Tight Lines 2010 Guides year in review.
Click here to get a printable copy of the 2010 year in review!
It’s October and it’s hard to believe I’m writing yet another Guide Year in Review. As I look back on the last couple years, I notice a common thread. Every season we run into some sort of adversity that our guides need to overcome. In 2008, it was heavy winds; 2009, marked the second coldest on record and this year - HUGE water. I have never seen the river with that much water in it. To give you an idea just how much water; I guided this spring’s pre-spawn with 590 cubic feet per second and this September saw the river spike to 10,300! Who knows what next season will bring. (Shop joke ”year of the locust”) I think the best testament to our guides is that through it all, the guys are still finding fish, and lots of them. I hear what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. I am however looking forward to a “normal” season.
This year it’s official, Bart and I are getting old. Gone are the days of us sleeping on picnic tables, in random parks, or packing 5 grown men into a wee little camper. When all this got started it was just Bart and I and we did what we needed to do to make it work. This included sleeping on picnic tables in random parks and wondering how many mosquito bites one could endure. So this season we rented out a 3 bedroom apartment with hardwood floors a “real” bathroom and air conditioning. When I asked Bart-O about it he simply said “YES, I don’t care how much it costs.” No going back for any of us. The new pad had some visitors this summer: Videographer RA Beattie stayed with us and shot smallmouth footage for his new film “Off the Grid”, The SIMMS website, and the Fly Fishing Film Tour. He shot some amazing stuff that is very representative of the great fishery we have. The Shop is excited that the Midwest finally got some good press.
Every year new things are learned and new experiences are shared. This season I saw fish still actively feeding even when the water jumped from 1,700 cfs to 5,700 cfs. I had Kim McCarthy and Bill Heart in the boat; the three of us watched the water at the boat ramp move past us at record speed sending downed trees, and debris from above. The bass still ate and ate well. Go figure! I watched bass actively feed on Hendrickson spinners with Bob Harrison and Mike Rock. I watched Lynn Langenfeld land yet another GIANT smallmouth. I learned that I could eat an 18 oz steak at the T n T five nights a week and still not put on any weight if I row seven days a week. I found out that some people like Tom and Anne Rodhouse and Vance Webb catch and land tons of big smallmouth every time they come. I also learned that you can feed a smallmouth a popper almost any day if you can find the right water. It’s these things that are the best part about being a guide.
This job has become such a huge part of who I am and has made me more aware of my surroundings than anything else I have ever done. I can tell the arrival of late summer by the blooming of the cardinal flowers. I can tell my season is coming to an end when I see the first night hawks swirling above the river. The river becomes a part of us. I would like to thank all the guides who live together in harmony most of the time. I would also like to thank all the customers that I have become close friends with over a decade of guiding the river, and to the guys at the shop for keeping it all together. It is definitely a team effort to keep 7 guides working and the schedules straight. Finally I want to thank Sarah. If it wasn’t for her the shop would not exist. She believed in me and we built the store together. It will be 10 years in business on Feb. 1, 2011! We look forward to sharing many, many more with all of you.
Tight Lines,
Nate Sipple
Once again, it was a strange summer from a weather standpoint. We started the summer off with water levels that were half of the all-time recorded low, only to move into July and have more water than we’d ever seen. August showed us some stability and September brought flood-stage water levels once again. I jokingly told Tim that based on the trend of last year’s cold water and this year’s high water; expect frogs and locusts for next summer. In all seriousness, we’re due for a “normal” summer one of these years. Because of the fluctuating water levels and shifting weather trends, there were days in which we were forced to dig into the bag of tricks just to put a handful of fish into the boat. Tough for the psyche, but it truly does make one a better guide.
-My two days with Mike C., in which he closed the first day with an 18, a 19 and a 21 and then got ants the second day. Talk about your stars being aligned. I don’t know if I’ve even had a single guy catch that many fish in a 48 hour period!
