It's Women's History Month. Today, we're celebrating Sara "Chisie" Farrington.
Chisie Farrington made a name for herself in big game angling partly because she was a woman, but mostly because she could catch fish. Chisie racked up 11 IGFA World Records and appeared in 11 nationally released films about big game angling. She was the first woman to catch a tuna on rod and reel, the first woman to catch two marlin in one day, and, in an astounding display of skill and stamina, she became the first woman to land two broadbill swordfish in one day - a 396-pounder, and a 659-pounder.
Along with her husband, noted outdoorsman and author Selwyn Kip Farrington Jr., Chisie traveled in a circle of big-game adventurers who included Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Glassell. In their company, Farrington was an angler among equals: the 674-pound tuna she caught off Watch Hill, R.I., in the mid-1950s was the first tuna that had ever been caught in those fishing grounds by anyone, regardless of gender.
Chisie was an accomplished writer for top women’s publications of the 1930s and ‘40s, including Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and Vogue, where her fishing articles helped to establish women as sporting participants in their own right. Her 1951 book, "Women Can Fish", offers a rare and extensive account of women's involvement in angling during that era. Even in light of all her other accomplishments, this book has become her most enduring legacy, standing as a testament to what determination and passion can achieve - regardless of the arena.
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