They call themselves the Sailorettes, and this group of Grand Forks-area women is proving that ice fishing isn't just a "guy thing."
If the photos are any indication, these women know how to have a good time on the ice during annual winter trips to Lake of the Woods, and they catch plenty of fish in the process.
The ice fishing trips have become a winter highlight, said Stacey Flesche, Grand Forks, a founding member of the Sailorettes; this year's trip was the fifth annual.
"We've always had such good luck at Lake of the Woods," Flesche said. "Lake of the Woods is just so much fun."
The inspiration for the Sailorettes came from husbands and significant others who dubbed themselves the Sailors, said Flesche, a respiratory therapist at Altru Health System.
"They would all go out and do their little fishing thing, and they'd come back and have all these stories," she said. "We were all kind of jealous about it, and I thought, 'Hey, let's do this one day.'
"They'd always come back and say, 'the Sailors strike again,' and da-da-da-da-da, so it was like, 'OK, we'll be the Sailorettes.' "
As coincidence would have it, Flesche says she came across a Facebook post about that same time promoting a women's fishing event dubbed "Broads with Rods" at Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods.
The Sailorettes made their first trip in January 2015, staying at Wigwam Resort, where they fished the first two winters.
"We did their program, and that was fun, and that's where it kind of started," Flesche said.
