Being the Rare Bird

Lisa Kaplan Gordon, a “real housewife” from McLean, Virginia, goes to the Bighorn not to impress the locals with masterful technique, but to be “the center of the wheel” as one of the few female fly fishers on the river.

“I pulled into the Parade Rest ranch in West Yellowstone to ride horses, and pulled out a fishing junkie in thrall to watching a rainbow trout gulp my dry fly then launch itself into the air, as much to show off its beauty as shake that damn fly from its lip.  I am super, remarkable, a star in Montana, not because of my drag-free cast (I wish), but because there are so few of me there.”