Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

Journal or Book Title: MSU Fisheries and Wildlife Spotlight

Keywords: fisheries conservation; fly fishing; women; Au Sable River; trout

Volume/Issue: 13

Page Number(s): 17-19

Year Published: 2017

Four cars, packed to the brim with wide-eyed women peering out of dusty windows, tentatively pull up and park on a large field of grass flattened by the many cars that had come before them. Car doors swing open and the women - each one carrying a bottle of wine or a 6-pack of beer - appear as they saunter down the dirt road to Fuller's North Branch Outing Club, a historic fly fishing lodge on the North Branch of the Au Sable River. Inside the lodge, the women are greeted by their colleagues - other women from natural resource and conservation backgrounds - from Michigan State University (MSU), the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), and elsewhere. Also there to green the women are Tom Sadler, a renowned fly fishing instructor and guide from Virginia, Bill Taylor, University Distinguished Professor at MSU, and Bill Demmer, successful businessman and avid hunter and angler. With broad smiles on their faces and overflowing glasses of wine in their hands, Sadler, Taylor, and Demmer raise their drinks and declare a toast, "To the new class of MSU Fly Gals; welcome to the Au Sable!"

Type of Publication: Journal Article

Publisher: MSU Fisheries and Wildlife