Sad fact: the last time fly-fishing was on the rise, Bill聽Clinton was in the White House. According to the ,聽participation has plummeted聽nearly 33 percent since 1996, when the sport was riding a surge from . Enter . A 29-year-old British Columbian steelhead guide and budding TV personality, Vokey has the charisma to give聽angling a much-needed boost, in part because she鈥檚 made it her business to attract the half of the population thus far ignored by the sport: women.
鈥淲e needed somebody who could speak to us,鈥 Vokey told me this spring during an outing in the southern Rockies. 鈥淟adies want to fish鈥攚ithout their husbands.鈥澛
Vokey was enrolled in a classical-music program at when she became聽addicted to fly-fishing. She left school in 2007 and launched her company, , which guides an even mix of men and women on northern British Columbia鈥檚 most fabled steelhead rivers. When not guiding, she鈥檚 on the road: hosting her monthly World Fishing Network show, , from Iceland and聽Belize, or speaking before outfits like . 鈥淪he could do for fly-fishing what Mia Hamm did for soccer,鈥 says Kirk Deeter, editor of . That is, she could make it cool for girls to fish as hard as guys. Because while Vokey is serious about her sport, she鈥檚 not afraid to flaunt her feminine side. She had on mascara when she told me, 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to look like a boy to fish like one.鈥 Then she reeled in a 17-inch brown trout.