The Pleasure of Fishing: How about a nice, relaxing fishing trip on girls' day out?

But now we're getting serious. The women are organizing. Men's fishing clubs are adding ladies divisions. There are sectors in major fishing tournaments for women to compete and win top prizes. No more letting the guys go first.

So I wasn't surprised a couple of weeks back when I got an inquiry on pricing and general charter questions from a newly formed Southwest Florida Women's Fishing Club. It's the up-and-coming thing, and I'm glad to be involved. But it made me recall a special trip a couple of years back that I fondly recall as "Girls Day Out."

It started with a phone call.

"My name is Alice, and my women's bridge group wants to do something really different," she said. "We want to take a break from our game and go fishing next week."

I gave it something of a mumbled "OK" and waited for the other shoe to drop.

And drop it did. "I've fished with my husband quite a bit, but the other three women have never been fishing. Will you take us?" she asked.

The excuse of scheduling an emergency engine overhaul for the next week quickly crossed my mind, but I bit down hard and came up with, "Yes, Alice, be glad to."

After all, isn't this the home of the Fishing School?

We did it in the afternoon the following week, because that's when their bridge group met.

They arrived at the marina together, in the same car. Although I never asked, I just assumed they were coming from a nice lunch at the club.

How could I tell?

The clothes. They all looked spectacular in nice casual sporty outfits. Lots of light colors, some jewelry and open- toed shoes. Not your don't-care- if-it-gets-ruined basic fishing outfits. Oh well, they were all happy and bubbling. Who was I to say anything?

It was a late spring afternoon, and the weather was nice and flat. I remember that the tide was terrible and ultra slow, and as much as I wanted to stay close in, there was not much happening inside. So off to the nearshore reefs we went.

We anchored up and Alice and I helped the other three women with the basics of bottom-fishing. They learned quickly and were having a ball with some small grunts and groupers and nice snapper beginning to show.

But my vision of a nice quiet snapper trip was shattered when I heard a scream from the front of the boat. Someone's drag was screaming at about the same decibel level.

Ladyfish! Tons of ladyfish enveloped the boat, and they had two or three on all the time. It was like an I Love Lucy skit!

If you ever have gotten into ladyfish, you know what's coming. Many of the ladyfish were spewing "stuff," and as we swung them aboard, they gave that infamous shake. We were all splattered head to toe.

Those white and beige cotton knit outfits looked like costumes from 101 Dalmatians.

But nobody cared. They were all whooping and screaming. The boats around us were beginning to pull anchor and leave. I'm sure they thought there was something funny going on.

But the best was yet to come. Alice was into this bite big time, and as she cast her jig northbound, it hooked onto a bracelet her partner was wearing and whipped it overboard. It then did a double loop around the anchor line.

"Oh, no! That's an antique bracelet that my mother gave me!" her friend cried. Silence dropped like a curtain among the girls.

I could see it. The jig was wrapped lightly around the antique bracelet about six feet down the anchor line. I couldn't pull the anchor line for fear of dislodging the jewelry, so we tied a boat hook to the small landing net and force the jig to tangle in the net, then we hoisted the anchor.

Success. Big smiles. And the chatter, whooping and hollering were off and running again. "Jewelry stays home next time, Alice."

"Right!"

On the way home, they were still into it. Only this time, it was the scoring. "Let's see, Joyce, you had eight ladyfish, six grunts and two snapper -- that's 38 points. You finish third and owe three dollars."

They made it fun. The consensus was that it was more fun than a quiet bridge game.

And Alice and the gang came back again some months later.

Think anyone had a nice white sport outfit on that time?

Think again.

Captain Bill Walsh owns an established Marco Island charter fishing business and holds a current U.S. Coast Guard license. Send comments or uestions to dawnpatrolcharters@ compuserve.com.