Once again, Thank You to all of my customers for making it another great season. Whether it was our first time together or our tenth, I look forward to each day and what we may find on the water. Bart, Hunter, Tim Nelson and Todd, you guys are the greatest to work with. Most people have jobs in which they can’t wait to get away from their coworkers at the end of the day. Not me. Heading back to camp to wash our boats, crack a beer and listen to some random jam-band is truly a reward at the end of a long day. You guys rock. Charlie, Jim and Kim… you guys make the wheels go around in the summer. Getting us gear, booking trips or just calling to facetiously ask us if it was windy or rainy up there (when you knew damn well that it was), we appreciate you guys and all that you do. Thank you to Tim and Sarah for letting us all do what we do. It’s an honor to work for Tight Lines and I’m looking forward to 2011. And lastly, thank you to my beautiful wife, Kristy. It’s not easy to juggle work and two kids while I’m gone all summer, but you do it. You’re the best and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Nate
Bart Landwehr
As another season sputters to a close and I sit and down to write this recap, October winds howl, rain is falling, and I have steelhead on the brain!
The season started off with a visit from RA Beattie and the crew from Simms Fishing Products. We filmed some great stuff right before the water went off the charts, and what a time was had by all. Talk about a stellar group of fishheads-they showed up in camp and five minutes later it seemed as though they had always been around.
So here is the spot where I throw down some amazing stories about huge fish and cool eats and savage battles and all that testosterone driven banter, right? Ok, I’ll do it. Bob Harrison, aka “smallmouth whisperer” put on an end of day rally the likes of which I’ve not seen before. In sight of the landing on a marginal day fish-wise, he loads up for bear on a popper flat that felt “right”, and boy did he knock em’ dead. Three row arounds later and something like 9 fish over 17” to hand, we said uncle. No more deserving an angler was in charge of the rod (a Winston IM6 9‘ 7wt that I love very much) than he. Thanks for everything Bob! I also got to experience Tom and Ann Rodhouse knocking the heck out of monster bass day in and day out and never quitting, never tiring, and never wanting to go in at night! My kind of people!
Charlie Piette
As I write this season in review, I am realizing how much I sound like a broken record when talking about the spring creeks. Better hatches…..more fish….blah, blah, blah, but it seems to be true on an annual basis. Due to the tremendous efforts of conservation groups with Trout Unlimited leading the way, the fishing in Southwest Wisconsin has become world-class. If I were to pick a few phrases to sum up the 2010 season they would be: more easements, more habitat work, more bugs, more fish, better fishing.
March was similar to most in the past. The fishing was good when the weather was warm and there was some water in the rivers. When the water was low and it was cold, the fishing was slower. Pretty typical for that time of year. I got lucky a few times and ran into some good midge hatches, but like most springs, the big show was in April.
I spent the last three weeks of April guiding the creeks this past season. Fortunately, I was able to trade my wet, cold tent for some better boarding. My now good friends Steve and Deb Bentz, owners of the Mayfly Lodge, put me up for that entire stint. They own a beautiful place that overlooks a piece of the North Fork of the Bad Axe. Prime real estate to say the least! To this day, I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality. Not only did I stay there, but several of my customers got to enjoy the place, as well.
As for the fishing, well, I got to deal with the entire gamut of what Mother Nature has to offer in April. Everything from snow flurries to mid-eighties all in the span of three weeks. This dramatic fluctuation of weather certainly impacts the trout fishing, but the great thing about the spring creeks is that a change in technique will make a difference under most any circumstance. I’m a firm believer that some fish will eat at any given time. This year was no exception. Fortunately for us, it seemed as though fish were looking up more often than not.
