Published Feb 19. 2016 - 8 years ago
Updated or edited Oct 8. 2020

If I had boobs

It seems to me that success in fly fishing, fly tying, guiding, writing or filming as well as social media can be secured by simply being a young and reasonably good looking woman

A couple of assets
Who needs a wading jacket?
Joel Nielsson, WikiMedia

Before I venture into this rant let me make it clear that I know that there's a lot of really talented female anglers and fly tyers out there and that I'd love nothing more than seeing more women in our ranks.
This is not a critique of the women who have done well in fly fishing and fly tying, but more like a round of flak to the men who give those whose main talent is a good body, a lot of wind in the sails, simply because they are female, good looking and dress... eh... let's just say that waders and wading jackets are not a big item on their budget.

I'm on Facebook

as the flyfisherman Martin and mostly enjoy it. I'm there for the fishing stories, the flies, the great photos and hints on what's buzzing in the community, what to read and what to watch, what to try and what to buy. My friend count is just around 1,000, and that gives a healthy dose of fly fishing related news and inspiration every day.
The complex algorithms that drive Facebook sometimes suggest some new people that the ghost in the machine thinks I should befriend or a group that I should join. Most of the suggestions make pretty good sense. The people are flyfishermen like myself, know people that I know, are in groups that I'm in, and like pages that I like. They are mainly men in their best age, average Joes, profile images showing them in wading jackets and waders holding a rod and maybe even a fish.

But quite often

there's a woman in the list. She's much younger than the males, typically in her twenties. She's also holding a fish, but in stead of being by a murky river on a cloudy day, she's on a boat somewhere in Florida or the Caribbean and she's certainly not in waders! Let's put it this way: If anglers around me were dressed like this typical young woman, I'd have a hard time concentrating on the casting!
Now and then I do click on to see some more. I certainly don't dislike looking at beautiful women in small pieces of textile. I'm always surprised – not that I see a lot of pictures of a good looking woman fishing, but by the number of Facebook friends and likes they attract. Thousands! Ten thousands! Some even hundred thousands!

Bikinis fishing
Brooke
Bikinis fishing
Martin Joergensen

There's Fishing Girls.

As the declaration says: “A page dedicated to finding that girl who'll hold your pole!”.
Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean?
Some 4,000 guys think that's a great come on line.
Fishing Girls without the hyphen follows troop with 7,000 likes. “What two things go together perfectly - Fishing and Babes” as the tag line says.

Another group called Fishing Hotties

(yes, really!) has more than 60,000 members. A few of the women depicted wear long sleeves. A major letdown, which is probably the reason for the low number of fans.

Because that's bleak

compared to Fishing Bikini Girls. No reason to risk seeing any long sleeves, jackets or waders. The result? 440,000 likes! I love the tagline by the way: "Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been". Where did that come from? It's just girls fishing in bikinis for crissake!

Brooke Thomas

is a pretty girl who fishes. Some kind of celebrity too, I guess, but not one that spends much money on fishing clothes. Some 360,000 people think that's a pretty good idea, a vast majority of them are probably potbellied, balding, middle aged men like the most of us.

There's a gazillion

of these Facebook profiles, Instagram accounts, Pinterest boards and web sites. Strut your stuff girl! And grab that pole! Men will be flocking...

Now, these girls

might be really good anglers and able to outfish all of us – and judging from the fact that they're always holding up a fish, they catch a lot more than I do. But you certainly don't like them or become their virtual friend because you want to get tips on fishing, gear, flies, locations are whatever, because there's no such thing in sight.
Boobs, buttocks and belly buttons is it!
I know it's the oldest trick in the book: flash some skin, a little pushup and some cleavage and you'll have men gathering like flies on *beep*. Men are so easy.
So if I want success I need some major surgery done. Most of the girls seem to have, in spite of being pretty well equipped from nature. That's obviously much more attractive to anglers than well researched and thoroughly illustrated articles on fly-fishing or simple and catchy fly patterns like mine. I'm orders of a magnitude less popular than even the most untalented fishing girl in a bikini. Who needs skills and brain when there's boobs?

I do suspect that the cover picture for this post will draw a few clicks

If I just had boobs

I'd be a great success in the fishing community...!
On second thought, I think I'll try to push that picture aside and stay with my measly thousand – mostly mature male – contacts, and be satisfied with the visitors that come for the content and not for the boobs - even though I do suspect that the cover picture for this post will draw a few clicks.

Comments

Boobs...

Martin, if you had a such a lovely pair as per the top photo, you might have a lot more fishing "friends" :)

Fishing and entertainment are two different businesses....

