when that group was still relatively small. Her Sisters membership number is 229; today, the numbers are four digits long. Burns, a Fort Collins retiree who never wets a line, is more about the Sisterhood than the Fly. Claire Martin, The Denver Post
Q: You belong to one of the most celebrated women’s fishing clubs, and you don’t fish?
A: I really have never fished. I grew up in Boston, and I never ate fish. Can you believe that?
Q: A Bostonian who doesn’t eat cod?
A: Cod’s OK. I like cod. I can eat fish and chips if it’s cod. But I’m after the crunchy outside, not the fish. There are several Sisters who don’t fish. For us, it’s about the camaraderie and getting out on your own. And the trailers, of course. I learned about Sisters on the Fly from the retired gentleman who sold me my trailer in 2005.
Q: Is it one of those vintage teardrop- shaped trailers?
A: I succumbed to the addition, so actually I have two. The first one is a ’66 compact that people describe as a toaster or a bread box, with sharp corners. But I wanted a 1950s trailer, and I found a 1959 Bonneville that’s shaped like a canned ham, with a birch-wood interior.
Q: And have you decked it out in cowgirl chic? That seems to be a popular theme among the Sisters.
A: When I went on my first Sisters trip in 2006 and saw everyone else’s trailers, I felt like an ugly duckling! So then I painted it bright yellow, almost like a duck, and an artist friend painted a mural of two Spanish cowgirls on the outside. These trailers are always a work in progress.
Q: Some of those Sisters’ trailers are amazing.
A: The decorating part is a lot of fun. There’s a whole subset of Sisters who are born interior decorators. On our trips, they go off to flea markets and antique barns to look for things for their trailers.
Q: Fishing for bargains instead of brown trout?
A: If you go back to the very beginning, the Sisters began with women who liked fly-fishing. Then there’s the trailer subset, and the wine drinkers and the gourmet subset. There’s a subset of Sisters who are cancer survivors or recovering from divorce. There are quite a few Sisters who say that this group has been a real turning point, for the good, in their lives. It’s a very diverse group. Mothers and daughters. Older women who never thought they could handle a trailer on their own.
Q: What do you like best about the Sisters trips?
A: I like getting in my car, looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing my little house behind me. It’s a nice escape.
