom, and several in Scandinavia and Japan, just to name a few of the countries.
When I first went to fish in Argentina, in 1971, I encountered only one other woman fly fisher. She was eager for female company on the river. There are now many women on rivers and lakes, female guides, instructors, and even a women’s fly-fishing club starting in Buenos Aires.
The International Women Fly Fishers (IWFF) organization had its first festival in San Francisco in 1993. It was a magic encounter of women from all walks of life, ages, and talents, and the connection was incredibly powerful. Joan Wulff said, “I have waited all my life for this to happen!” The IWFF now has over 300 members from the United States and abroad.
Who are the women who fly fish? They’re of all ages, from 8 to 80 and over and still going strong. They represent all careers, from the housewife whose husband does not care to fish, to the executive in a high-powered job, to cosmetic-company models, to Oprah, to Rosalyn Carter, the wife of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. And they come from all walks of life, from struggling young women to those who are rich and famous. They are everything that men are: competitive, casual, relaxed, eager to learn every aspect of the sport, or interested only in outings and catching fish. Some are eager to travel to exotic places and to explore. Others prefer staying fairly close to home.
For many women, catching fish is almost secondary to being somewhere beautiful, casting the best we can, watching rising fish, and occasionally having a fish strike our fly. In Alaska, for instance, catching lots of fish, sharing the rivers with the bears, picking blueberries in the fields, smelling wild strawberries in the spring, watching the moose, the little red foxes on the shore, and feeling the tired salmon swim by my legs — that’s what a fly-fishing experience is for me. Fishing with and for women is more than just catching fish: it is a lifestyle.
There are also well-known female fly-fishing guides, instructors, lodge owners, shop owners, women who write wonderful fly-fishing books, and women employed in designing and creating for some of the major manufacturers, such as Simms, Winston, Patagonia, and others. Annette McLean, of the Winston Rod Company, is the only female rod designer in the country designing rods for a major manufacturer.
In the July/August 2014 issue of California Fly Fisher, there is a very thorough and informative article by Bob Madgic, “The Anatomy of a Fly Club.” It covers the important aspects of a fly club, all of which apply completely to the Golden West Women Flyfishers. We have fly-casting sessions. We support, financially and physically, many conservation groups and their issues. We have a strong scholarship program for graduate women in fish-related fields. We promote and send several youngsters to The Fly Shop Fish Camp every summer. We have many outings during the fishing season, forming bonds that connect the members who participate. We have recently reached out to Veterans First Women who want to learn and go fly fishing, with casting sessions and a one day outing, for starters. It has been a great success, and more outings and events are being planned. And of course, we have a wonderful GWWF fundraiser every two years to raise funds to support all of our activities.
As the women’s fly-fishing movement has become so strong and involved, we have focused on the new generation of fly fishers. The youth are our future. Everyone recognizes that now. Every organization has some program directed to kids. Fly-fishing camps have become very popular. Adults who teach kids to fly fish are getting a lot of satisfaction and in the process learn more about the sport. When teaching kids, it is important to keep the sessions short, simple, fun, and exciting.
It has been 30 wonderful years of very active involvement in the sport of fly fishing with women who have had the impetus to get into a primarily men’s sport and be recognized and accepted by the fly-fishing community and industry. GWWF members have found lifetime friends to share what has become our passion.
For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.gwwf.org.
