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| Catching a tiger fish in Botswana |
Cindy Garrison is beautiful. Not just beautiful—stunning. A statuesque 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with long blonde hair, piercing green eyes and the kind of fit body that women spend years trying to achieve in the gym. The 33-year-old is the type of woman who makes people uncomfortable in their attempts not to stare.
“My first impression was ‘Wow,”’ admits famous angler and host of ESPN’s Spanish Fly, Jose Wejebe.
But it isn’t Garrison’s beauty that landed her a job as a co-host of ESPN’s In Search of Fly Water—a job that has led to her own show, Get Wild! With Cindy Garrison, which will begin airing in October 2005.
This woman can catch fish.
Wejebe’s second impression was that Cindy Garrison is the real thing. “I think that fishermen can usually spot a fake or someone who is resting on their looks to carry them through,” he says. “What I saw was a very impressive person who obviously knew what she was doing and had a strong intimate connection with the outdoor world. Not a bogus connection. You can usually see that if you’re an outdoor person yourself.”
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| On location for in search of fly water |
Wejebe, who’s been in the industry for more than 25 years, understands that in the male-dominated world of fishing, there is a risk of people not taking Garrison seriously, “especially someone like her who could be a model. But here she is in the outdoor world and people don’t realize the true grit time she’s spent learning from the ground up. They don’t know the rough times she’s gone through.” He adds, “I’m impressed with what she’s done.” And her accomplishments have not come easy.
THE VALUE OF THREE COWS
Garrison grew up in Marin County, California, the third of four sisters. Her grandparents owned a ranch in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she spent every summer learning how to fish. “We really started fishing with bobbers when we were in diapers,” says Garrison.
When she was 11, her father began taking her to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club to practice. There, a number of famous casters noticed her, including Lefty Kreh who stated that she was going to be the next fly-casting world-record holder if she kept at it. But at such a young age, that kind of pressure was too much for Garrison, so she stopped practicing.
It wasn’t until more than a decade later, at age 22, when she was struggling through business classes in college, that she realized it wasn’t fame or competitions she was seeking. She loved listening to her dad’s stories about his annual Alaska fishing trips, and she wanted to work there as a fishing guide. So she decided to attend the International Sportsmen’s Exposition (ISE) in San Mateo (part of the ISE series of expos and, at the time, the largest sportsmen show ever).
When she arrived at the expo, she sat in her car for 45 minutes, too terrified to go in. “I thought everyone would be looking at me, but I thought, ‘I have to go in and get a job.’”
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| (photo by Dan Armstrong) A cowgirl at heart, cindy inherited her gumption from her ranching family. |
A future client and old friend of Garrison’s, Captain Ed Hughes, owner of Rhode Island-based Atlantic Fly Fishing Charters, outlines what Garrison was getting herself into. “What was impressive about Cindy was that in Alaska back then, there were no women. She was able to take that kind of chance, hang it all out. I know what it’s like walking in cold as a guy—it’s one of the scariest experiences. She’s the gutsiest person I know.”
When Garrison finally walked into the expo, everyone did stare. But just when she thought she might burst into tears and flee, she heard a familiar voice call her name. “It was Denny Rickards, the No. 1 freshwater fisherman in the world.” Rickards used to own a resort next to her grandparents’ ranch, and had helped teach Garrison and her sisters how to fly fish when they were young. He asked Garrison what she was doing there. “I think I want to fish, but I’m about to leave because I’m really overwhelmed and I’ll never make it,” she replied.
Rickards sat Garrison down and said, “I’m 40-something and if I could do it all over again, as soon as I had the dream, I would have gone for it. One of these days you’re going to wake up and say, ‘Where did my life go?’ If you have a dream, go do it.” And with that, Garrison walked over to the Kulik Lodge booth.
They laughed when she said she had fly fished her whole life and wanted to be a guide. They laughed harder when she asked if they would hire her. They stopped laughing and whipped out a contract when she said she would work for room and board as an apprentice for one year if they would teach her everything they knew.
The only glitch was that Garrison only had $80 to her name. So she did the only thing she could think of: She called her dad. After she was through telling him her plan, there was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Garrison needed help, but she also knew her dad opposed getting anything for free. When Garrison’s dad finally spoke, he offered her a deal. Each of the girls had a few head of cattle at their grandparents’ ranch. She could sell part of her share and use the money to buy what she needed—waders, a fly rod, boots and a plane ticket to Alaska. Three cows covered the cost. “So, I got a bunch of Orvis stuff and flew up to Alaska and straight out to the lodge. And that’s what started my career.” Sort of.
TRUE GRIT
Arriving at the lodge made walking into the fishing expo seem like walking into a room full of old friends. “I was all stoked thinking I would be this guide, and instead they had me cleaning toilets and working like a dog from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.” After a month, Garrison addressed the issue with the manager, who said he would start her training in the evenings from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. “There were 26 guys that were employed, and there was one other female housekeeper and me. I found out that there was this big pool of money to see first, who was going to sleep with me first, and second, to see how long I would last,” Garrison recalls.
Garrison went back to the manager and said, “I know about the pool, I know what’s going on here. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t want to clean houses anymore, I want to be a guide.” They put her on the next plane back to Anchorage.
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| (photo by Jack Popowich) Bonefishing in the Florida Keys with the spanish fly. |
So Garrison developed a new tact. “I went to a pay phone every day and I called every single lodge.” This time, she told people she was an expert fly angler. “Of course, I had nothing on my resume, I put some stuff on it, made it up.” And finally, someone bit and asked her if she could be at Togiak River Fishing Adventures on the Togiak River in three days.
