By JACKIIE TAYLOR | April 29, 2026

Good weekend

As I’m perusing through national news and all the garbage that happened, all the he said/she said, the assassination attempt on our president and several other people – I realize that my oncoming sinus infection has given me no appetite to conquer a discussion concerning lack of discourse amongst people in this nation.

So, I’m switching gears and telling you the follow-up of my weekend teaching fly fishing to a bunch of women who want to start experiencing the outdoors in a more educated fashion.

Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) is “a non-profit, educational program offering hands-on workshops for adult women.”

Their website continues, “We encourage a supportive environment conducive to learning, making friends, and having fun. No experience is necessary and BOW is for women of all ages and fitness levels.”

BOW partners with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks; several instructors were game wardens, employees, etc. of the agency. 

The weekend began on Friday at Rock Springs Ranch south of Junction City; approximately 125 women showed up around noon to check in and start their education attending the first of five weekend sessions to learn anything from Intro to Fishing, Intro to Fly Fishing, handguns, shotguns, Dutch oven cooking, to camping and backpacking.

Since my class wasn’t until Saturday morning, I was able to sit in on an archery class that was taught by a 40-year gym teacher who was one of the best teachers I’ve experienced in ages. Archery and I never really got along, as evidenced by the red scrape marks on my right arm after releasing an arrow.

Well, that went away and I learned I actually can shoot a left-handed bow to accommodate my left-eye dominance, right handedness. It was amazing and I actually think I might invest in an archery set just because I had so much fun with it.

We had eight women, plus myself, in the class, and the three- and one-half-hour class flew by. All class sizes were held to usually no more than eight people if there was equipment, etc. involved – a manageable number for both instructors and for students to be able to learn their new sport/hobby.

My class began at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning; my co-instructor was a young game warden from northeast Kansas. Needless to say, it was a blast.

Last year, the instructor gave the students a packet that rivaled an encyclopedia outlining the finer points of fly fishing. Students were then taken outside to a parking lot where they learned how to cast – never seeing water or a working fly.

This year, my co-instructor came up with a five-sheet cliff note version of what you need to fly fish. We took approximately one hour to introduce students to terminology and equipment, then we shuttled to nearby Geary Reservoir where we had scouted a fairly protected short line where eight women could spread out and learn how to cast a fly and be sheltered from the wind.

Score! We had a fun time, six of eight women caught anything from blue gills to crappie and had a fun time! Like anything else, my co-instructor and I had to “Frankenstein” equipment to make it work, but everyone was patient with borrowed equipment from the state and enjoyed actually getting to learn the craft.

Sunday morning’s class had six students registered; good because we had six rods from partner Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and they were basically ready to go as we’d used them the day before.

Instructing the women was really fun; some ladies couldn’t kneel down to learn basic fly casting like I was teaching – no biggie, we’d do something else to accommodate knee issues.

Knots in lines, broken lines, lost flies – were all part of it, but I do believe we came away with some women that will continue learning the sport. Five of six women caught fish that morning; needless to say, my co-instructor Melissa Skelton, and I were super psyched about that.

Anytime we can educate a woman to enjoy a sport that is available in the outdoors, it’s a good day.

I highly recommend looking into the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program; it’s held yearly at Rock Springs. Mother – daughter combos, girlfriends looking for something to do on a weekend, or just individual women all came together and made new friends and learned skills for a lifetime of enjoyment.

May God protect President Trump, and here’s to women learning skills to get them into the outdoors.