Though a number of great trips were had, sticking with the extreme weather theme, I’d like to briefly talk about just a couple of them. I fished three days with Don Larmouth in early April. We had some very cold weather…….basically like winter set in again. One day of the three was particularly cold and windy with occasional snow. We began the day nymphing a couple pools. We hooked a few fish, but I was holding out in hopes of some dry fly fishing. We had lunch just below a flat that is a great producer when there are bugs on the water. Don and I joked about the “big olive hatch” we saw in the morning that consisted of one bug. Our luck changed for the better shortly after lunch. The flat became alive with rising fish. Midges showed in good numbers and Don got into the risers. Don has seen better days as far as his health is concerned, but his tenacity as an angler is something to be admired by anyone that considers themselves a die-hard fly fisherman. I will never forget the last hour of fishing that day. It was about an hour after we should have left. We were cold and tired. Don’s balance was coming and going after lots of activity. I asked him if it was time to head back to the lodge.
On the opposite end of the weather spectrum, I had a couple very warm, sunny days with a gentleman named Vance. These were a couple days when the stars were perfectly aligned for me as a guide. Vance was a pleasure to fish with and he could get the job done. We saw about as many rising trout as we could handle. The hatches of olives and caddis were just outstanding. We were catching fish hand-over-fist steadily both days. I don’t think we went more than fifteen minutes without a hook-up on the first day. It was just amazing!
One particular moment really stands out. I had Vance fishing two dries in a small pool that had some rising fish. He made a cast and there was a big explosion. As soon as he set the hook, I saw two separate flashes. He had hooked the first and only double on dries that I have ever seen. After some struggling, the dropper fish broke off, but the fish on the point fly was landed. It was a fourteen inch brook trout. What a day!
Overall, it was another wonderful spring on the creeks. I’m already excited for next year. Thank you to everyone who fished with me in the 2010 season. Enjoy the off-season. I’m looking forward to fishing with some of you again in 2011.
Charlie Piette
Nelson Ham
If there ever was a season to tell me it’s not about the fish but instead about the people, this was it. That is not to say the fishing isn’t important—it has become more important than ever at a point in life when time is precious. But so have the people. My summer days were split between time with my daughter and time on the water with old and new friends. I was lucky; I didn’t feel a need to compromise between the new most important thing in my life over the past two years and the other an important part of my life over the past 20 years.
High water and rain might have been what many people thought of the northwoods rivers this summer, but truth be told our rivers flowed close to ‘normal’ (compared to long-term records). That didn’t make challenging smallmouth fishing any easier to take—but it did make me appreciate every fish that much more. It also made me appreciate my waterproof fly boxes, which quickly paid for themselves in saved work (no fly drying at the end of the day). Still, despite tougher conditions, months later my best memories always return to evening popper fishing in the shallows and, long conversations and joke-telling under the big pines of the Menominee while waiting out the strong summer rain showers. I only hope we all get the same chances together again next year.
A mid-summer break took me to Silverton, Colorado, for a family trip. A small cabin on the Animas River seemed like something out of a movie. My brother-in-law, ready to give fly fishing a serious go, and I spent time on the Animas and a local mountain stream. The Animas gave us a few browns on a guide trip near Durango, but more importantly showed us some great country and a good lesson in high-stick nymphing from a great guide. But our afternoons on a brook trout stream in the mountains were halcyon days. With water barely ten feet wide and two feet deep, we watched brookies and cutthroats rise to our dries all day long. We needed that for different reasons—for him to see fly fishing at its best and for me a reminder of my first love born on a northwoods Wisconsin stream (Prairie River brook trout nearly 20 years ago now). My brother-in-law is from Colorado, but up near Grand Junction, and he knows the outdoors and many other things, well. A good man, it would be nice to fish with him more often; we’ll have to find a way.
I have the best guides and ‘boss’ in the business to call my friends. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive family—even the little one added ‘fishing’ quickly to her new vocabulary; I know how lucky I am. They’ve all let me stay in the mix for quite a few years, and I can’t thank them enough for it. See you in 2011.
