Closed For the Season
We'll be back May 2024!
We Make the Fishing World Go 'Round!
About Felt Bottomed Girls
Why Felt Bottomed Girls?
Because I LOVE FISH!
I DIDN'T INITIALLY decide to start a guided fly fishing business. As most things do, it started as a sort of joke... I was on my soapbox about how difficult it was to be a gal in a male dominated job space with all the fun it entails and threatening to create my own job space, when suddenly I was called out by friends (thank you Debi for your help!).
Why didn't I start my own business?
Uhmm... No good answer...
I STARTED this business because it can be especially difficult and intimidating to get into a new sport/hobby, like fly fishing, and also be female.
I want to create a place where no one feels intimidated, overwhelmed or snubbed. I am endeavoring to create a fun, exciting and informative arena for all. If you're interested in other types of fishing, I'll gladly geek out. I fish with all gear types and therefore can't judge. I just happen to love fly-fishing the most and want to share it with as many open-minded individuals as possible.
A bit about me...
I grew up in Tumwater, WA near the old Olympia Brewery; enjoying the smell of cooking hops and the sound of the work whistle everyday.
I've been fishing since I was physically able to hold a rod. As a young girl I was often reminded that "women shouldn't be on boats," or "fishing is for boys."
Thankfully, my family never ascribed to that way of thinking. I grew up like most kids in my area, going to the local lake in the canoe and bringing back our daily limit of hatchery stocked rainbows. As I got older I was STILL reminded that a lot of things I liked, including fishing, "weren't for girls."
Then I went to college in Bozeman, MT... it was a paradigm shift! I met the most amazing friends and the Gallatin, Manhattan and the Yellowstone Rivers were all new fishing frontiers!
I got my degree, in Paleontology, in 2008 during the recession and returned home to start work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to start paying off those pesky student loans.
I still went fishing, a lot, but it wasn't until I took a job for WDFW in the Methow Valley that my eyes were really opened to the splendor of fly fishing. We would sample areas of each of the rivers by fly fishing! I can't even begin to count how many flies or lengths of tippet I lost that summer learning to fly fish... But oh my goodness did I learn a few things and have a BLAST!
Other than fishing my entire life, I've spent the last 15 years working and walking the FELT off the bottom of my wading boots for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife!
I've had a blast:
-snorkeling rivers for steelhead, salmon and trout
-walking/rafting rivers for spawning fish and redds
-creel surveying thousands of anglers
-managing multiple fish traps
-sampling thousands of fish carcasses
-tagging millions of salmonids
and my favorite?!
-they paid me to fly fish for trout in the Methow Valley!