Celebrating the Woman Who Changed Fly Fishing Forever
One hundred years of Joan Wulff…and fly fishing has never been the same.
Born Joan Salvato in 1926, she picked up her father’s fly rod at 10, won her first national casting title at 16, and went on to claim 17 national championships — including a 1951 distance title won against an all-male field. Then in 1960 she sent a fly 161 feet with a bamboo rod, a silk shooting head, and monofilament running line — one backcast, one forward cast, and enough line in the air to make a modern graphite rod feel inadequate. A casting champion, author, educator, and mentor, she later co-founded the legendary Wulff School of Fly Fishing with her husband, Lee, in the Catskills, where generations of anglers learned that a good cast has far more to do with timing than brute strength — and her groundbreaking approach still shapes how we teach, learn, and enjoy the sport today.
There’s nothing quite like watching new anglers fall in love with fly fishing with the same passion Joan has carried for a century, and on October 18 we celebrated her 100th birthday and the extraordinary gift she’s given every one of them.
Photo and some info above via Field and Stream