Nelson
Hunter Dorn The end of another guide season.... I always put off writing this letter, like putting the boat cover on and sliding her into the barn, or tucking the popper box away in the closet. It just isn't something I want to come to an end. There are so many memories from the past few months, but a few particular days stand out. I had an epic day of ants with Leroy and Ian. We had eight doubles! The fish were hitting Chernobyl Ants like it was their last meal. One day a friend, John, and I had to go to the emergency room for wading-related stitches. I also sat out the WORST electrical storm with Dave and his grandson. It lasted an hour and a half and there was lightning all around us.
Certainly the best part of guiding is sharing memories with so many customers throughout a summer. This summer I took out a couple from Chicago that was new to fly fishing. These three days turned out to be some of the most memorable days of guiding I had. It was their first time fly fishing, and at times it was very difficult, but we shared in some great laughs and they caught some truly unforgettable fish. That trip made me remember why I enjoy being a fishing guide.
Hunter and Sage
Todd Polacek 2010 came and went in a blur. I was only on for a handful of trips this season with high water and cancellations being the name of the game, so I only have a few things to mention here. My wife and I do this a lot – we call it “high/low”. Usually at the dinner table we pick something from our day that we each remember as a high and something that was a low. On the best days in life, you are struggling to choose between the top high points because there were so many and you cannot really remember a low that stands out. So, here goes for the guide season of 2011.
After a tough year with some other stuff, a few things were always consistent – the kinship and camaraderie of this group and the quality of the fishery. Even when things were challenging and the fish were laying low for a period, the ensuing “eats” were memorable. That said, there was one outing that was particularly noteworthy. Nate and I ran a section of the river that was around 6X normal flow “against all odds” to try and drum up a muskie on something big and hairy. After we launched, they opened up the roller gates at the dam. A guy in a white hardhat and orange vest came down and stared at Nate’s drift boat. He gave me a look that I cannot describe. He introduced himself as a dam-operating engineer and said “good luck”. We didn’t know if he was referring to the fishing or our fate. We just went at it with low expectations. The river was huge. I kept the tip down and reefed Charlie’s “Black Mamba” fly into the maw of a big pike. Later we laughed at how hard it was to throw sailfish flies, like the Pole Dancer, and Nate proved big smallies would blast it with abandon despite water temps falling to the 50’s. It was a nice finish to a crazy year for me when just letting go of how you “think it should look” yielded surprising results. Thank you guys for everything.
Todd
Click here to get a printable version of the guides 2009 year in review!
| Bart Landwehr
At the end of another great season, I have been asked to share my thoughts on
the summer.
So here goes...I have to first say that, from a guide's standpoint, the weather this year was awesome. We had consistent mild weather, which allowed for less angler fatigue, and seriously reduced beverage costs. Nice. It also allowed for the dog to appear each day, well the days that she didn't take herself out of the equation via injury. Weird year that way. A couple of run-ins with clam shells didn't agree with Marley's pads. Thanks Hunter for helping out with the late-night superglue sessions!
Speaking of Hunter, this season saw his introduction into the Tight Lines "family". While skepticism will always loom at first, I was more than impressed with Hunter's work ethic both on river and off. More than once when it was my turn to make the grocery run, Hunter offered to ride shotgun to keep me company.
Nice.
The crew held tight once again with Tim, Nate, Hunter, and myself sharing quarters. And it was nice for Marley to find a new camp friend in Hunter's dog Sage. Nelson also made some key appearances at camp, wish they'd happen more, but with a wife and new child at home, we'll take whatever we can get.
This year also brought our buddy Todd Polacek into the mix a bit more to help out with overflow. I have to say, some of the greatest times of the summer were had during Todd's stays. Just a bunch of fish junkies sharing a beer and
berating each other like siblings.
As for the fishing, come on, we work on arguably some the greatest smallmouth water in the world. Many great days were had, and I have to say that exploiting some more of the "headhunting" possibilities definitely got my blood boiling. Sight fishing to huge bass with trout patterns on a dead-drift, need I say more?
