Fisher with a mission: first woman to chair Grayling Society wants to protect ‘lady of the stream’

A grayling in the River Anton in Hampshire. ‘They are elegant, charismatic and absolutely deserve the same respect as salmon and trout,’ says Lovejoy. Photograph: Paul Colley/Getty/iStockphoto

With its iridescent pink scales and elegant dorsal fin, the grayling is known to anglers as the “lady of the stream”, yet the society fighting for its protection has never been led by a woman, until now.

Angling, and fly-fishing in particular, has always been a very male-dominated sport. The fly-fisher’s club in Mayfair, London, where anglers meet to lunch on dover sole and drink fine wine, did not allow women to cross the threshold even as guests until 2024.