Women find their niche outdoors
Barriers cleared in Michigan, Kansas, Texas
Profiling three women who are changing the face of the outdoors.
Jennifer Drake
Michigan’s first — and only — female hunting guide
Drake grew up hunting with her family in Indian River, Mich., harvesting game in the rural town nestled between Burt Lake and Mullet Lake, near the Upper Peninsula. Schooled in tracking by her father, Drake had a natural knack for guiding, helping friends on elk, coyote and whitetail deer hunts for years before deciding to become a guide.
“I loved to be in the woods,” she says. “What better way for me to be able to spend my time there than to make it my career?”
While it had always been a dream, it took an epiphany after cervical and ovarian cancer, and an on-the-job horse accident, before she pursued it. She credits friends for the nudge.
“I sat at home, bummed, because I couldn’t go back to work at the ranch,” Drake says. “My friends asked me, ‘Why don’t you just hunt for a living? You could do this.’ ”
Based in Afton, Mich., Drake’s Guide Services became official in 2016, the first licensed femaleowned guiding service in Michigan. For a fee, Drake takes patrons on a three-day hunt, complete with videos, photographs, field dressing, meat processing and a caped-out hide for mounting, if they are successful. She’s also working closely with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to create a basic hunting course for new hunters who might not gain experience any other way.
“There’s so many little tips that people don’t know if they’ve never had the opportunity to be taught,” Drake says. “Like how old the track is, or the difference between a buck and a doe’s track; these things make you a better hunter.”
Drake started with small game as a child and graduated to deer, elk, coyote, turkey, bobcat and bear. Her hunting prowess is equal to her male peers’. Her biggest challenge? Having the guiding and hunting communities take her seriously because she’s a woman.
“It’s hard to work in an area where it’s mostly men,” Drake says. “A lot of them will downplay your abilities. ... What better way to prove them wrong than to be like them?”
With nearly 800,000 hunters in Michigan, obstacles don’t stop Drake from combining her love of hunting with a successful business. And she hopes women interested in hunting will seek her out.
“There are a lot of women out there who may not want to go with a male guide,” Drake says. “A lot of my girlfriends are hunting now because I was out there pushing for them to get out into the woods.”
Angie Reisch
Kansas Game Warden
Becoming a game warden wasn’t Reisch’s original career goal, but after working as a biologist for several years, she wanted more. With her background in biology and zoology, Reisch explored her interests in conservation and law enforcement, which led to her becoming Kansas’ first female game warden in 2014. Three years later, Reisch is one of two female game wardens.
“We need more women in this profession,” she says, cautioning that any scrutiny she feels doesn’t deter her from arresting wildlife violators or patrolling back roads alone. “This is a man’s field. When I got hired on, I was the only female warden (among more than) 60 men. Ninety-nine percent of the hunters I check are men. ... I encourage more women to get into this field.”
Out of the 5,630 fish and game wardens within the USA, 22% are female, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job is dangerous, the hours often 24/7.
“My purpose is to protect the resource and my primary responsibility is hunting, fishing and boating law enforcement,” Reisch says. Because her duties shift with the seasons, her daily activities can vary drastically. Her busiest time is fall and winter during deer rifle season. “I can easily work sunup to sundown until the end of deer rifle season.”
She spends most of her time in the driver’s seat of her state-issued truck, windows rolled down to hear rogue gunfire along dusty back roads and gritty two-tracks.
“My truck is an office with a view,” says Reisch, who keeps it fully stocked with a variety of gear, including an AR-15 assault rifle, flashlights, night-vision goggles, an air compressor for her tires, her ticket book, paperwork for seizing illegally harvested game, a forensics bag, an evidence bag, containers for disease sampling, rain gear, a toolbox, life jackets and her tow rope, “which I’ve used plenty of times because it gets really muddy.”
The best part of the job? Investigating and making a case. Reisch sees her share of fishing violations and has seized plenty of fishing licenses and “short fish” that don’t meet Kansas length requirements. She also investigates spotlighting (using high-powered lights and off-road vehicles to locate nocturnal animals) as well as wildlife poaching reports.
“They’re hard cases to work,” Reisch says. “But I can’t wait until I get the next one.”
Although arresting poachers and taking down wildlife viola- tors is extremely satisfying, Reisch says that the highlight of being a game warden is educating the next generation of hunters.
“I’m a strong proponent for getting kids away from their electronics and into the outdoors,” says Reisch, who teaches numerous hunter education classes for a variety of ages during the spring and summer. “Since Kansas began putting on the classes, hunting accidents and hunting fatalities dropped drastically.”
Reisch can’t imagine being in a different profession: “Even when I have those bad days, at the end of the day, I’m glad I chose to be a game warden.”
Cheryl Bowden
Lady Bass Classic Champion
When the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society decided to stop holding women’s fishing events, angler Bowden responded by starting her own women’s bass fishing organization with cofounder Secret York in 2010. Now, in its seventh year, the Lady Bass Anglers Association (LBAA) is 90 members strong and continues to empower female anglers within the pro bass fishing circuit by holding four to five tournaments a year, with the concluding LBAA Classic in the fall. Bowden is a two-time winner of the LBAA Classic, an honor she says only drives home the idea that a woman can fish just as well — or better — than any man.
As a child growing up in east Texas, fishing was a natural family pastime, but Bowden didn’t consider the professional side until 2008.
“I didn’t get into bass fishing until I was an adult,” says Bowden, who credits a guided fishing trip as the bait that got her hooked. “Shortly after that trip, I got my first boat, joined a local club and fished a little of the women’s fishing tours.”
As a full-time teacher, Bowden began fishing tournaments when they aligned with her work schedule.
Like many who want to learn the pro circuit, she initially participated as a co-angler, which meant she mainly fished off the back of the boat as a teammate and used the time to learn from the more experienced angler.
“Co-angler is a great place to learn because you don’t have to worry about anything but fishing,” says Bowden, who encourages women to try fishing that way.
Now, with a more flexible schedule as an education consultant, Bowden, who lives in North Richland Hills, Texas, participates in 12 to 20 fishing tournaments each year. She has won three classics and come in second and third place in four other classics.
“I love the challenge of chasing down the fish and figuring out what they want,” she says. “Winning is always fun, but even if I haven’t won the tournament, if I have overcome something, I’m proud of that.”