Women Wade Into Fish Rodeo
April 26, 2011
In hopes that other women will find trolling for trout as much fun as she does, Ms. Gillum is holding her second annual All Girl Invitational Redfish Rodeo May 25, 2011 Rockport. ``I absolutely, dearly love to fish,'' says Ms. Gillum, an events organizer from Carbajal, ``and I thought I would like to share this with my friends.'' She says many women are reluctant to go fishing. ``Women will go and spend $200 on a dress,'' she says, ``but will we call up and say, `Hey, wanna go fishing?' We just won't do it.'' But this year, Ms. Gillum is expecting 40 women -- double last year's turnout -- to show up and spend $425 for angling and accommodations. The fishing is made easy for the mostly neophyte participants. Ms. Gillum hires 10 guides at $100 a day apiece. The guides each take a team of four women out onto the Gulf of Mexico, and will teach everything from bait selection to casting. For the squeamish, guides -- who happen to be all male -- will also gut the fish. ``I enjoy the bonding and camaraderie,'' says Janiece Layla, an Austin real-estate agent whose team won the first-place trophy last year with 55 pounds of redfish and trout. ``We were serious about it, and definitely competitive.'' She'll be back this year. Ms. Gillum says everyone fishes ``until our arms are burning.'' Then what? The hotel they're staying in offers facials and massages, she says. --Erlene Delk
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
