Taking the ladies international teams out of the equation how often do you see a woman fishing? Not very often, I expect. Sure there will be some who say “My wife/girlfriend (sometimes both) goes fishing with me”, but on the whole it’s rare to see a woman angler.
I’m just guessing here but if I had to put some percentage on the number of women anglers I’d say if 5% of anglers were females then that’s being generous. Maybe someone will tell me the correct figures and I’ll have to eat my words.
But why should this be? Well let’s look at some reasons.
Women don’t like touching maggots (hold the smirks). Well these days there are plenty of other baits out there, boilies, pellets, sweetcorn, all the fake baits, why some anglers these days haven’t used maggot or worm for years. In fact I’ll bet there are anglers out there who’ve never seen a maggot outside of the pages of the Angling Times “How to hook a maggot” feature (run 4 times a year).
Then there’s the excuse that women don’t like handling the fish, they don’t like to feel something small and slimy wriggling in their hands. Well, you’d have thought they’d be used to that!
Another reason given is that women don’t like to sit around for hours waiting for something to happen. Well after spending all those hours watching soaps on TV you’d think they’d be conditioned for this. If this is the case then just erect a bargain clothes rail in every swim, women will spend hours hunting for a half price skirt they don’t need and it will pass the time until they get a bite.
“It’s a waste of time, I could be doing other things”. Well can’t women multi-task? We’re always being told they can. They could fish and read a book, fish and play with one of those hand held games consoles, fish and watch a DVD, fish and do a crossword (carp anglers do all of those). Well, except the crossword (unless it’s one of those with pictures). Anything with today’s technology in a portable, cordless form could be taken. A household item, for example, a woman could put the rod in a bite alarm and do the ironing whilst she waits for a fish to take the bait and it will save her having to do it when she gets home.
You can see from my reasonable and well thought out arguments above that women are running out of half decent reasons now, so let’s move on to the more feeble excuses.
“The clothing is all greens and not very flattering.” Well, for god’s sake, love, you’re a woman, get the needle and cotton out and knock something up. And if all else fails, nothing to stop you turning up to the bank side in a nice pair of tight jeans and a low cut top.
“There are no toilets – I’d have to wee behind a bush” Well for a start that’s what we men do and another thing, you could always go to one of those nice commercials with all the facilities. If you do have to wee behind a bush and are afraid of snakes or creepy crawlies then give me a call and I’ll come and watch you whilst you “go”, just to make sure everything is OK.
“I don’t have the time to waste coming fishing” and you think I do? There’s football and rugby to watch, pubs to be visited, beer to be drunk; just make time like I do. If you didn’t spend so much time “Having your hair done.” (a phrase I’ve near understood, I have mine cut) then you could get a couple of hours fishing in there.
“I’ll get all slimy and smell of fish” – well I’m not even going to go there!
No the real reason that more women don’t go fishing is we don’t want them to!
Men go fishing to get away from their women folk not to have them turn up with them. It give us men a chance to be the “hunter gathers” like our ancestors were and if you’re on an overnighter you get the chance to camp out. You can fish and cook sausages so they are burnt on the outside and raw in the middle without any nagging.
A woman on the bank side can be a distraction to men. A few weeks ago there were about six anglers fishing a lake, busily catching when a bloke of about 20 turned up with his girlfriend of the same age. The chap set up his rod and his girlfriend sat to watch him fish, you could tell that all around the lake felt uncomfortable. After about 15 minutes the girlfriend got a bit restless and bent over the bait box, all eyes then fixed on her short skirt and for the next 2 hours every time she moved bites were missed, casts went into trees or the far bank. She brought nothing but bad luck to all!
So the next time you see a woman on the bank, look for the poor bloke who’s had his day out ruined by some inconsiderate female who insists on going with him. He’ll be the chap looking sheepish, hoping his wife/girlfriend won’t shriek like a banshee if some insect lands on her.
He’ll be the bloke who’s always one of the first to pack up because his other half is “bursting” and needs to go “NOW”
He’ll be the chap with the boot of his car covered in plastic sheeting to stop “That smelly slime getting everywhere.”
He’ll be the bloke constantly getting up to untangle, unhook, bait up for his wife.
In truth he’ll be the bloody miserable bloke who wishes he’d never said “Go on, give fishing a try. You might like it.”
(Editor’s note: shortly after submitting this article, Paul was admitted to a local hospital in severe pain. Fortunately, he was released the same day with some stitches and heavy bruising to the eyes. We wish him a swift recovery.)
