Meet the Woman Bringing Mindfulness to Fly Fishing

An emerging love of the mind-body experience that fly fishing provides sent Kocka diving headfirst into these new waters. She ended up dating a fellow angler who shared her passion, but when the relationship ended, she realized she hadn’t truly learned many of these skills on her own. “I realized I didn’t know as much as I wanted to be able to fish on my own,” she explains. “I got more involved with local fly fishing organizations, and my experience in the Minneapolis area was that it was very male-dominated, which was fine, but it didn’t necessarily feel like a social environment that I wanted to hang out in regularly.”

Kocka isn’t alone in her experience—a 2022 study conducted by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) showed that despite female participation being at an all-time high of 19.8 million, one in four lapsed anglers cited not having anyone to go with as a barrier to fishing, and 40% of women anglers feel a women’s fishing club would help them go more often. Other major barriers include feeling disrespected by the male fishing community, unwelcome in retail and outdoor spaces, and even unsafe on their own. These statistics and Kocka’s firsthand experience underscore the need for women to have a community in fly fishing that’s supportive and welcoming, whether they are experienced or just beginning.

For Kocka, that community manifested in the form of the Fly Fishing Women of Minnesota, where she heard female anglers voice their concerns about safely moving through outdoor spaces.

“There were physical components of fly fishing that were a bit of a barrier for them, like fear of falling down and not being able to get back up,” says Kocka. “I was kind of struck that nobody else was talking about this publicly; we all have bodies, and we are using our bodies while we’re doing this thing, so why aren’t we talking about these experiences?”

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/lindsay-kocka-fly-fishing-mindfulness