Fair angling for men and women

Women have been angling for position in the fly fishing industry for the past several years. No longer a sport just for men with their artistic power moves casting their line across the waters. Women now have a strong place in the sport.

Mary Ann Dozer learned fly fishing from her husband Dave, a bamboo rodmaker. Mary Ann is a guide and teaches casting. She'll be speaking at this year's Metolius River Fly Fishing & Bamboo Rod Fair in Camp Sherman about making changes in your cast to effectively cast bamboo versus graphite.

Whether or not men and women cast differently is a subject for debate.

"To cast a rod effectively, it's the same physics," Dozer explained. "Women tend to cast better than men, because it's about technique, not power. The slower you cast a rod, the better it works."

Keynote speaker and outdoor sport enthusiast Gary Lewis will talk about still-water fly fishing on Oregon's lakes, followed with a talk titled Big Trout Basics later in the day.

"The fish don't have to fight the current in a lake," Lewis says, "so they get bigger faster. The fishing method depends on the depth of the lake."

He reminds us that you're really trying to find the feeders two feet or twenty feet down.

Author of seven books, Lewis also writes for several sporting magazines. He is currently hunting in New Zealand, but will be back in time for the Rod Fair.

The Ninth Annual Metolius River Fly Fishing & Bamboo Rod Fair will run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17-18. Lectures begin promptly in the morning at the start of the fair.