Gwen's Question:

Are there many women who fly fish? I am interested and would like to know if there are any classes for women.

Gwen Williams

Mark's Answer:

Gwen,

Flyfishing has grown considerably over the last ten years, and the fastest growing segment of the sport is women. I married into a family where all the women fly fish.

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My wife can handle a seven-foot rod like a magician's wand, my sisters-in-law have vests filled with boxes of flies, my nieces fly fish, my daughter Sarah began flyfishing when she was seven (she is now 15).

Even my mother-in-law, Jane, wields the long rod (she'll tie on a dry fly every now and again but she prefers the solid tradition of angling with a worm).

In a sport traditionally populated by males, women have shown they are just as capable. Some of the leading fly fishing personalities today are women and include Joan Wulff, Margot Page, Wendy Hanvold-Gunn and Cathy Beck.

In teaching beginners over the years, I've found women to be much more responsive to lessons (and much less pig-headed than their husbands, so much so, I won't even teach a husband-wife team at the same time). Women seem to have an innate touch for the subtleties of fly fishing.

And in the sport, women can now find classes, books, gear and equipment specifically for females. Three books worth investigating are Cathy Beck's Fly Fishing Handbook, Joan Wulff's Flyfishing: Expert Advice from a Woman's Perspective, and Reel Women: The World of Women Who Fish, by Lyla Foggia.