Upon arrival, she figured they would train her for a few days to learn the river. Instead, the morning after she arrived, she was up at 4 a.m. “The owner brought me out and said, ‘Here are your six clients. Have a good day.’” After struggling to figure out how to turn on the boat, she admitted to her clients that she had never been on the river and never guided before. To her amazement, they were unfazed. They had been going up there for five years, so they showed her the river. Just like Denny Rickards at the expo, her clients encouraged her, “We know no one is helping you. You can do this.”
The only female guide the lodge had hired in its 25 years in business, Garrison persevered, even while facing challenges similar to the ones at Kulik Lodge. “The guides hated me and were trying to get rid of me constantly. One morning when my boat was full of clients, we started floating down the river and I realized all the lines had been cut. We ended up floating out into Bristol Bay and a float plane had to come and rescue us. “When I got back that night, people were saying, ‘She’s not going to last five more minutes.’” Instead, Garrison says, “I thought to myself, ‘Everywhere I’ve gone, the guys have tried to get rid of me, but now I’m mad and I’m not going anywhere.’” This time, she finished the season and ended up staying in Alaska for another six years, guiding in the summers and working as a ski instructor at Alyeska Resort in the winters.
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| Safari Angling in Africa |
FROM ALASKA TO AFRICA
It wasn’t long before Garrison was setting new goals. Her fourth year in Alaska, she started her own company, Garrison Adventures International, booking fishing, hunting and skiing trips all over the world. At this time, her family took a trip to Africa. While in Botswana, she told one of the outfitters (Rann Safaris) they were using that she would love to start booking trips for them and asked if there was any fly fishing in the area. They talked about the tiger fish, which look like a striped bass with big teeth, but they didn’t think you could fly fish for them. Garrison begged to differ.
She talked to the owner of the company and said, “If I bring over some people, well known in fishing, will you give us two weeks to see if we can fly fish for this fish and market it?” He agreed.
Not knowing many famous people in the industry didn’t deter her. She called her old friend Denny Rickards. She called Lefty Kreh. She cold-called other industry experts before Ed Rice, owner of the ISE expos agreed to go. “Who are you again and who do you know?” he asked. Rickards and Kreh confirmed that Garrison was for real, and that although she didn’t necessarily know what she was doing, she had a lot of passion.
Rice and Garrison set off to Botswana with a cameraman in tow, to discover that tiger fish did indeed make for great fly fishing. Upon returning, Rice helped Garrison prepare a business plan and convinced her she needed to live somewhere central to start this business. So she packed up her life in Alaska and moved to Denver. She called her dad and told him her plan to start this new tiger fishing venture. Once again there was a long pause. She sold the rest of her cattle.
Garrison returned to the ISE shows, but this time as a presenter with her own business and as a keynote speaker to encourage people to try tiger fishing in Africa. Giving the majority of credit to Ed Rice, Garrison’s business was 75 percent booked the first year. It was then Garrison says, that “I had to make some big decisions. The tiger fishing venture was making me stay in an office all the time. I didn’t want to be sitting, booking people’s trips; I wanted to be guiding out in the bush. I had to be outside. So I let other booking companies in and I started hosting my safaris [Safari Anglers]. And that allowed me to live over there full time.”
Garrison stayed in Africa year-round for four years, only returning to attend the sportsmen shows and market her safaris. It was on one of those return trips, at the San Mateo ISE expo three years ago, that someone from ESPN approached her and said “We’ve heard about your safaris, and we’d like do a show with you.”
That fall, ESPN spent two weeks in Botswana filming two shows with Garrison. When Garrison returned to market her safaris that winter, the producer asked if she wanted to be the new host of the show. The only downside was that it would mean moving back to the states. Garrison packed up and headed back to Denver.
Now, after two years on the air with a co-host, ESPN wants her to do her own show. “I’ve always set goals for myself, but not in my wildest goals did I ever set one like this. I’m just trying to enjoy it, to live for the day and live it hard, because nothing lasts forever, and I’m not sure how long it will last.”
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| (photo by Jack Popowich) The Goddess: Some people say cindy garrison can’t be a fishing celebrity because of the way she looks or the way she ties her shirt. Those people haven’t fished with cindy. |
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Garrison’s enthusiasm shows on screen as she screeches and laughs with every fish on. And such an attitude, Wejebe says, is exactly why she has become such a hit. “She’s so good for the industry, because she is very passionate about the things that she does, and she wants to have fun. And I think that is the crowning touch of what the outdoors is all about. Ultimately, it’s to be out there and enjoy what you’re doing. And her attitude rings true with a mainstream audience. A lot of people take themselves way too seriously.” Noting that the number of women in the industry is growing, he adds, “If there’s a breath of hope in the fishing industry, it’s to make it inclusive and mainstream, and that’s what she shines at. She doesn’t make you feel like you have to be a super pro to go out there and have a good time and to catch fish.”
Although there were many times Garrison wanted to quit, she knows she picked the right path and is encouraged by the support she has received and those she has inspired. “In Alaska, after that first summer when every single day I wanted to quit, when the season ended and
I left on the boat with the other guides, I had done it. I hadn’t quit. That changed me big time. I realized I could do anything I wanted to do in life, and I wanted to fish, so I knew I would stay in the industry forever.”
And without a beat, Garrison starts outlining her next goal to help the environment and get people outside. “If I can make a difference and get people to feel a little bit of the passion that I feel, if I can get that across, I’ll die the happiest person in the world.”
Last Updated: Feb 24th, 2006 - 14:18:11
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