Flyguy,

It's a crying shame my name isn't Mrs. Robinson! Take heart, there are TRUE fishin-chix out there--I know because I am one and so are several of my friends and many acqaintances. It's funny how most of them have husbands or boyfriends who don't want anything to do with it until the fish are cleaned, cooked and laying on a dinner plate next to the green beans and 'taters!

Just like flyfishing you have to exercise some patience--fishing is a sport long dominated by men, even though the first fishing book was written by a woman--Dame Juliana Berners in 1496! And it is only recently that the industry and men (basically the same thing)are realizing and ACCEPTING the fact there are many women that have the desire and the need to be standing in freezing water looking for the big kahuna steelhead lurking below and not the big kahuna engagement ring! Kudos to women flyfishing pioneers like Maggie Merriman and Joan Wulff who were out there competing in a man's arena for so long and who made it OK for women to enjoy the sport of fishing! I almost gave up the first time I went into a Seattle-based outdoor sports shop 7 years ago to get some information and fishing gear--the store clerks preferred to swap stories with some macho-bubba in a camo cap at the other end of the counter than to ring up my armload of gear and answer my questions. I left empty-handed and pissed to the nines but eventually found another shop that treated me very well, and I've been hooked ever since!

Things have improved vastly since then, just look at the explosion of women-oriented fishing products and programs that are offered--the sport is attracting more female followers than ever! Hang in there fly-guy,
just because you haven't bumped into any "fyshin gurlz" out on the river doesn't mean we don't exist, or that there aren't women who would like someone to introduce them to The Curse. Just don't be a butthead like the guy who marched up to a long-time woman flyfisher I know and demanded to know how he could MAKE his girlfriend want to like to go fishing!!!

Sorry this does not give you an easy answer, but I hope it will help you understand why there just aren't alot of women fishers out there yet, and that you'll be courteous and encouraging to the ones whose paths you do cross (and you just never know if that "older" woman has a younger sister, daughter or niece who likes to fish!). And you should NEVER assume that just because a woman is out there fishing, she's out there to land a man--usually that's the farthest thing from our minds, we're out there for the fun and challenge of fishing same as you, and sometimes even to forget about you!

I must admit I was a bit dismayed to read all the bait-and-switch posts on this thread. Unfortunate incidences to be sure, but I would think there aren't that many women around who are able to deceive men into thinking they like fishing that much for long enough to get a wedding ring wrapped around their finger. If someone strategically plants a flyrod tube in their car during the dating phase and fishing is that important to you, better be sure they can string-it-and-fling-it before you get down on one knee!

Flygirl