International Women’s Fly Fishing Day (IWFFD), is an initiative from 2 women in very different parts of the world – Maddy Kelly from County Down and Pamela Caldwell Dunlap from Hurricane in West Virginia, USA. They met on a women’s Flyfishing site – Women Wine and Waders – that was set up by Pamela and they’ve been sharing fishing tales and life stories for the three years since. The aim of the day is to bring women together from all over the world, virtually, for one day to celebrate their fly fishing and to encourage them to be role models who will support new women who take up fly fishing.

 

 

Post a photo or video

Pamela and Maddy are asking women that are interested in taking part to post a photo or a video at 11am to Face Book on Saturday 12th September 2020 on the ‘International Women’s Fly Fishing Day’ page that shows how they’re celebrating the special day. Some women will be flyfishing but some plans will have been curtailed because of adherence to local Government guidelines re Coronavirus which are different throughout the world. There’s always the chance as well that weather may interfere with fishing plans and some women are in a part of the world that is out of the fly fishing season. To allow for those circumstances the photo or video posted can be of anything related to fly fishing e.g. practicing casting, tying a fly, or even reading a book on the topic or watching a fly fishing video etc. Or for women unable to be doing anything related to flyfishing at 11am on 12th Sept they can post a photo that shows that they do indeed enjoy fly fishing.

 

 

All across the world

Julie Cook, Vice President of the Southland Fly Fishing Club in Invercargill New Zealand is, at the minute, the most easterly woman planning to take part which means she’ll get the first opportunity to post her 11am photo, and Catrina (Cat) White from Los Angeles is the most westerly. She will close the celebration day and will be tying flies in preparation for a week-long fishing trip happening during the following week.

With photos being posted at 11am from all over the world the day will unfold from New Zealand to the west coast of the USA over a 20 hour period.

Maddy Kelly has been flyfishing for over 30 years and has fished throughout Ireland. Since 1993 she has been a regular member of the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing team which takes part in the Ladies International Flyfishing Championships fished against teams from Scotland, Wales and England. She has recently gained coaching qualifications and has been organising events to introduce women and young people to flyfishing.

 

 

Joys of flyfishing

Pamela Caldwell Dunlap is a more recent convert to flyfishing. Prior to discovering the joys of flyfishing she was not keen on the outdoors at all. She was introduced to it on a first date 5 years ago and enjoyed it so much that since then she has organised camps for women to learn and has been responsible for a number of women becoming anglers.

The internet friends, Pamela and Maddy, have spent three years sharing stories of the days that they organise for women to enjoy flyfishing. Though separated by 3,590 miles, most of it ocean, it turns out they’ve a lot in common. They are both committed to encouraging and supporting new women into flyfishing which is why the original plan for IWFFD was to attract new women into flyfishing by encouraging experienced women fly fishers to run tuition days. However with the pandemic situation as it is, IWFFD has instead become a day whereby women who are already fly-fishers will celebrate the event by undertaking a range of activities that are flyfishing related. While some will be flyfishing, either as individuals or with other women, others will be involved with a fly fishing related activity.

For more information please visit International Women’s Fly Fishing Day on Facebook.

Source: www.fishinginireland.info.

 

Also look at:
https://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2020/03/13/ireland-on-the-fly-blackwater-update-and-women-try-fishing/
https://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2019/09/07/first-long-island-ny-womens-fishing-expo/
https://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2019/06/07/the-reel-women-of-fishing/