Greater than two dozen ladies participated within the first annual version Past the Solid Girls’s Fly Fishing Symposium in 2023 Virginia Wine and Fly Fishing Competition. Held within the Farm Bureau Constructing on the State Fairgrounds in Doswell on January 14-15, 2023, the twenty second Annual Virginia Fly & Wine hosted the distinctive Past the Solid symposium, which was sponsored by take me fishing and included courses by and for ladies out of doors fanatics.

“For years, we’ve got supplied free casting courses for ladies,” mentioned Virginia Fly & Wine director Beau Beasley. “These newbie classes are baked on our cake, so to talk. However this yr we needed to go past: past a newbie, past a lady and her fly rod. We needed to develop superior abilities, and even perhaps extra vital, we needed to construct a neighborhood to assist like-minded ladies join. Finally encouraging ladies to get outdoor and fish collectively.”

Individuals ranging in age from their late twenties to early sixties spent two days studying every little thing from superior trout fishing ways to protected wading practices, primary entomology, good buying and kayak fishing. Virginia conservation officers taught college students what to do after they encounter wildlife. At a working lunch, college students met and spoke with ladies entrepreneurs and trade leaders like Kim Ranalla, founding father of miss mayflySarah Holt’s Therapeutic Waters Challenge Fly Fishing, Y Beverly Smith vp of volunteer operations for Limitless trout.

“I’m at all times very inspired to see the house and time created only for ladies in these traditionally male-dominated fly fishing exhibits,” Smith mentioned. “Virginia Fly & Wine introduced collectively ladies from all walks of life, the agenda was robust – I can not inform you the variety of ladies who confirmed as much as the TU sales space desperate to study extra and get entangled.”

Past the Solid contributors got here from as far-off as Maine and Georgia to attend the two-day occasion, which started with a meet and greet on Friday evening. “An expertise like this demystifies an in any other case intimidating ‘privileged’ sport,” Beasley mentioned. “The attendees tearfully informed me how welcome they felt, how a lot the weekend meant to them. A number of ladies realized that they lived very shut to one another and commenced organizing outings on the spot. I imply, our imaginative and prescient for this fledgling neighborhood was coming to life proper there on the pageant.”

Stephanie Vatalaro, senior vp of promoting and communications for the Leisure Boating and Fishing Basis (RBFF) and an important associate within the growth of the Past the Solid Girls’s Fly Fishing Symposium, mentioned: “Analysis tells us that ladies anglers have considerably greater perseverance, willpower, perceived well being and life satisfaction than their counterparts. they aren’t fishermen. We’re excited to help this unbelievable alternative for ladies to not solely study to fly fish, but in addition to attach with their friends to encourage continued participation.”

“I feel Past the Solid has proven that when ladies are warmly welcomed into areas, they make it their very own,” Beasley mentioned. “Our world-class instructors, our daring and curious contributors, have risen to the event and are serving to to construct the neighborhood they’ve been searching for. We’re so grateful to Take Me Fishing for catching our imaginative and prescient and sponsoring one thing new and recent. And we cordially invite the out of doors ladies of Southwest to hitch us on the subsequent Past the Solid Girls’s Fly Fishing Symposiumwhich is able to happen concurrently with the sixth version Texas Beer and Fly Fishing Competition in Mesquite, Texas from February 25 to 26, 2023”.