One in a Hundred Who Fish are Left Handed Women

If one out of ten of us are left handed and if one out of ten fishers are women, one out of a hundred are left handed women. The question of why so few women fish remains unsolved to me.

But the question of women and fishing remains. I see some but not many. Of the ones I see many seem to be tagging along with their husband. With the explosion of girls teams in schools, I would expect to see more of the same in fishing.

Why is it? Or why isn’t it?

Maybe they are avoiding you.:stuck_out_tongue:

I know lots of women who fish. Few of them are as fanatical about it as I, however, which makes me think that even though 10% of the flyfishers might be women, that does not mean that 10% of the angler-days (and thus the visible presence out there) spent on the water are by women.

We have lots of women fly fishers (and a few left-handed women) that frequent the Shop. One of our instructors, Donna Smith has a group of women fly fishers that meet here on a semi-regular basis. Some of her meetings involve casting sessions from beginner to advanced, some fly tyinhg and a few fishing outings.

 Shoot me an email if you have someone in your life that might want to be a part of this group.

Joseph

Ya, ‘title 9’ should be enforced. Maybe now it will be. :slight_smile:

I’m of the opinion that most women just don’t have the time to prioritize fly fishing into their lives. They’re either working career women, or working homemakers, or both. It’s the exceptional woman that will put fishing of any kind near the top of their priorities list. However, it seems to me, that those who commit to it are pretty darn good at what they do, and I’d not like to get into a contest with those women flyfishers that I know. Righty or Lefty.

I dont know why more women dont fish, I’ve always wondered that myself. Because in all honestly I think women take to fly fishing instruction better than most men. Mainly because I find that as a man when someone tries to teach them something (and its true with me as well) the whole “ego” thing comes into play and its harder for a man to simple listen and understand what someone is trying to show them.

Women on the other hand seem much more open to leaning and the few women I do know that fly fish seem to have learned casting much quicker than it took me or other men to learn it.

Steve

Steve,

Interesting take, if one assumes that to become a flyfisher, one has to be instructed by someone else, and success is dependent upon how well you can take that.

Speaking from my own experience, the portion of my learning curve that could be labeled “instruction” was minimal. Dad showed me how it worked when I was 9 or so, and 95% of the rest I figured out on my own, through trial and error, mostly. And my ex, who (I hope she never reads this) was one of the most skilled flyfishers I have ever known, was almost entirely self-taught. I certainly never taught her anything.

I think it comes down to what people want to do, and what they do not want to do. I fail to see that the relative lack of female flyfishers on the water, compared to the general populace, is necessarily something that needs to be corrected. If women do not want to flyfish as much as men (and I shudder at the gross generalizations, here), who can say that is a bad thing, or a good thing, or anything else? It just IS. It is not like we can MAKE people flyfish just so the world looks better to us.

I think it’s obvious. Most of us male flyfishers got started by their father, uncle, brother etc. Except of course those that saw “THE MOVIE”. What we need to do is make sure we take our daughters and granddaughters fishing.

In my local club, about 30% are women. I have no idea how many are left handed. Among the women are some very good ones. One claims at least 200 days / year on the water and another co-hosts a flytying series on PBS.

I tend to agree with this assessment in some cases. I am one of the minority of women who do make fishing a priority over pretty much everything else. Including housecleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. That’s OK, right? :wink:

However, as much as I have committed to it, I have not progressed nearly as much as most people would with as many hours on the water. My biggest problem is I fail to learn from my mistakes. For some strange reason, I like to live out the definition of insanity when I’m fishing. Lately, I’ve been working on this. Like, by saying to myself, “Jessica, exactly HOW many fruitless drifts are you going to make through this run without changing your setup a little?” :smiley: I’ll get there eventually. By the way, I am a righty.

I absolutely agree with this. There might not be such a difference in numbers if more little girls were taught to fish. Even if the girls drop out for a while to play with dolls (and then boys), they’ll most likely come back to it later in life.

As a female fly fisher, one of the big advantages to me of having more women fly fishing (other than more fishing buddies) is that the clothing and accessory (vests, packs, etc) manufacturers might take us more seriously. Men’s clothing does not fit properly and I am tired of having to select from items that are not as good quality as men’s gear in such non-outdoors colors as pink, purple, powder blue, or white. [sorry - that’s a soap box of mine from which I will step down now.]

I definitely agree. The people who taught me to fish were my aunt and my grandmother. They were among the most addicted fishers I’ve ever met. My aunt even used to wait for my cousin to get off the school bus, hand him a brown paper bag with an after school snack, and “make” him accompany her on her daily excursions. He had to drive the boat or study while she fished! As my grandmother developed more health problems, I fished with my aunt until I left home for college. They did not fly fish, but when I returned to fishing years later, I tried it on my own. I apparently have the fishing addiction gene as I am now addicted to it myself and will delay completing documents (that generate my income) to go fishing.

I think if girls have positive experiences with fishing when they are young and with people who are a significant part of their lives, they will either stick with it or return to it when they realize “something is missing from their lives.” Yes, families, child care, and work will interfere, but if it is important to them early on, they will find a way to include it in their lives as adults.

