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A few days ago my wife and I were invited to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with friends who live in a little town two hours from New York by train. The air there was fresh and dry and it smelled good and clean. The traditional meal was quite respectable as were all of the people gathered around the table.

I found myself sitting next to a guy, on my left, who I had never met before. A nice face, between two ages… the guy ate the traditional turkey without saying a word. So, I introduced myself and engaged him in conversation. Quickly, as you can imagine, we arrived at our respective passions and “le Mouching” of course, appeared at the table.

Surprised, my neighbor interrupted me: “Tell me, have you ever heard about Julia Fairchild?”

“No, terribly sorry. And why would I have heard of her?”

“Well, she was my grandmother, but it happens that it was she who, among other things, created the first The Women Flyfishers Club of America in the 30’s.”

Well, there I started to be extremely pleased with the Thanksgiving dinner. The guy served himself another glass of a delicious Chateauneuf du Pape and continued.

“Julia was the first person in America to put forward the idea that it was stupid to kill a caught fish. At that time, all the fishermen killed their catch without batting an eyelash.”

My new friend continued: “Listen I have another story just as delicious. One day Julia was fishing in one of the marvelous New York rivers when she started suffering strong abdominal pains. I might mention that she was in her ninth month of pregnancy. Lickety-split to the hospital in Margaretville where the the only question was: will the new born child be called BROOK or BROWN? And after the birth, once again, back to the river. In fact, she continued to fish even after her 95th birthday. And for proof, voila, a photo of her!”

“My dear friend, how can I learn more about your incredible grandmother?”

Well, that’s simple. She is talked about in a book called “REEL WOMEN”, that was written by Lyla Foggia. You can order it on line!”

As you can imagine, that same night I went directly to Amazon.com and bought a used book for one dollar! Two days later it arrived. I devoured the book and learned so many incredible things about the contributions that the fairer sex have made to our favorite passion. There were extraordinary fly tyers like Mary Dette, champion fly casters like Joan Wulff (the wife of the legendary Lee Wulff), fishing guides like Cathy Beck… etc, etc. The list is long and absolutely fascinating.

Me, I always thought that the history of our dear passion was strictly a guy thing, shows you what I know.

So, if you want to learn something and relish a good story, run to amazon.com and order the book which is filled with marvelous stories and stunning photos.

(The story of grandmom Julia is on page 45.)

Go for it girls… after reading this book we love you even more!