OPENING DOORS
The language says it all. Fishermen are … men. Never mind that a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey reports that of 35.8 million anglers in the United States, 9.8 million, or 27 percent, are female. Even curmudgeons acknowledge the trend, which isn’t new at all. “Women are here to stay … in trout fishing as on the golf course and at the ballot box,” said Fred White, editor of the Anglers’ Club of New York Bulletin in the 1920s, adding: “They can wear my second-best waders any time.”
In fact, the history of women anglers precedes White’s grudging observation by at least three centuries. Joan Wulff, the czarina of fly-fishing — a woman who gave casting demonstrations in a gown and high heels, and
