In Canada, women-only ice fishing is about more than fish
| Parry Sound, Ontario
Pauline Gordon and Nicole Chafe load their sled聽鈥� with rods, a bucket of pinners and shiners, a bump board, chairs, a shovel, a heater and propane, a sonar fish finder, a scoop for the ice, and food for the day聽鈥� and haul it across the frozen lake.
A half-mile later we arrive at their pop-up hut, which they鈥檇 set up the day before shoveling out knee-deep snow, making sure to pack extra at the sides so it didn鈥檛 blow away overnight. It鈥檚 minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning, so cold my phone dies every time I try to record. But we aren鈥檛 the most hardcore of the bunch. Some women set out in pitch black, headlamps leading the way over multiple layers of clothing.
Ideal girls鈥� weekend? It is for the 30 participants who joined the Ontario Women Anglers (OWA) on a women-only ice fishing expedition this month. 鈥淚 love this,鈥� says Ms. Gordon, her arms wide greeting the pinkening sky and snow-crusted forest hemming Second Lake.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onIce fishing in North America has long been male-dominated. But for a growing number of women, it is a chance to get into nature and bond with friends 鈥� and maybe even catch some fish.
Ice fishing in North America traces back about 2,000 years to Indigenous communities, but for the last century has been a sport dominated by men. Now groups like OWA are introducing more women to the beauties of the 鈥渉ard water,鈥� in an extreme embrace of winter. 鈥淏eing on a frozen lake is kind of like walking on the moon. When the ice is building, it鈥檚 actually an audible noise that kind of sounds like whales,鈥� says Capt. Barb Carey, who founded Wisconsin Women Fish because all of this felt inaccessible to women at one time.
鈥淚ce fishing in particular used to be, you know, all the old guys sitting on a bucket,鈥� she says.
That ice fishing clubs for women are popping up in the United States and Canada is in large part due to Captain Carey, a U.S. Coast Guard-certified captain who, when she discovered ice fishing, had to teach herself everything. 鈥淣obody would tell you where they were catching fish or how they were doing that,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was kind of like this secret that was shared between a couple of buddies.鈥�
Women still make up a minority in fishing overall. In Canada, men made up about 80% of all domestic anglers, according to . The demographics in ice fishing are harder to pin down since licenses are year-round, but club presidents, anglers, and tourism operators on both sides of the border say women are increasingly present on the ice. And ice fishing is particularly appealing because participants don鈥檛 need a boat.
Still, media and marketing have been slow to reflect changing demographics and businesses slow to offer serious gear. 鈥淎t first everything was pink,鈥� says Captain Carey. 鈥淭hey would even make a pink ice fishing pole, but it was terrible.鈥� So she founded Women on Ice in 2015聽鈥� to push for better gender depictions.
There are no 鈥渟tupid questions鈥�
Today Wisconsin Women Fish counts 600 women from 20 states and Canada. One of those women is Yvonne Brown, the founder of OWA, who organized the expedition outside Parry Sound, 150 miles north of Toronto.
鈥淥h my God, oh my God,鈥� Ms. Chafe whoops as a head comes out of the 16-inch thick hole they drilled in the morning. It鈥檚 the biggest black crappie she鈥檚 ever caught聽鈥� at over 13 inches it means she has earned her status as 鈥渕aster angler.鈥�
鈥淧auline, I need a picture. Now I鈥檓 happy,鈥� Ms. Chafe says.
鈥淚鈥檓 happy for you,鈥� Ms. Gordon replies as she documents the catch.
Many of the women here are a hardy lot of anglers聽鈥� hunters too聽鈥� of all ages and unafraid of a little cold. (But the threat of frostbite crossed my mind several times, and the drive up through a snow squall felt extreme enough to me.) Some fished when they were little聽鈥� often with their dads聽鈥� but lost touch with it. Many had never ice fished until very recently, and some not until this weekend聽鈥� like Terri Fracassa, who jumped in with no small dose of girl power.
鈥淭his is the kind of cold that keeps the men inside,鈥� says Ms. Fracassa, as she revs the engine of the all-terrain vehicle she just learned to drive across the ice. 鈥淎nd the women are doing it.鈥�
Ms. Brown says she began mentoring women a decade ago because there were no fishing organizations in Ontario where women were teaching other women. She found her niche providing a safe, noncompetitive space where there are no 鈥渟tupid questions,鈥� she says.
鈥淣ormal people don鈥檛 do this鈥�
That鈥檚 not to say there is no competition in Parry Sound. At one point I speared my finger on the barb of a lure, prompting Ms. Gordon to call out to the nurse in the group: 鈥淭eresa!鈥� Teresa Foster popped her head out of her tent, steam escaping, and masterfully pulls the barb out. Then she jokes to Ms. Gordon, 鈥淚 thought you were calling me because you caught a bigger fish. I was going to punch you.鈥�
But mostly it鈥檚 a weekend of learning and helping. 鈥淲ho needs the auger?鈥� 鈥淒oes anyone need a ride back to the lodge?鈥� The women swap jig heads and fish bags.
鈥淲hen I learned of OWA, I thought, 鈥榟ow awesome to learn from a bunch of ladies.鈥� This is a judgment-free zone where everybody鈥檚 learning from everybody,鈥� says Ms. Chafe, who learned how to read a sonar from Ms. Gordon this weekend. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 feel put down if you don鈥檛 know something.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 more sisterly,鈥� adds Ms. Gordon, who began ice fishing last year.
Roselle Turenne, a colleague of Captain Carey鈥檚 and member of OWA who was not at Parry Sound, has studied gender dynamics in fishing, writing a thesis titled 鈥淲omen Fish Too鈥� for her master鈥檚 in tourism management. She found that fishing 鈥渉as almost nothing to do with fish.鈥� Instead, says Ms. Turenne, who now runs Prairie Gal Fishing in Winnipeg, ice fishing is a lot of decompressing, a lot of being out in nature, of getting outside and through the dark of winter, and sitting down and simply talking to whoever is next to you.
The scenes back at the lodge are decidedly case in point. One angler has set up twinkle lights for her three-night stay on her bottom bunk. Another, a hairdresser, brought her scissors for any woman wanting a cut. Dinnertime is a raucous affair with fisher tales spun; most of the jokes aren鈥檛 publishable in a family newspaper.
Julie Martinez, the hairdresser, says at one point she looked around her, watching women dig up snow in the freezing clime and said to herself, 鈥淲hat are we doing? Normal people don鈥檛 do this.鈥�
The thought was fleeting. She needs to be out here, she says, returning to an activity that she loved when little聽鈥� until her teens when people started to say 鈥渇ishing is weird鈥� or 鈥渇ishing isn鈥檛 for girls.鈥�
Oh yes it is, she retorts today. 鈥淚 can feel it in myself. I need my fish therapy.鈥欌��
Editor鈥檚 note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect why Ms. Brown founded her organization.
