Annette Lilly Russ was born in 1954 into the world of fly fishing. Her father, Bud Lilly, had founded Bud Lilly’s Trout Shop in West Yellowstone, Montana, just two years earlier. The shop was a year-round, full-service business that involved the entire Lilly household. Russ was just four years old when she held her first fly rod.

She helped in the shop doing a variety of jobs, and Russ was frequently featured in the pages of the product catalogs produced by Lilly. After spending much time on the local streams and rivers and becoming a fixture in the West Yellowstone fly-fishing community, Russ became the first licensed woman guide in the state of Montana in 1973.

After years of watching women act as bystanders in the shop, Bud Lilly decided it was time to market the sport directly to women. In 1974, Annette Lilly was hired by the shop to offer casting instruction and guiding services solely for women. Russ remembers that her father had great faith in her abilities and had a sink-or-swim philosophy about her learning how to effectively teach women to fly fish. She continued with the women-only instruction until the late 1970s, then turned her attention to her new family and to her college education at Montana State University.

Fly fishing again became an important part of Russ’s career in 1993 when she founded the Woman Angler in Chico, California. The hit movie A River Runs Through It had been released the previous year, and Russ saw that there were women interested in the sport who were looking for a fun, supportive, and woman-centered learning experience. She put out her sign, and the students signed up. The business closed in 1995 when Russ decided to devote her full attention to the development of her private practice as a certified public accountant.

Annette Lilly Russ lives with her husband in Chico. She retired in 2003 and devotes most of her time to her Kenyan-based organization, Just One Person, which raises funds to support long-term education for secondary school girls. She still fly fishes, though, and on occasion helps her brother Greg Lilly with his Healing Waters Fly Fishing Lodge in Twin Bridges, Montana.

Note: this text was written in 2011.