Don’t feel you have to step down off the soap box! Testify! I won’t wear that stuff either. But I have had some success finding appropriate colors in quality items made for other sports that will work for fishing. I really don’t want “special” women’s fishing stuff (pretty trim, girly colors, etc) - I just want the same stuff guys get in women’s sizes.

By the way, when is someone going to make a wading jacket in a ladies cut that DOESN’T have huge pockets where we don’t want them? And for less than $200, please. I just bought a ski jacket for cheap that is supposed to be 100% waterproof (yeah, I know, big joke) in a great color. It’s not entirely perfect but it’ll do. I’ve yet to see whether it’s really waterproof or not. I mean how many people ski in the pouring rain?:rolleyes:

Women equate fishing with putting a worm on a hook.

All I had to do was put a rod in my wife’s hand, show her the basics, and turn her loose on a pond full of hungry gills. The rest as they say is history. Neither of us fish as much as we’d like, but we fish together every chance we get. I have a two year old neice who will be getting into the act soon as well.

This is from an avid woman fly anglers point of view, and someone started to mention it earlier. For the most part, it was fathers, grandfathers and uncles who would take the kids fishing. They usually took the sons, as a right of passage sort of thing…but not the daughters. :confused: Probably because of the past (and present in some cases) preconceived notion that women belong in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. The men who did take their daughters fishing may have been forward thinkers or just didn’t have sons. I was lucky. My dad got two girls first…then it was another ten years before the son was born. Luckily I was well bonded with dad by then and we were “fishin’ buddies”. Besides… the deal was, I could go fishing if I cleaned the fish. LOL!!! He loved spending time with his kids and I benefited from that. I started fishing with worms and bobbers before I was two. Unfortunately it never progressed from the worm dunking stage as my dad didn’t know any other way. I don’t suppose his dad took him fishing much, and living on Lake St.Clair had it’s disadvantages. Finding a fly angler was one of them. I know he would have loved that if he knew someone that could show him.

What I’m saying is if you want to see more women come to fly fishing…start taking the young daughters out fishing with you, not just the sons. Get them tying flies and let them be creative!! (Arts & crafts) Don’t look for perfection. They have a big enough problem with that.

The touchy feeling thing…worms, bugs, fish slime etc. I believe that is a learned behavior. In this case, passed on most often from mother to daughter. The often heard, “EWWW, Don’t touch that! Dirty!” when the youngster picks up a worm or bug …or plays in the dirt for that matter. It might keep the little girls cleaner but it stifles their natural curiosity in the world around them. Thankfully my mother was too busy looking after other babies to worry too much about that stuff when I was out playing. I LOVED finding critters of all sorts, in and out of the water, and watching them. I didn’t mind getting dirty either. …to my mothers dismay, I’m sure…but then she loved roaming the woods when she was young, too. My dad wasn’t too happy with my collection of snakes though. LOL

One other point… I didn’t go fishing during those years I was raising a young family. I TRIED!! I was just too busy chasing little kids. Taking them fishing was like being a one armed paper hanger. My husband, their father, didn’t take too much of an interest in the “dad” part. He also doesn’t like to go fishing. Something he didn’t do as a kid, because his dad didn’t take him. His dad wasn’t much of a “dad” either. See how that works?

More girls and women will come to caring about things like the rivers and go fishing, camping and hunting, if someone starts to take them out and the younger the better. After all, the days of keeping them in the kitchen are over…I HOPE. I believe it’s really that simple.
One day, these girls will be taking their girls with them.

The thing about how many are left handed??? Now that’s what I call not having anything to do. GO FISHING!!!

***The issue these days is going to be whether kids, male or female ever get this opportunity at all. With both parents working and the reliance of video technology to do the entertaining… I have a real worry that our youth won’t be getting outdoors at all. If they don’t learn to love the outdoors and what it has to offer, they won’t care about it when it’s their time to look after things. Think about that one.

HMMMM… I can hear Deanne now… “should have been submitted as an article”.

Once I get going, it’s hard to shut me up. :wink:

I have just one more comment…I promise. It’s OK for men to ask other men to go fishing, but it’s still taboo more or less for the guys to ask a female along if she’s not married or dating one of them and if she’s married to someone else…forget it.

I used to really wonder why females felt the need to have all Women fly fishing clubs. The only thing I saw different was the way we go for a whiz in the bush, until I came to the realization that guys have a hard time treating me as just “one of the guys”. I didn’t get asked to go fishing much…especially if it required an overnight stay. I did and still do 90% of my fishing alone…unless someone is looking for me to guide them. Wait…to be fair…I have about four male friends (mentors) who do ask me to come along as they know, “I just want to go fishing.” Thanks to them, I’m a pretty fair angler!

I’ve only been considered, “just one of the guys” during my time as a Scout leader or CI with the Cadet Corp (ROTC). “she just brings her own tent” was the rest of that line. I got used to that and never gave it another thought until I came to the local fly fishing club. This was a whole other story. Thank goodness for Flygirls of Michigan! I can go on fishing trips!! :smiley:

Mato, down here it tends to be the gals that ask the guys to join them. That might be how they beat the onus on guys not to be forward.

You could STILL submit that as an article.

:slight_smile:

Ed

P.S. I’d be more than happy to hook up with you at MI-FI '09 (if I can keep up with you…)
:slight_smile: :slight_smile: