She's a champion at putting the fly where she wants it

PROVO — Standing knee-deep in the Provo River as it ripples its way toward Midway, she flicks her wrist, and the fly at the end of her fishing line instantly plops into the current 30 or 40 feet away, a perfectly positioned appetizer for any trout looking for an early dinner.

It looks effortless the way she does it. But as anyone who's tried it can attest, putting that fake fly where you want it is anything but easy, particularly when gusty winds are blowing in from the southeast.

At least any fish that bites on that fly, only to discover it's really a hook in camouflage, can have the satisfaction of telling its grandkids it was placed there by one of the best fly casters in the world.

For Audrey Wilson, the road to falling in love with fly-fishing, and as a result becoming a fly casting champion, was as gradual as it was organic.

She was 8 years old when she saw "A River Runs Through It," a movie about the beauty of fly-fishing that charmed millions, including her.

She retained the positive feelings from seeing that movie until she was 21 and went with friends on a camping trip to Flaming Gorge, where she met a guide who taught her the basics of fly-fishing on the world-renowned Green River.

She was 24 when she attended a sportsman's expo at the convention center in Sandy and was introduced to the fly-casting competitions — for distance and accuracy — that are held there annually as part of the festivities.

"It was the competition that drew me in. I grew up playing in competitive sports; I played soccer through high school, also basketball, and loved them both. I saw people casting, and I thought, 'I want to do that,'" says Wilson, who will be back at that same convention center the upcoming weekend of March 28-29, conducting casting classes at the Wasatch Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Expo. Tickets for her sessions have already sold out.

Not only did fly-casting contests give a way to continue competing, they had the added advantage of getting her to some of Utah's most beautiful places — its rivers and streams — to practice her craft.

She's been competing, and catching fish, ever since. Her first trophy of the man-made kind came in 2014, when she won a Fly Fishers International event. She's regularly landed on podiums at tournaments near and far ever since. The list includes numerous regional wins at the Wasatch Expo in Utah and the Go Pro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. In 2021, she beat all competitors, women and men, in the combination accuracy and distance event.

On a national and international level, in 2022 she traveled with the U.S. women's national team to the Fly Casting World Championships in Norway and brought home two bronze medals, one for accuracy and one for distance. In 2023 she claimed two gold medals at the U.S. Open Casting Championships.

Also, in 2019, she became the first Utah woman to be certified as a casting instructor by Fly Fishers International.

Along the way, Wilson's appreciation for the sport has continued to grow. You'd be hard pressed to find a more passionate advocate for the many benefits that can come when armed with nothing more than waders, a fly rod and nature.

"It takes us to such beautiful places and teaches us so much," she says. "We can learn a lot about life through fly-fishing."

She extols its many virtues in her website, atfirstcast.com, where she offers her services as casting coach, leadership/team-building coach and fly-fishing guide.

This, by the way, is not her full-time job — by day she works in a leadership position as a civilian employee at Hill Air Force Base — but something she does "because of the connections it gives us and the chance to meet other people who love it too. It's amazing how much we can learn from each other."

Every year, notes Wilson, she sees more women joining her in the lakes and streams. The days of fly-fishing being a male bastion are disappearing.

"It's been amazing to see how the sport has grown for women since I started," she says, pointing to two main reasons.

One, "because there's been a culture shift in the world that's driven women to try and do many things they didn't use to do. Women are more empowered in general."

Two, "Just being out in nature, catching pretty fish, admiring a nice cast — there's a lot about fly-fishing that appeals to women; it reaches out and draws you in and won't let you go."

As the sun continues its westward arc toward Mount Timpanogos, Wilson, despite her accurate casts, is still fishless. The wind, if anything, has picked up, the temperature is dropping, conditions are trending toward miserable.

After maybe 45 minutes, Deseret News photographer Scott Winterton packs up his camera and his drone. Our interview session and photo shoot is done.

Out in the river, Wilson waves as we say goodbye. We ask if she's coming.

"Nah," she says, flicking another cast into a place she thinks the fish might be hiding and hungry. "You go on. I think I'll stay out here a while."

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