For International Womens Day we naturally chose SWMBO – we daren’t nominate anyone else…
But the best known female angler on the Tongariro was undoubtedly the Queen Mother still famous 90 years later for making the Tongariro River her favourite river.
While more men than women traditionally went fishing, there were always some keen female anglers – such as the Duchess of York (later the Queen Mother), pictured here fishing the Tongariro River in 1927. A photographer behind her captures the moment while in the foreground her attendant looks on.
She ‘camped’ at Kowhai Flat where accommodation buildings had been erected by the local prisoners. The “Duchess Pool” is named after her. The pre-fabricated structures were later moved down river to the anglers’ camp and were the first buildings for the trout hatchery.
Above is the late Queen Mother fishing at Lake Wanaka in 1966. Her visit predated the current licensing system, so she was not breaking the law.
A contribution from the female perspective – by Susie Kane
Fisherladies – Why You Don’t Need A Y-Chromosome To Enjoy Fishing
One of the major draws of the Tongariro River is its accessibility – it is largely owned by the Crown, meaning that its waters are accessible to anybody with the relevant fishing permit.
Celebrities and oligarchs rub shoulders here with ordinary folk from all walks of life. Including women.
The Archetypal Angler
Angling has traditionally been viewed as a male preserve. We all know the image of the archetypal angler – a man, typically beyond the first flush of youth, escaping wife and domestic scene to steal sneaky days by the river where, if his bar-spun tales are to be believed, he battles monstrous scaled beasts the like of which the Earth has not seen since the time of the dinosaurs. It’s an adamantly male image, and the idea of a female angler does not immediately spring to mind. Despite this, however, more and more women are taking up tackle and heading to the trout pools.
Trenchant Pioneers
Photos on right of a dripping wet Australian ‘angleress’ Jude Newey in 2009. She was so astonished when she hooked up that she fell in, but still managed to land her trout. What a great effort.
Female fishers are by no means a new development. Ladies of the aristocracy have long joined and surpassed their men in the outdoor pursuits colloquially put together as ‘huntin’, shootin’, fishin’’.
They have brought all their trademark determination and vigour to the fore in order to outdo their menfolk on these scores. Legions of determined tweed-clad ladies of high breeding have been striding out across the moors of Britain and wading the creeks of Europe for centuries, pitting their wits against the fish of the lochs and streams, and returning triumphant to present their catches to exasperated cooks (“fish again?”).
While the lower classes had to conform to certain stereotypes, the upper classes could do much as they pleased – and what pleased many upper class ladies was fishing.
This is reflected in the names of Tongarino’s pools and tributaries, many of which are named for prominent people who fished there, and several of which bear female monikers – ‘The Duchess Pool’, for example.
Now that we live in an age of more equal opportunity, plenty of other women are coming to appreciate what this eponymous Duchess did, and turning to angling as a sport and leisure activity.
