7 Top Female Anglers Making Waves Across Social Media

The top female anglers in the fishing community are women who inspire and empower other women to get out on the water by setting a strong example. Let's tip our lucky fishing hats to a group of women aren't as much about being famous female anglers, as they are about consistently demonstrating that they don’t wait for respect, they simply reel it in. These seven top female anglers have been making waves in the fishing community and across social media with darn good reason. 

Ashley Rae

Ashley Rae is a year-round multi-species angler from Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). Although she wasn't raised in a fishing family, it was a friend of the family who introduced her to the sport at the age of 5. Today Ashley shares her passion for fishing through writing articles and blogs for various publications and websites internationally. She has hosted television episodes on the World Fishing Network, and travels to various trade shows to present seminars. To help educate and inspire other female anglers, Ashley hosts fishing events for women on the ice and during the open water season. She is also active on social media and loves to connect with other anglers from around the world.

Captain Alissa Vinoski

Alissa can pinpoint the precise moment when her passion for fishing was sparked. She was just 4 years old when her father taught her how to catch mud minnows out of a ditch on the side of road in Beaufort, SC., From that moment forward, she was hooked. These days, she is a licensed United States Coast Guard Captain who runs a 2014 Beavertail Strike out of Tampa Bay and the surrounding waters as a part-time guide. Her patient attitude provides her the ability to effectively teach beginners the techniques of casting a fly rod, catching bait, or working a lure, and how natural factors influence fish and their movement. She is always seeking new fishing adventures and looks forward to a lifetime of fishing.

Cindy "Sid" Nguyen

Cindy has been fishing the Texas coastline since she was tiny tot, primarily off the beaches, piers and jetties in Galveston, TX with her family. During the summer months, they travel to Seadrift, TX to fish off the rigs with our family and friends. While in Texas, you can often find her on her kayak stalking redfish, trout and flounder. Her best days in life have been on the water, and every time she hears someone say, “I wish my kid liked to fish, but they get bored.” She tells them “You need to take them catching!” – it was croakers and pinfish that got Cindy hooked when she was young. While her passion is light-tackle inshore fishing, she revels at any opportunity to chase offshore species. Her goal for fishing is to take her passion for the sport as well as to promote the lifestyle and women's fishing gear as best she can.

Samantha Gay

Samantha Gay is an elementary school teacher in Snow Hill, NC who sets an inspiring example for female bass anglers across the nation. Her family played a huge role in fostering her love of the outdoors, but it was her grandmother who introduced her to fishing. She took up bass fishing in 2014, which is about the same time she joined the social media world. For two years, she took large groups of at-risk youth fishing at a local family’s pond. This experience inspired her to create a youth fishing organization, the Fishers of Kids Anglers Academy. She recently applied for 501c3 status for the program as a way of offering these kinds of experiences to many more youth in the community.

Rosemary J. White

While her first and most important job title is Mom to Ethan James White and Daryn Andrew White, Rosemary White is also an experienced fresh and saltwater angler of over 20 years. She has graced the cover of many fishing publications across the state of Florida, is a current world record holder, IGFA member, and IWFA member. Originally from Toronto, Rosemary credits her father with encouraging her love of the outdoors. When she was less than a year old, her family began taking her camping in areas such as the Port of Goderich on the shores of Lake Huron. These childhood experiences helped to instill a strong and respectful love of the water that she carries with her to this day.

Dee Kaminski

Raised in Chicago during the summer months and spending her winters in Ontario, Canada, Dee Kaminski's passion for fishing started at an early age. When most young girls were playing with dolls and tea sets, her parents were teaching her how to fish the fresh waters of Canada for walleye, northern pike, musky, and bass. When friends introduced her to the east coast of Florida, she tried her hand at saltwater fishing. She quickly fell in love with the fishing opportunities that were presented by the salt and brackish waters. It wasn't long before Dee's reputation began to spread among her fellow kayak fishing enthusiasts to the point that fishing guide requests were constantly being presented to her. Sharing her expertise and abilities with others became a natural next step in her fishing success story.

Kesley Gallagher

Kesley Gallagher has been fly fishing since she was 10 years old. She joins the ranks of other famous female anglers who have traveled to such places as Labrador for trophy brook trout, the Bahamas and Hawaii for bonefish, Louisiana for trophy redfish, Belize and the Mexican Yucatan for permit, and Costa Rica for trophy tarpon. Kesley currently holds 8 IGFA records on fly thus far and enjoys competing in tournaments such as the Ladies Tarpon Fly Tournament in Islamorada, FL where she won the first day of competition in 2017. She sets an empowering example by serving as a product ambassador for Rio Fly Lines and Fishpond. She has also given presentations at local Southern California fly fishing clubs on the topics of fly fishing for women and flats fishing. She will be co-hosting her first trip to Cuba in June, 2019 as part of her continuing efforts to get more women fishing.

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