PHOTO PROVIDED
Ashley Wilmont, left, poses for a photo prior to competing in fly fishing. Wilmont is a member of the United States women’s fly fishing team and competed in Oslo, Norway. She spoke at the Susquehanna Trout Unlimited chapter meeting at the First Presbyterian Church on Wednesday.
Fishing has always been a part of Ashley Wilmont’s life. She’s become passionate about being an angler and on Wednesday — Wilmont, who is part of the United States women’s fly fishing team — spoke at the Susquehanna Trout Unlimited chapter meeting at the First Presbyterian Church about her experiences competing for the red, white and blue.
Her pride, passion, and commitment to the world of fishing in general — not just fly fishing — is very apparent as she too is a proud and long time member of the Penn State-State College sector of the local Trout Unlimited club.
“It’s always been something that I truly enjoy. The ability to come together as a team, like any high school football team in America or something, we have that same camaraderie and togetherness of a family,” said Wilmont.
The mission of the United States Women’s Fly Fishing Team is to develop the highest quality competitive fly fishing team to represent the United States in the FIPS-Mouche worldwide competition each year.
They are dedicated to excellence in the sport of competitive fly fishing; to practice and encourage stream conservation; to understand and promote the value of our waterways; to encourage women to participate in the sport; and to encourage international friendships.
Wilmont hopes to see more women involved in fly fishing.
“I think the biggest aspect for more women to get involved with the sport of competitive fishing, which has been primarily a male dominated sport, would be to try and get our awareness out to the public more,” Wilmont said. “Many women come up to me and ask how they can get into the sport and my response is always to get involved and seek out someone who can elevate your level of interest.”
Women’s fly fishing is now sanctioned by the Confederation Internationale de Peche Sportive, which represents 50 million competitive anglers from 78 different countries worldwide.
Wilmont, born in Unionville in Chester County, had the opportunity to go to Norway and compete with her United States teammates as well, something she enjoyed.
“Going to Norway with the women’s national team posed so many different little hardships. We had to navigate around, just the amount of gear alone was incredible. I think I had like seven or eight huge luggage bags full of just gear alone,” Wilmont said. “I’m from small-town rural Pennsylvania, born and raised, and that’s all I ever knew. I obviously never had the opportunity to travel much, or fly internationally, so this was all completely new and completely foreign to me.”
Wilmont’s brother drove her to the Newark Liberty International Airport with her numerous bags of equipment to fly the roughly 9-10 hours across the Atlantic Ocean to Oslo, Norway. From there, she had a 2-3 hour car drive through the remote wilderness of the country.
“Which was such a beautiful and scenic drive, through mountains, rivers and woodlands,” Wilmont noted.
Once in Norway, a local guide helped Wilmont and her teammates navigate the area and teach them about fishing in the region.
“We caught everything from wild trout, grayling, pike, powan and arctic char. My favorite was the grayling, they are just beautiful fish to look at,” Wilmont said. “The salmon was about two or so hours north of where we were. We just missed getting up to the podium at the closing ceremonies.”
Wilmont and the United States were one fish behind the third-place finishers who took bronze. While they didn’t get bronze or better, next year’s competition is in Canada, and Wilmont is hoping to get another chance at a medal.
“Next year in 2023 the competition is being held in northern British Columbia, Canada, and we definitely want to make it up on that stage this time.” Wilmont said.
The CIPS has formally applied to the International Olympic Committee to recognize fishing as an Olympic sport. The United States Angling Confederation supports women’s fly fishing and believes it will advance this goal.
“My ultimate goal is just to be able to get more young people in general to come out and get involved with the sport or involved in a local Trout Unlimited post, also yes just getting more women into the sport of competitive fly fishing will always be a bit of a challenge, but I believe over the years, we can increase this little by little,” Wilmont said.
Credit: Source link
