The women are of interest to those hoping to increase their fishing numbers
Now comes the suggestion that women can fish for self-improvement.
The implication was conveyed forcefully following a survey conducted by a France-based marketing firm, Ipsos, on behalf of the US-based Recreational Boating and Fishing Corporation.
Does this mean that women who were not born liars could overcome it through repeated effort, like any male hunter steeped in the arts of hunting? Perhaps, but the point of the survey is somewhat different.
The campaign theme, “Find Your Best Self,” implies that it’s not just having a good time, but personal growth that comes into play when you’re out on the water casting a bait on anything out there begging to be reeled.
Did you know, for example, that the survey found that one in four women who hunt say the activity “helps them manage their mood and long-term stress?” Or have you considered the possibility that women who fish are “more likely to say they are discouraged by setbacks?”
Or that nearly half of the women surveyed agreed that hunting teaches patience? That women who fish are more likely to describe their health as very good? And that one in five women who fish believe they “can do anything they put their mind to?”
Nothing in this astonishing dossier should be incorrect, although the survey results offer little enlightenment regarding the separation of causation and correlation.
Inescapably, however, within the swampy orb of marketing lies the unspoken certainty that spending goes toward fishing, boating and self-expression.
Trade groups promote trade, and appeals to sentiment to expand sales date back to at least 1929. That’s when marketing pioneer Edward Bernays promoted cigarettes as “torches of freedom” that would light the way to liberation in the minds of bound women.
The world has come a long way since then, baby, largely by selling self-improvement through spending on stuff. The idea is thriving, frankly.
That’s not to say that an increase in hunting license sales wouldn’t be welcome. Lake Erie once again has plenty of fish worth catching, and many of the inland stocks around central Ohio are well kept.
Fish welfare is a byproduct of selling licenses, the hinge on which the Ohio Department of Wildlife’s existence, revenues and efforts hang.
Ohio fishing license sales topped 905,000 in 2021, down about 10% from the 1980s average when the Lake Erie grayling boom intersected with some of the early years of the baby boom generation. However, current sales are well above the 2000 total of about 743,000 cars.
While long-term hunting numbers appear to be flat, the number of hunters would increase by 26% if women participated at the same level as men, the RBFF said in a summary paper about its accelerating campaign to attract women.
On average, female hunters spend $962 annually on equipment and services, according to RBFF. A 10% increase in women’s participation is expected to add $1 billion in revenue to the sport fishing industry.
Survey responses about participation in fishing and boating indicated areas of discomfort for females. About 75% said women are “not well represented in fishing marketing and advertising,” and 80% said fishing equipment and clothing were not designed with women in mind.
About 40% of participants said that women “do not feel respected by the fishing community,” and 25% said that “negative stereotypes exist about women’s ability to fish.”
The report said that mothers hunt with their young children more than fathers.
Since a lifelong interest usually follows a child starting at age 12, the number of mothers who take up fishing could shape the popularity of fishing in the future.
outdoors@dispatch.com
