To celebrate International Women's Fly Fishing Day, Farlows' Juliette Almond shares her personal journey into fly fishing, the sense of escape and community she has found on the water, and why she hopes more women will be inspired to pick up a fly rod.
Right now, somewhere in the world, a woman is standing in a river.
That's the idea behind International Women's Fly Fishing Day, which falls this year on Saturday 12th September. Founded in 2020 by Maddy Kelly in Northern Ireland and Pamela Caldwell Dunlap in West Virginia - two women who met, years before, through an online fly-fishing group - the day works on a simple, lovely piece of logic: it's always 11am somewhere.
So women post their photos, their stories, their fish (or their glorious, hilarious lack of fish) at 11am in their own time zone, and the celebration rolls around the globe for a full 24 hours. Last year, more than 3,000 women across 25 countries took part. This year, I'll be one of them.
But before I tell you why I'll be on the water on the 12th, I’ll share how I got here.
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
I did some fishing in my early twenties, living in the Bahamas - but not fly fishing. It wasn't until about eight years ago that I picked up a fly rod for the first time. I've been hooked, quite literally, ever since.
At the time, life was busy and relentless - a high-pressure career, two young children, a head that never really switched off. The first time I stood in a river with a fly rod in my hand, something happened that I genuinely wasn't prepared for: my head went quiet.
No competing thoughts. Just the present moment - the water, the line, what my hands were doing (or, more often in those early days, what I was trying and failing to do). I've never been to a meditation class, so I can't tell you if that's what it feels like. But I can tell you it was the first time in years I'd experienced anything close to stillness while wide awake.
And here's the thing nobody quite tells you starting out: none of that stillness has anything to do with catching fish. It's the getting out there that does it - the water, the nature all around, the not-checking-your-phone of it all. The fish, if they show up, are a bonus.
The second realisation came more slowly, and it stung a little. For a long time I only fished occasionally, which meant every session felt like starting again - relearning what I'd half-learned the time before, never quite building on it. It was frustrating. Oh how I wish I had discovered fly fishing sooner!
Am I an exceptional fly fisher? No. Am I enjoying getting out there, learning a little more and improving every time? Absolutely.
FINDING A FLY FISHING COMMUNITY
What strikes me most about this community isn't the water or the fish - it's the people. They're tied together by a single thread: they love fishing, and they want you to love it too. Along the way I've met women who are utterly inspirational - generous with their time, their flies, their hard-won knowledge and their laughter - and who made me feel like I belonged before I'd even proven I could cast.
FLY FISHING IS MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK
Fly fishing needs deep pockets and a private beat on some grand chalkstream? Not true. A quality starter fly fishing outfit can set you back less than £100, and after that it's your time you're investing, not your money.
Access is easier than people think, too. We live on an island fringed with shore fishing - estuaries, harbours, open coast, much of it free. If saltwater isn't your thing, local stillwater fisheries and rivers sell inexpensive day tickets, no membership required. Wherever you live, there's very likely water near you.
Watch Lucy Bowden, Emily Graham, Lucinda Ewin and Lydia Thomas discuss their personal journeys into fishing and why fly fishing continues to inspire them.
WHERE THE WATER TAKES ME NOW
I'm currently working toward my Level 2 Angling Coach qualification, with dreams of a casting qualification further along. Partly that's just who I am - a lifelong learner, always wanting to understand the water a little better, cast a little better, get a little better. But mostly, it's this: I want to help other people find what I found. If fly fishing is going to give someone else that same quiet-head, present-moment feeling it gave me, I'd love to help them find it sooner than I did.
JOIN US ON 12TH SEPTEMBER FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S FLY FISHING DAY
That's what International Women's Fly Fishing Day is really about, underneath the photos and the hashtag: uniting female anglers globally, building a community that makes the sport feel open rather than closed, and inspiring the women who haven't picked up a rod yet - or who tried it once and haven't been back - to give it another go.
So on Saturday 12th September, wherever you are and whatever your 11am looks like, I'll be posting a photo from the water using #IWFFD, and I'd love it if you joined in too. It doesn't matter if you've been fly fishing for thirty years or thirty minutes, whether you land something spectacular or spend the whole session untangling your leader.
Bring your best fish if you catch one. Bring nothing but a good story if you don't - that counts too.
We'd love to see it, share it, and celebrate it with you! Because somewhere in the world, right now, it's 11am. And a woman is standing in a river, feeling her head go quiet for the very first time. I hope, one day soon, that's you.
