foulshot
10-28-2002, 10:38 PM
Women have been welcomed into once-all male fly fishing world
Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 26, 2002
Fanny Krieger remembers when she had to slip into an oversized man's fishing vest and waders to go fly-fishing.
"A lot of us had to wear men's small sizes, but even those were too big for many of us," Krieger said.
That was a couple of decades ago, back when Krieger started the Golden West Women Fly Fishers in San Francisco, and later, the International Festival of Women Fly Fishers. Women soon became one of the biggest entry-level groups in fly-fishing. And soon, they banded together to show they belonged in a world that had been purely stale cigar smoke, old bourbon and flies.
Today, companies such as Orvis offer a full line of fly-fishing apparel and equipment designed for women. These days, men aren't the only ones tyin' flies and tellin' lies.
"The sport has become a lot more accessible to women," said Krieger, a Federation of Fly Fishers casting instructor and member of the Northern California Federation of Fly Fishers Hall of Fame.
Starting Thursday and running through Sunday at the San Diego Marriott in La Jolla, Krieger and her group will welcome more than 125 women fly-fishers from around the world to the sixth annual International Festival of Women Fly Fishers. It was Krieger's idea to stage the festivals each year.
"They've gotten better every year," Krieger said. "The important thing is we hold them in different areas each year so that the women in that area have better access. Thirty years ago, women were rarely seen fly-fishing streams. When men saw us, they felt they were being invaded by aliens. But now men are happy to see us there."
Yvonne Graham, a San Marcos resident, president of the International Women Fly Fishers and author of "A Woman's No Nonsense Guide to Fly Fishing," will serve as local host for the event. She has incorporated such groups as the San Diego Fly Fishers, particularly Gretchen Yearous and Kim Jones, and the San Diego Fly Shop's Peter Piconi to show visitors the splendors of fly-fishing the ocean, the bays and local lakes.
"The festivals are great for building friendships, for the camaraderie and for making contact with women fly-fishers," Graham said. "I'd never met so many women in one place who shared my passion for fly-fishing. Everyone at the festival loves to fly-fish, and there's a wide range of levels, from someone who just picked up a fly rod for the first time to Joan Wulff."
Krieger called Wulff the "grande dame of fly-fishing." Wife of the late Lee Wulff, a legendary fly-fisherman, Joan Wulff won 17 national and one international fly-casting tournaments between 1937 and 1960. The Wulffs started the Joan and Lee Wulff Fly Fishing Schools in 1978, and in 1996, Joan started the first-ever schools for casting instructors.
Wulff isn't expected at this festival, but Krieger and Graham will be here along with many of the sport's top names.
They're examples of women who have done well in the sport, but there's the other side, too. Some struggle to get there.
Barbara Pentoney of San Diego left her job as a paralegal in San Diego for a wonderful summer of fly-fishing in 2001. She worked at the Orvis Mammoth Lakes School at Mammoth Mountain Resort and thought she'd found a career wrapped around her passion for fly-fishing.
But as good as her experience was there, it was equally as bad this past summer working at an Orvis-endorsed outfitter shop in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. Pentoney returned broke and disillusioned and said she's likely going to take a computer software training course to learn a new career.
"Fly-fishing isn't something I can do full-time right now," Pentoney said. "I want to stay in the business in some way, but there's just not enough money in it."
Pentoney has talked to male fly-fishing guides, and she's found that many of them struggle financially, too. Many, like Conway Bowman of San Diego, hold full-time jobs and guide fly-fishers part-time. Pentoney said she wants to continue offering fly-casting instruction, and she may host some trips for Orvis to Chile or Argentina. She speaks Spanish fluently. But guiding doesn't fit in her plans.
"Fly-fishing is a small niche, a small piece of the pie," Pentoney said. "There are more people getting into it, and they're all vying for that small piece of pie. I think there's still room for growth for women, but it's very tough."
Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 26, 2002
Fanny Krieger remembers when she had to slip into an oversized man's fishing vest and waders to go fly-fishing.
"A lot of us had to wear men's small sizes, but even those were too big for many of us," Krieger said.
That was a couple of decades ago, back when Krieger started the Golden West Women Fly Fishers in San Francisco, and later, the International Festival of Women Fly Fishers. Women soon became one of the biggest entry-level groups in fly-fishing. And soon, they banded together to show they belonged in a world that had been purely stale cigar smoke, old bourbon and flies.
Today, companies such as Orvis offer a full line of fly-fishing apparel and equipment designed for women. These days, men aren't the only ones tyin' flies and tellin' lies.
"The sport has become a lot more accessible to women," said Krieger, a Federation of Fly Fishers casting instructor and member of the Northern California Federation of Fly Fishers Hall of Fame.
Starting Thursday and running through Sunday at the San Diego Marriott in La Jolla, Krieger and her group will welcome more than 125 women fly-fishers from around the world to the sixth annual International Festival of Women Fly Fishers. It was Krieger's idea to stage the festivals each year.
"They've gotten better every year," Krieger said. "The important thing is we hold them in different areas each year so that the women in that area have better access. Thirty years ago, women were rarely seen fly-fishing streams. When men saw us, they felt they were being invaded by aliens. But now men are happy to see us there."
Yvonne Graham, a San Marcos resident, president of the International Women Fly Fishers and author of "A Woman's No Nonsense Guide to Fly Fishing," will serve as local host for the event. She has incorporated such groups as the San Diego Fly Fishers, particularly Gretchen Yearous and Kim Jones, and the San Diego Fly Shop's Peter Piconi to show visitors the splendors of fly-fishing the ocean, the bays and local lakes.
"The festivals are great for building friendships, for the camaraderie and for making contact with women fly-fishers," Graham said. "I'd never met so many women in one place who shared my passion for fly-fishing. Everyone at the festival loves to fly-fish, and there's a wide range of levels, from someone who just picked up a fly rod for the first time to Joan Wulff."
Krieger called Wulff the "grande dame of fly-fishing." Wife of the late Lee Wulff, a legendary fly-fisherman, Joan Wulff won 17 national and one international fly-casting tournaments between 1937 and 1960. The Wulffs started the Joan and Lee Wulff Fly Fishing Schools in 1978, and in 1996, Joan started the first-ever schools for casting instructors.
Wulff isn't expected at this festival, but Krieger and Graham will be here along with many of the sport's top names.
They're examples of women who have done well in the sport, but there's the other side, too. Some struggle to get there.
Barbara Pentoney of San Diego left her job as a paralegal in San Diego for a wonderful summer of fly-fishing in 2001. She worked at the Orvis Mammoth Lakes School at Mammoth Mountain Resort and thought she'd found a career wrapped around her passion for fly-fishing.
But as good as her experience was there, it was equally as bad this past summer working at an Orvis-endorsed outfitter shop in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. Pentoney returned broke and disillusioned and said she's likely going to take a computer software training course to learn a new career.
"Fly-fishing isn't something I can do full-time right now," Pentoney said. "I want to stay in the business in some way, but there's just not enough money in it."
Pentoney has talked to male fly-fishing guides, and she's found that many of them struggle financially, too. Many, like Conway Bowman of San Diego, hold full-time jobs and guide fly-fishers part-time. Pentoney said she wants to continue offering fly-casting instruction, and she may host some trips for Orvis to Chile or Argentina. She speaks Spanish fluently. But guiding doesn't fit in her plans.
"Fly-fishing is a small niche, a small piece of the pie," Pentoney said. "There are more people getting into it, and they're all vying for that small piece of pie. I think there's still room for growth for women, but it's very tough."