Ten Tips For Women Who Want To Get Started Flyfishing

[Newsman]

by Sandie Arnold (That's Sandie with a Kenai River rainbow!) Now that you’ve finally decided to take up flyfishing you may be in a quandry about how to get started. Here’s a few helpful tips: Join a flyfishing club. Check your local phone book, by consulting the Women's Angling Resource Directory in the book, Reel Women, by Lylia Foggia. Attending the first few meetings can be intimidating, so go introduce yourself to a woman in the group to break the ice. Or, if you feel more comfortable, get a friend to go to the meeting with you. Identify women's flyfishing schools or classes. Some are privately run and some are offered by community colleges. Use the phone book or ask in the sporting goods stores. Identify women guides. When you want to go flyfishing just call around to flyfishing guide services and ask if they have a woman guide available. Then patronize those that do. Get lists of registered or licensed guides from your state department of fish & game or call and ask if they know of women's programs. Also ask if they sponsor a Woman Outdoors program, which are being offered in more and more states. Most such programs include flyfishing as one of the workshops they offer. Ask flyfishing specialty shops for referrals to women's flyfishing groups, women guides, or women's outdoors programs. Call your local women's resource or service center. They often have what are known as women's yellow pages that list a wide variety of women-owned businesses in a telephone book format and may include guide services or outdoor programs. Get out on the water and look around for women that you see flyfishing. Introduce yourself and ask them how they got started or if they know of resources you can use. Organize your own class and hire a woman from a nearby area to come in and lead it if there are no resources in your area. Attend an outdoor or sports show that includes workshops or demonstrations on flyfishing or casting clinics. Try to make contacts there to learn about resources either in your area or within a reasonable distance of where you live. And if nothing else is available, check out some videos or books from the library or rent them from shops that sell flyfishing equipment. More...