A cadre of ladies can now call themselves Fishinistas.

More than 50 women learned to fish for pink salmon which will run this year and every odd year. The swarm is a prime opportunity for fishers to collect pink salmon, also called humpies.

A group at Trinity Lutheran Church on South Whidbey decided to organize a women’s-only class to encourage female participation in angling on Whidbey. Fishinistas are encouraged to donate every other catch to Good Cheer Food Bank.

This year, there were two classes that brought in a total of 56 fisherwomen. Jerry Shimek, Ken Berry and Kevin Lungren led the classes on rods, reels, casting, baits, lures, gutting, cleaning and filleting. In past years, the food bank received several coolers full of salmon fillets.

A third of the classes’ students traveled to a Freeland beach to try their hands at fishing. No salmon were hooked.