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Steamboat Springs — Karen Donnel tried to have her husband teach her to golf. Her brothers have taken her under their wings. But none of it ever seemed to help her master the skills she was after.

"Having a guy teach you something is not a good idea," Donnel said. "All they want to do is show you what you're doing wrong. I think it's a machismo thing, having to do it their way."

So when Donnel had the chance to learn about shooting targets and fishing on the fly, and doing it her way, she didn't hesitate to make the drive up to Steamboat Springs from Boulder with friend Renee Dayne. The two ladies were among a group of 15 to jump at the generous offer of the Colorado Division of Wildlife for a $15 day of guided instruction, fly fishing Saturday morning and shooting targets at the Routt County Rifle Club in the afternoon.

So why would nine DOW officers, mostly from local area field offices, be out on their days off to go over the finer points of rods, reels and pump-action 20 gauge shotguns?

Kathleen Tadvick, DOW watchable wildlife coordinator for the Northwest Region, explained that the all-day "Cast 'n' Blast" program, was designed for one of the most important segments of the division's education outreach program.

"The average hunter is a 55-year-old man that's getting older," Tadvick said.

Add to that trend the recent numbers released in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation state overview, where the Associated Press reported that, "the numbers of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 - from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters in that span."

It seems odd that the people living in the Rocky Mountains would be turning away from the outdoor sports. Susanne Beesinger is from Salida, right in the heart of the Arkansas River Valley, and yet had never been fishing once in her life.

"They just don't offer anything like this there," said Beesinger, who was ecstatic to catch two brook trout during the morning session on a private ranch along the Elk River.

Even for Melinda Pape, who grew up hunting and fishing, the appeal of a female-only class was such a draw that the Colorado Springs resident brought her sister Melody Darnell out from Syracuse, Kan., for "a girl bonding and outdoorsy thing to do."

"There's just no intimidation," Pape said. "Women have a different mentality and maybe they just don't want to be afraid to scream if they catch a big one."

The mentality goes for the instruction as well, as Tadvick explained how to use one's bra strap to locate the correct shoulder pocket for holding a shotgun butt.

By providing all the equipment, the program also addressed the economic side of approaching a new sport with all its associated gear costs.

"Here you get to try, test the waters and get to decide if you want to do it," Pape added. "I can't believe it's basically free - they're really investing in us."

For Steamboat resident Steph Berens, who grabbed the final available spot before the program filled, finally got a chance to see what this fly fishing thing was all about, never having done more than "drop a lure in a lake."

"There were so many DOW officers here that there was a lot of one-on-one instruction," Berens said. "It was just great exposure, and you can never have enough outdoors skills."

Contact the Steamboat Springs DOW office at 870-2197 for more information on future outreach programs, which include group waterfowl, turkey and elk hunts.