Women Fly Fishers on the Nipigon River

by Mark Chochla

            Most anglers were men but women anglers were a common sight on the river. Lady Dufferin was not the first woman to fish the Nipigon. She notes in her journal that a woman was part of a group of American fishermen camped on the opposite side of the river. Canadian angler W.F. Whitcher advised sportsmen to include “wives, daughters, sisters and sweethearts” on their Nipigon fishing trips so they could “participate in the inspiriting pleasures” of such expeditions.

            In August 1888 a young woman of thirty-two named Elizabeth Taylor, a “soft-voiced, bespectacled” and “gentle and frail little creature,” challenged herself to a Nipigon adventure. She held romantic notions about outdoor life and Indians and in a letter sent home to friends in St. Paul, Minnesota, she admitted that “I felt as if I had always been a wild Indian of the forest.” During the thirteen-day, ninety-six kilometer trip, Taylor was entranced by the “spicy odour of cedar and hemlock,” the “bell-note” of the white-throated sparrow, the splash of the trout, and the sensation of swift currents. She was the first female angler to make such a long journey on the river and during the adventure; she developed an extraordinary relationship with Joseph, her native guide.

As they approached Virgin Falls, Joseph impressed Elizabeth as a “man of sentiment” when he broke into song: “Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast / The rapids are near, and the daylight’s past.” On the way back down river, again at Virgin Falls, Elizabeth caught her first fish with a fly rod:

"The canoe was lunging and tossing. Joseph was in a state of great excitement for fear that I should lose him [the trout] … the strong current was helping the trout …and a canoe load of fishermen was watching me from a little distance. I felt like a young lawyer or actor appearing for the first time … If I hadn’t been catching a trout, I should have been dreadfully afraid of the rapids, which were roaring so close that I could just hear a voice above the noise calling … “Hold up your rod, Miss Taylor!” I held it up, though I was sure it would break, and I caught that trout and he was landed with one triumphant swoop of the landing net by Joseph, who threw an exulting look over the other guides."

Elizabeth Taylor, 1888

There was now a bond between Elizabeth and Joseph. Each needed something that the other could help provide. Joseph needed the approval and respect of his fellow guides and Elizabeth needed to challenge herself and to outdo the male anglers on the river. At Camp Victoria, Elizabeth hooked and lost a five-pound brook trout. “Never shall I forget the look of reproach and deep disappointment on Joseph’s face,” wrote Elizabeth, “as he turned to look at me … I had lost my opportunity of “beating the record,” and Joseph his chance to triumph over the guides.”

            Before he ran the Victoria Rapids, Joseph asked Elizabeth, “Will you go down with us?” She seemed hesitant so he said, “The gentlemen hardly ever go down these rapids.” This settled the question: Elizabeth went down the rapids. As Joseph pushed off, Elizabeth waved to some fishermen friends above the rapids. As she crouched low in the canoe and grasped the thwarts, the canoe surged up and down through the boils and standing waves. Once in quiet water, “Joseph stated his quiet approval, ‘You are brave,’ and I felt he had forgiven me for losing the big fish,” wrote Elizabeth.

            When they returned to Red Rock, Elizabeth said that she had “a perfectly beautiful time, I never spent a happier 13 days in my life.” She desperately wanted to go out again and Joseph offered to take her without pay, but propriety made that impossible. Joseph asked for a photograph of her “for memory sake.” As she watched the next canoe of fishermen ascend the Nipigon, Elizabeth wished that she had “been a boy so she could have gone too.

‘A ROD OF HER OWN:’
WOMEN AND ANGLING IN VICTORIAN NORTH AMERICA

One of Mark's "tagged" brook trout

Excerpt from “Victorian Fly Fishers on the Nipigon,” Ontario History, Autumn 1999, Volume XCI Number 2

Women Fly Fishers onthe Nipigon River