The Fly Fish Page:

I have enjoyed fishing most of my life. I noticed early that a fly rod caught more pan fish than the bait fishers around me. Around 1980, my friend Dan Foye said I should try fishing the local trout streams because I already liked hiking in the out of doors and it would take my fun to the next step.

Beginners luck: My childhood friend Cindy Silverberg (now Kamps) had just moved back to WI from WY where she gained experience as a fly fisher. She told me to replace 3 feet of monofiliment with a real leader and off we went. We stopped at a pretty little spring creek and a hatch happened just after I thrashed and splashed my way below a riffle. It would be a while before I had the skill to really handle the tough spring creek conditions, but that beginner's luck had me hooked.

Dan Foye - I blame it all on him.

Progress: My friend Pete became interested in the sport around the same time. The years that followed have been great. I tie flies, build rods and pursue cold and warm water species with fly tackle. Pete lives in Wyoming and has the good fortune to own a drift boat.

Pete - big fish from small places.

I have also watched the popularity of the sport increase. It's not so easy to find solitude on our local trout streams, and some newcomers aren't considerate of others. I hope the ever increasing numbers also mean more interest in preserving the quality of our natural resources.

Advice: Don't limit your fly fishing to cold water species. Those not familiar with writings by Ray Bergman and other famous fishing writers should head to a library or book store. Other great writers are Ernest Schwiebert, Joe Humphreys, Sylvester Nemes, Ray Ovington and Vincent Marinaro. There is a wealth of great fishing publications out there, but I feel these famous authors are hard be beat. A good recent book is Beyond Trout by Berry Reynolds and John Berryman.

Trends: I encourage folks to pursue warm water fly fishing for a few reasons. Fun and access are first to come to my mind. Bass, Carp, and Pike are big fish and very don't typically require a special trip to pursue them. It seems half of Chicago comes here each Sat. and Sun. to catch trout and those visitors often complain to me about their lack of success. Those same folks could easily get a monster Crappie, Smallmouth, Bluegill or Carp if they took a fly rod to the local waters they pass on trier 3 hour drive to the WI trout streams. My record for the summer was a Crappie the size of a dinner plate caught on little body of water most would pass by.

Enjoy your fishing.

Sincerely,

WJL

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