Fly fishing in the Upper Midwest has evolved and developed in the last 40 years. In the early ’90s, a movie called “A River Runs Through It” came out. I was working at Burger Brothers, a major fishing and hunting retail store in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and we were doing flyfishing schools each spring. We had two or three instructors per class, and maybe 20 students at best each month. After “the movie” hit the big screen, our next class saw the number of students explode until we were just over 60 adult students for a Saturday class at Whitewater State Park! We expanded the Burger Brothers fly fishing instructor staff with more of us Alaska Guides (who worked at Burger Brothers). We had plenty of fly-fishing guides to choose from as most of the Bristol Bay Lodge guide staff and Tikchik Narrows guide staff worked at Burger Brothers in the off-season! Since those classes and the effect of “the movie” people have sold their gear, lost their passion, or put it on hold. We’ve had other things happen along the way and generally experienced a lack of resources in the upper Midwest for flyfishing until recently. We now have classes and fly-tying sessions offered throughout the region, far more often than we had 30 or 40 years ago.
In the Upper Midwest people have the opportunity to get into fly fishing at a higher rate than previously seen since “the movie”. There are expos and flyfishing shows to attend and more fly fishing schools and guides these days; when I started guiding back in the mid-1980s, the only guides in the area were Wayne Bartz, myself, and a gentleman by the name of Tim Holschlag guiding smallmouth bass. We had a great Fly Shop in Minneapolis called Brightwaters that was owned and operated by Tom Helgeson, who was in my estimation one of the founding fathers of flyfishing culture in Minnesota. He was The Godfather of Midwest fly fishing and the owner and editor of a magazine called “Midwest Fly Fishing”. Locally, we still enjoy the former Sage and Scientific Anglers sales rep Tom Andersen, who worked hard with Tom Helgeson to create the first Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo. Since then, opportunities have grown to where a beginning fly fisher can attend free classes throughout the Twin Cities and gain knowledge.
Even though the fly-fishing culture has grown with our wonderful natural fly-fishing resources, such as fly fishing for smallmouth bass, fly fishing for musky, and the Driftless, the level of culture is still behind the fly-fishing states out west. That’s ok for now. I’ve observed this phenomenon, and this is what I notice in Minnesota and Wisconsin; we have an abundance of natural lakes, and many people are attracted to these lakes to fish, boat, and recreate in the classic Minnesota Lake Country. Fortunately, the rivers and streams are not crowded at all. Guests from Western States often ask, “Where are all the people”? I worked in a sporting goods store in Walker Minnesota for 2 years, centered squarely in Minnesota Lake Country, and the number of people that gather in these small towns in the summer is amazing. A true tourist destination, any of these towns displays a strong culture of conventional fishing from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend.
The lakes are crowded in the summer, and you can see it when you look at the boating access areas in spring and summer; that’s where people go, and rivers and streams are much less crowded. This love affair with lakes, I believe, has limited the development of flyfishing in this area even though those lakes have wonderful flyfishing for bass, bluegill, musky, northern pike, etc. When a person visits a western destination for trout fly fishing, they will notice fly fishing is more established and developed to where there are several good-sized businesses running guide trips, raft trips, and fly shops along rivers and in small towns. In our area of the Midwest, those same types of businesspeople are running bait shops, tackle shops, guide services on lakes, and boat rentals. Luckily, this wonderful Lake Country has saved flyfishing in the Midwest and prevented it from becoming overrun with too many people. I don’t want to see a day where a driftless trout stream or the Mississippi or St. Croix is crowded with fly fishers. We need to develop further the guide culture as well and form a guide association for places like the Upper Mississippi where guiding businesses are starting up and growing quickly, a need exists to make sure everyone follows some form of etiquette with conservation and the resource top of mind.
Flyfishing is not mature in this region, as fly fishers and fly-fishing guides become more numerous, we will see this maturation and the next steps will be obvious. I’ve been around the fly-fishing game a long time, and I’ve seen fly fishing grow from an infant stage to a youngster level here in the Upper Midwest. I am looking forward to seeing the next steps and being a part of it, helping to guide and mentor others and develop this region into a true flyfishing destination, with education and conservation along the way to nurture the appropriate culture.
All the Best,
John Edstrom 2.5.25

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