I'm really sorry to see you comparing these talented, good looking or well produced girls and women to yourself trough your own idea of what is "the right way to fish" and then deeming that they are not "real fishermen." I know that likes and followers are the currency of social media, but comparing your figures to everything that has a word "fish" in the tittle gives really odd results as you noticed. Fishing is a great thing and it becomes greater by adding more diversity to it, may that be girls who like to look good while enjoying the great weather and drinks on Bahamas while angling, boys and girls fishing small in city canals for roach or middle aged men wading in strong winds middle of winter to catch the sea trout for Christmas table. Being envious of social media likes and friends of others and generating this kind of "wrong way to do my thing" posts does not do any good to anyone.

Anyway thank you for the great site, I've enjoyed the fly patterns greatly and your guide to Danish fishing spots around Copenhagen was worth it's weight in gold when I visited the city last spring (this seems to have been removed since from the site?) Keep up the great work and enjoy the likes you get and keen followers you have knowing they are there for what you do. Hopefully you'll get a lot more of both as you deserve.

Martin Joergensen's picture

The right way to fish...

Hannu,

I think I may have conveyed my message badly in the post above.

My grudge wasn't with the women who get all these male followers thanks to their (the women's that is) obvious advantages. No, my grudge was with the horde of drooling men who join the stampede and follow troop in the like-avalanche of these women.

If the men were in it for the fishing and the good advice, they would not be following women who post a half naked pictures of themselves holding a fish now and then - and not much else - but follow fully dressed men and women, who actually contribute valuable knowledge and tips and not just bare skin.

I have no problem with people being rich in "the currency of social media" as you put it so well, but I do have a problem when these extremely popular pages and profiles are totally without substance. I know a lot of people (men) will say that there's nothing wrong with looking at pretty women, and they might be right. But I'm a little more old school when it comes to that, and think that these men - and also the women posing - reduce the few fishing women who actually do a good job to sex objects and not much else. I know it's a knee jerk response and an argument as old as... well older than me, actually, and that's old, but I still think it's a valid point. To me women are more than silicone implants and small bikinis.

Sure, people can do what they want, and I'm certain that the women do it by free will and get a certain satisfaction in seeing the reaction of their followers, but if all they have to offer is large breasts and duck's arse lips, I'm out – even if they hold up a fish now and then. In that respect I'm obviously not in agreement with several hundred thousand other men.

And I'm not envious of these women - just as I'm not envious of Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton or Snooki for having millions of likers and followers because they are famous for... nothing actually. I'm not in the game for the likes. I'm in it to have an outlet for my images and articles and for the networking, friendships and fishing it brings. Having hundreds of thousands of followers would probably give me more frustrations than joy.

With regards to the guide to Copenhagen and Denmark, it was one of the casualties in the conversion to a new system. I still have all the data, but haven't found time to convert it. It may come.

Martin

Hi Martin,...

Hi Martin,

Thanks for taking the time to correct the misunderstanding on my side and hopefully the comment will help also others to better understand the valid point you wanted to make with the post.

jillianmarie's picture

This is definitely an...

This is definitely an interesting read. And as a lady angler myself, I must say, I don't disagree. And I honestly don't think you've discredited anyone- you've merely expressed a pretty accurate observation.
A lot of these women have definitely marketed themselves to an easy target, yes.. (men in general, and men who fish). But unlike a lot of experienced guides and professional anglers (most of whom I see, are men) I can't ever figure out what I'd benefit by following a girl who fly fishes and posts "selfies" or worse, bikini pictures with fish- as I am more interested in discovering new spots, pretty fish and new tips and tricks of the trade (which I find more prevalent when viewing men's profiles) And Maybe it is just for a woman's own self esteem, or the social status bull shit that overwhelms the internet.. I mostly find it fascinating that women have found an outlet where they can express their "unique look" to an attention/praise-gaurenteed audience. But I suppose thats what social media has done for us, which isn't all negative.
But I stand by your opinion, and agree... It isn't these women in bikinis on a sail boat holding a fish, that I myself would consult for the latest fishing news, buzz and gear either. I guess I would judge based on the image they are giving off, man or woman, whether a connection with them (network specific) would ever be of real use to me. I'd like to think that I can tell if the angler knows whats up/ what they're doing based on the image they're portraying.. vs engaging in fishing solely for male or social media attention.
I will say, this rant has inspired me take my own image seriously, as one day, I'd like to be an angler that fellow anglers- men and women, would respect and seek advice from.

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

.

Log in or register to pre-fill name on comments, add videos, user pictures and more.
Read more about why you should register.
 

Since you got this far …


The GFF money box

… I have a small favor to ask.

Long story short

Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.

Long story longer

The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.

See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.