Some highlights:
-Cindy Finesilver making a perfect shot to a goliath fish that was sighted and had her completely unnerved. Named a spot after you on that one Cindy--way to go! Did I mention she connected with the fish on her first cast with a long leader, small bug, and a tough down and across with tricky currents? Yeehaw!
-Russ and Sue jacking a pair of sight-fished monsters at a spot called "Henry's Fork". All I had to do was set up anchor, spot the fish, and enjoy one hell of a show.
-Jon McMahon nailing a beast on a dragon fly pattern on a day that ended with us ducking for cover from a ferocious T-storm. Yikes.
There are so many more things I could rant about, but only so much space for my thoughts. Bummer. Thanks to my clients, my guide family, Charlie for never
failing to come through when we need something done, and Tim and Sarah for
keeping the ride going. Been at this for a decade now and I'm not even close to slowing down. See you all in 2010!
Best,
Bart and Marley
Nate Sipple
One word comes to mind when reminiscing on the 2009 smallmouth season; weird. It wasn't the customers, the fish or the food that you sometimes find when you're in extreme northern Wisconsin. It was the weather. This was the first summer that I can remember using the heated seats in my truck in August. We had frost advisories in late June, when it should have been muggy and in the 80's. A good number of July and August mornings started with a light fleece and a cup of coffee, instead of flats-style shirts and lots of bottled water. And the fishing sometimes reflected the abnormalities in the weather. Just ask Charlie how the carp fishing was (unless he looks grumpy). On the days that it didn't feel like summer, the fish were sometimes very tough to come by. Poppers ruled the majority of the summer. Every once in a great while, one of the other guides would come back to camp and proclaim that they'd gotten a fish on a Murdich or Barteaux. We'd laugh about it because that shouldn't be shocking. The pre-spawn trips definitely yielded some of the biggest fish of the summer, including a handful over 20" and two over 21". It was also a tough year from a water standpoint. There was a good amount of gel-coat left on the tops of rocks in the river. Some mornings you'd show up to float a stretch and you'd hardly even recognize it because they were holding so much water back at the dams. I'm serious Timmy, next year I'm guiding out of a Hover Craft. I wonder if they're as loud as a jet boat. And if the summer hadn't already been strange enough, we got ants. Lots of ants spread out over lots of days. Some came in late July, some in early September. A couple of the days were epic and after a while, I think the fish just got sick of them. I particularly remember the day with Winston. He had been hearing about the ants for nearly a decade and the day he was in my boat the ants were blanketing the water in certain spots. But apparently on that day the fish could have cared less. We chuckled about it and about how he was going to go back to the shop and tell Tim that he was full of it. The next day there was 1/10th as many ants and the fish were gorging themselves on them once again. And kudos to my group from Tennessee, for I have never in my life seen more smallmouth put in a boat over a two day stretch. It was also different having our new guide in camp, Hunter. There was that strange "getting to know you" period, kind of like being in college and rooming with a complete stranger in the dorms. At first it was kind of awkward, but halfway through the summer the ball was rolling just fine. Hunter's dog, Sage, was a great girl to have around camp, even if she did sometimes make my bed look like Chewbacca by the end of the day. You were thrown into the fire, but you did a great job, Hunter. In closing, it was a strange, but once again awesome year. Even if I got hooked three times in the head by a popper, lost a half-dozen flies, fought twenty mile per hour head winds and got stung by a hornet, there was solace in knowing that I got to go back to camp to laugh about it all over beers and a burger with the most awesome group of guides....anywhere. If there was ever a year that we guides really had to work our tails off, sometimes just to put a small handful of fish in the boat, this was that year. Bart, Nelson, Tim, Todd and Hunter, you guys are the best.
