A Life In Fly Fishing

I was six years old when I first took notice of people doing it, and I desperately wanted to do it myself. I pestered an uncle by marriage to help me get started as soon as I found out that he was a fisherman. He set me up with a rather primitive pole and line, and although I failed to hook up on the first bite I had from a Pumpkinseed sunfish on its nest I was firmly hooked on fishing. 

I voraciously consumed all the information I could lay my hands on. I’d beg my Mother to buy me a copy of Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, or Sports Afield at the supermarket, and would read it from cover to cover. And I loved watching my favorite weekly TV show, Gaddabout Gaddis, the Flying Fisherman. All of these things fueled my passion.

Growing up in Point Pleasant, New Jersey in the nineteen-fifties and sixties provided me with ample opportunities to engage with the natural world in general and fishing in particular. When fly fishing came on my radar during my teenage years, serendipity provided me with three mentors. I got to fish the some of the Holy Waters of the Catskills, the Beaverkill and the Willowemoc, and to make the acquaintance of Harry and Elsie Darbee.

In 1978 I married a man who was not an angler. What can I say, I was in love. He fly fished with me before we wed, and did well at it, but stopped immediately after. When I finally asked him why, he replied, “Why should I go fishing, I caught the fish I was after.” I forgave him this little deceit, mostly because he was always tolerant and even supportive of my fly fishing habit. Our marriage has lasted for 48 years now, which says a lot.

In the early years of my fly fishing experience I was often the only woman present. This caused some humorous incidents. Once while fishing the Beaverkill along Old Route 17 I heard a car screech to a halt on the roadside pull-out above me. A guy jumped out and ran to the guardrail to take a look. As he returned to his vehicle I heard him exclaim to his companion, “Crisis Pete, it’s a woman fly fishing!”

By the 1980’s I’d put in a stint as a water pollution investigator for the NJ State Bureau of Fisheries, and been very active in three different Trout Unlimited chapters. I also started working as a fly fishing instructor and guide at The Sporting Gentleman, an Orvis dealership in Media, PA.

In 1992 A River Runs Through It hit movie theaters. Those in the fly fishing community referred to it simply as The Movie. It spurred a tremendous boom in all things fly fishing. When the inevitable crash came the industry was desperate to stem the bleeding. At long last attention turned to women, until that time a largely untapped pool of potential customers. The involvement of women in the sport has grown steadily ever since. 

In 1996 I recruited nine other women anglers to launch the Delaware Valley Women’s Fly Fishing Association. The club is still going strong under its third generation of leadership. The future of women in fly fishing looks very bright, and I’m very proud of myself and my sister anglers for it.