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Thread: The joys of fishing with women - Lighter side - July 20, 2009

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  1. #1
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    Default The joys of fishing with women - Lighter side - July 20, 2009

    The joys of fishing with women

    FAOL welcomes a new contributor, Hayden Mellsop. An Aussie, who is also a guide in Colorado.

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    Smile Nice article

    Hi Hayden: Excellent article and so true. You're pretty right on the mark. I'd love to fish with a woman. You have any ideas?

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    After fishing with my darlin wife for over 10 years, your spot on. She outfishes me on almost every trip, just for the reasons you list. It sure is fun.
    Happiness is wading boots that never have a chance to dry out.

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    I agree 100%, well, okay, 95%. My wife is actually the more competitive of the two of us and doesn't handle dry spells as well as your article suggests she should. Now hopefully she won't read this. But I do a lot of casting classes and you're absolutely right.

    lastchance-- As Ron and I demonstrate, perhaps the best way to fish with a woman is to marry one that fishes. I had to convert Marguerite to the fly (she was a wormdrowner before), but it's been so worth it!
    Last edited by Bluegill222; 07-21-2009 at 04:02 PM.
    If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bluegill222 View Post
    I had to convert Marguerite to the fly (she was a wormdrowner before), but it's been so worth it!
    Another one lost to the dark side...

  6. #6

    Default The joys of fishing with men.

    The joys of fishing with men

    I have always worked at jobs that have been considered by most to be more in keeping with the male of the species. I rarely encountered a problem with any males I worked with or who worked for me. I usually just ignored the issue or most of the time I probably didn?t notice they were being a dumb guy. I have brothers so that no doubt helped me overlook most of the dumbness. When I decided I was going to marry, I made a list of what I hoped to find in the man of my dreams, among the top five was a man who hunted and fished and had no problem with a women who enjoyed those same activities. I realized I had met the man of my dreams when my first Valentines Day present was a fly rod. This was then followed by a double barrel shotgun I had been pining for, as an engagement ring.
    I was taught to fly fish by my husband and the other men in my family. This was heaven. When we married our honeymoon (at my request) was in Montana for two weeks of fishing. We hired a guide for a float trip and I got to experience first hand the attitude of some males to women fishermen. He stuck me in the back of the boat, rigged my line and basically tried to pretend I wasn?t there the whole day. My husband tried to explain to him that this was my first float trip and he wanted me to have the front seat but, he wasn?t having any of it. When I hooked a fish he said not to worry about it, we were heading into some rapids and I would lose it anyhow. I would have dived into the water at that point to prove him wrong. I didn?t have to. I kept that fish on the line until we cleared the rapids. I then reeled it in, without his help, and he took it off the line and went back to ignoring me. He is the only guide I have ever met who had this attitude and I admit it made me leery of ever hiring another guide. Over the years I was invited along on all the fishing expeditions and most of the hunting trips with the guys.
    Then my husband decided he no longer wanted to fish and I did not get invited anymore. I was lucky enough to find female friends who like to fish and to be honest; we have a really good time.

    Casting: I do not cast as well as most guys but, someday when I have been doing it for forty years like you, instead of fifteen years, I will.
    I appreciate any tips and pointers you want to give me but if you invite me to go fishing don?t think you need too spend half the day trying to teach me all the things you have learned over the years in a couple of hours. You are going to get frusta rated because you are not fishing and I will end up a nervous wreck because you want me to acquire all the skills you have in one afternoon. Show me a few things if you must but, keep it to fifteen minutes or half an hour, then just go away and let me fish and practice. I will catch fish, I always do. I always find it amusing that when I go to the archery range with the guys, I out score them every time. When I try to offer some pointers, my skill is put down to just being lucky. How could this female possibly teach me anything, yet I am supposed to be humbly grateful for the knowledge they share with me to help me improve my fishing skills.
    End result- We will both have a good time and enjoy the day.

    Conversation: Unless it is about fishing, who needs it? When I fish with my friends we probably don?t say more than a couple of sentences. These are usually centered on what?s hatching, what size tippet to use, or what direction we are going on the steam. We try and check in every couple of hour, just to make sure
    No one has disappeared or been injured. Don?t get me wrong, we are all friends and we do care about feelings and emotions and sensitivity, but hey, we can talk about that junk, if we need to, at the end of the day, not when we are here to fish. Just for the record, my husband spends three hours to my one on the phone, I don?t enjoy it and he does.

    Listening: Of course we listen, we used to be trained from birth that if a man spoke it was gospel and we should pay attention. Just kidding, you are correct when you point out we listen better. Since we hired you, we are here to learn and to get the most of our time with you. We hope to improve our casting skills, our knowledge of insects, and whatever else you can teach us when it comes to fishing. There is a lesson here for women who want to learn to fly fish, go hire someone to teach you. They want to do it and it won?t turn into an exercise in frustration on both your parts. Remember when your Dad tried to teach you to drive a car? Why would anyone want to repeat that experience, especially with something that is supposed to be fun?

    Dry Spells: I don?t think it is acceptable to not catch anything; it frustrates the heck out of me. I get antsy and I do assume I am doing something incorrectly, or I am using the wrong fly or whatever. However, I don?t pout or turn morose; I use it as learning experience to improve. I always appreciate the scenery around me that is one of the reasons I am out here. To me it would look better with fish in it but, I am not going to turn into some spoiled little kid just because I am not getting my own way by catching fish... Yes, I do keep count of the fish I catch, so I have an accurate record of where, when and with what, for the next time. This does not make me competitive; I just want to remember so the next time I go to the same place, I don?t have to start all over again.

    Cussing: Why would I? I don?t cuss most of the time anyhow, so why would I do it when I am enjoying something I love? I usually let fly with a Holy Tomato or Hot Beans or something to that effect. This is just not because I am female and this is a female thing. I was always taught that it is a measure of disrespect for you and your companions to use curse words. You are implying that you are ignorant and so are they because your vocabulary is so limited, you must resort to using four letter words. What kind of a fisherman would wear perfume to fish? That stuff really attracts all kinds of insects, and at one hundred dollars an ounce I am not going to waste it to attract bugs. I do admit that I wear makeup when I fish, it has an SPF of 25 and I am not allergic to it, unlike most sunscreens.


    So there it is, except for a couple other things. Why is it, if you are fishing with guys, and you say I am going to head for those bushes over there to relieve myself, they get all embarrassed? This from people who think nothing of scratching themselves in a private area on national T. V. while they are standing on second base, or lining up for a kickoff? I can?t figure this out. They look so appalled, as though you were doing something horribly unnatural. When you gotta go, you gotta go.
    Informing them is just a way of avoiding embarrassment for both of you. When you meet a woman on the stream and she is fishing by herself, don?t look at her as an oddity. I had a gentleman stop me the other day as I was leaving a parking area just to ask me how I got into fly fishing. Would you do this to another guy? In all honesty, most guys just ask me if I caught anything and what fly I was using.
    So guys, you don?t need to change yourselves to go fishing with the lady, just be your own sweet self and remember, she is there to fish and maybe she will share a beer with you later. Oh, one small detail, a woman who fishes alone is usually armed.

    There are no atheist in a trout stream.

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