Thanks again for a great summer and I can't wait for next season! -NateHunter Dorn
This has really been a great year. My summer with Tight Lines started when I was standing waist deep in the Baraboo River in June. It rained all day that day and was about 46 degrees. Fitting as I had scheduled a river clean-up. I got the phone call from Tim, promptly quit my desk job, and packed my boat and truck full of gear. My dog, Sage, got situated somewhere in the mix for the move. This was my first season guiding for the Tight Lines team, and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. This summer re-affirmed why I love rowing a boat. We had extremely low water for most of the summer, and by the time I left in late September, it had gotten a little lower. Some of these fish, no matter how low the water got, still wanted to sit right along the bank, occasionally with their backs out of the water. They would wait for your unexpecting Boogle Bug to float (not pop) past them before they slid over and sucked it down like a trout on the Henry's fork. Then the fireworks would start. I can't tell you how many times I heard WOW in my boat this summer.
Out of the 40 some trips I guided this summer, countless huge smallies made their way to hand. The river and the other guides made this a truly unforgettable summer for Sage and I. I can only hope for many, many more.
It was the season of hatches and I got to fish a bunch of them with clients. The crop of BWO's was particularly thick. It was almost a given that on any day from the end of March into early June that if there was cloud cover, there were going to be fishable numbers of Olives. The number of BWO nymphs in some of the riffles was almost unbelievable. Rocks in April were absolutely coated with bugs. Flies representing Olives accounted for more fish than normal for me throughout the season. The other hatches were also very good. Ninety degree weather in April brought on some of the thickest clouds of Black Caddis I've ever seen. Some days I witnessed caddis hatches of western proportions.....the kind where they're all over inside your waders and under your sunglasses. The bugs were particularly interesting one day. It was very warm and hazy. There were some caddis coming off early, but every so often, the sun would break through the clouds and the bugs would explode until the sun was covered again. This went on for a while until the clouds cleared for good and the river completely erupted. It seemed like every fish in the creek was temporarily rising with reckless abandon. This was one of the most exciting hatches I have seen to date. The sustained 25+ mph wind was a huge hindrance that day (remember Tom and Don?), but we did our damage none-the-less.
 Todd Polacek
2009 marked my 4th year of working with Tim and the Tight Lines staff. This season I took on a good number of trips and I must admit I always have "summer delusions" of big fat copper bass smashing poppers in the hot Wisconsin sun. Windy, cold, drizzly, and rainy all sound like words you might want to hear when gearing up for a couple of days of steelheading, or a weekend hunting divers, but not bass fishing. That is what we encountered through July and August.
When preparing for July trips, I heard that Nate closed out the 2008 season catching smallmouth well into October when the water hovered in the 50's. I also learned that Tim and others were catching fish already the first week of May on poppers. May was unseasonably cool and that is very unusual. Though few guides will come out and say this, there is always a nice and cordial admiration and respect for "what the other guide's program is", but it is a veneer that masks streaks of competitiveness among us. You can see right through the veneer when the fish shut off and one guide is doing well as others struggle. I have deep respect for the Tight Lines group. It is unique how the group is always trying different approaches and push one another while still maintaining such a great atmosphere as professional "keepers of the sport" of fly fishing. Although I wonder if more than one of us has imagined how big of a salt-plastic Senko worm you can throw on an 8 weight. This forced me to try new tactics and strategies that 10 years ago, if someone explained them, I would have said "You're going to do what"? I am always learning from these guys and a Brown Beadhead Crystal Bugger on a mile of 4X saved my guests from seeing "man tears" from me on one of my outings. When the weather did cooperate, it was poppers moved slow, but I really enjoyed the "slam and grab" when fish took a well-presented Murdich Minnow.
I owe a special thank you to Sarah and Tim, Bart, Nate, Charlie, Nelson, and Hunter for teaching me and accepting me into this group. I have had a full-time career now since I closed Madison Outfitters and remarked to Tim that I would "almost pay to do this". I would also like to thank the anglers I had in the boat this year, many of whom are career anglers. I learned much from them. And, finally, I would especially like to thank my wife, Christine, who supports me on these endeavors.
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