Ladies First: One Woman’s Role in the Dawn of Big Game Fishing

[WB Staff]

Ladies First: One Woman’s Role in the Dawn of Big Game Fishing

A new film by Rapala® explores the story of Helen Lerner, the intrepid angler who broke some of the earliest records in big game fishing and turned the sport into what it is today.

Helen Lerner (1902-1979) is one of these quiet legends. According to the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA), this record-breaking angler and marine scientist was the first woman to take a bluefin tuna off the European continent, the first ever to take nine tuna in one year, and the first to catch a broadbill in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Wanting to share her knowledge and create a global community of anglers, Lerner founded the IGFA alongside her husband and fellow expert angler, Michael Lerner, in 1939. Today, the organization is regarded as the leading authority on angling.

A pioneering figure, Lerner brought big game fishing to new heights and paved the way for generations of anglers to come – both male and female. And yet, her story is rarely told.

A new film by Rapala, Lady’s First: A Rapala Story, uncovers the story of this incredible angler and transforms the narrative around the role women play, and have played, in the development of big game fishing and marine science since the dawn of the sport.