FENCEROWS...A Guide’s Tale
By John Luthens
When I first ran into Andrew Drasch, I was ahead of schedule. It looked like I was going to get to work early for a change, but it turned out I rolled into the job site later than usual; which is to say, early enough to not get fired but late enough to bounce that possibility around the shop floor a few times.
It was just a quick stop for a cup of coffee too, Andrew clerking behind the counter, and me ahead of schedule, dressed like normal; which is to say, wearing hunting/fishing clothes that pass for work duds in a pinch, but which are really designed to play hooky in if I chance across a promising spot on my way in.
“Headed for fun or work this morning?” Andrew asked as I paid for my coffee. He had a cheerful demeanor for such an early morning hour, and while he didn’t come out and outwardly suggest it, I got the feeling that he hoped I was heading for fun. It was eerie how he read my mind. I could tell right then that he was a fisherman.
“Work, I guess,” I told him, “unless you know of any good spots.” I was hoping that he didn’t, because I really wanted (no, that’s too harsh). I’ll say I was really expected to show up at work that morning.
“Know a few,” said Andrew. It turned out that those “few” stretched across Wisconsin, flowed into Colorado, took a sharp bend into Alaska, and tumbled like a mighty trout river into Wyoming.
So I was late for work that morning and have been forced to leave extra early on every morning since, if I plan on stopping for coffee at the small store when Andrew is working and telling stories. Not only does he know a few spots, but he’s learned what to do when he gets to them.
“After high school, I headed out to Colorado to work for a couple of summers in Yellowstone and Boulder,” Andrew told me. “I started as a cook. It wasn’t the greatest job, but Colorado was a good place to go and figure out who I was and sort of find myself.”
When Andrew decided he needed to further his schooling, he skipped the traditional halls of learning, heading to Alaska for three months in National Outdoor Leadership School.
“I was always into backpacking and camping,” Andrew said. “It seemed like a good opportunity. I first thought about going to Australia and taking a survival course in the outback regions, but in the end it was too much money. Alaska was an easy second choice.”
The course was split into three one-month periods over the summer months, with near-constant daylight spreading over the eastern Alaskan range and shining on the channels and islands of Prince William Sound.
“Twenty-five days straight of backpacking, with equal time stretches of sea kayaking and arctic canoeing,” Andrew said. “We radioed in food drops from a plane every seven days on the backpacking trek, but we were self-sufficient for the kayaking and canoeing.
In the spanning Alaskan wilderness, Andrew took his passion for the outdoors to the next level, honing skills on wilderness safety and first-aid, orienteering and back-country cooking, along with knowing to the near-exact ounce what to take in a pack and what to leave behind.
“The N.O.L.S course gave me my first opportunity to do what I really wanted.” Andrew said. “With the experience and connections I developed, I was able to hook up with an outfitter and guide service in the Wind River Range of Wyoming.”
The outfitter that Andrew connected with was located on the Green River; a freestone and tail-water trout fishery that runs through some of the most scenic ranges in Wyoming, and is well known in fly fishing circles.
“I’d work in the shop for four days, and for the next three days it was required by my terms of employment that I take my pack and hit the trails into the high-country. I learned the trail-heads and streams. I was able to speak with first-hand knowledge to our customers.”
He started taking his fly rod on his three-day excursions. “I’d catch a lot of trout in some remote feeder creeks, keeping one here and there to eat at camp. They were mostly cutthroats and brook in the upper reaches of the Green.” He said.
Andrew’s father built his own fly rods, and he built his own cabin on the Peshtigo River back in Wisconsin. Andrew was no stranger to fly fishing, but he didn’t really take it seriously until he started guiding in Wyoming.
“I knew fly fishing, catching brook trout and smallmouth from the Peshtigo area, on the Menominee River and area lakes, so I grew up around it, but in Wyoming I really started to embrace it.” He said.
Before long, Andrew started working with seasoned guides on the Green River, learning the water, and learning to handle a drift boat, putting clients in reach of fast water and big fish. Soon he was booking clients of his own.
He related that some of the best fishing in the river ran through private land. In Wyoming, there is no law giving access to streams through private lands. You can float them in a boat, but you are not allowed to wade. Even dropping an anchor in the water on private land is against the law. Being able to handle a boat, putting clients on a hog of a rainbow or brown-and holding the boat when a fish is actually hooked- can take quite a bit of skill at the helm.
In winter, Andrew worked for the ski industry in the mountain ranges, returning to Wisconsin in the spring. He’d wait until mid-June or sometimes even early July to return to the Wyoming waters. The snow-melt run off from the mountains kept the western rivers flooded and too dangerous to take out early-season clients.
“Waiting for my outfitter to call and tell me the water had cleared, I spent a lot of time in the early catch-and-release trout season, fishing the Driftless Area of southeastern Wisconsin and learning a lot of the water,” Andrew said. “And I spent a ton of time smallmouth fishing in the Peshtigo area. That’s some of my favorite fly fishing.”
Then there’s musky fishing with flies on the Chippewa and the Flambeau systems, another of Andrew’s fly fishing passions, when he can fit it in. “It’s a lot of traveling, and it can be sometimes hard to make ends meet,” he said. “But in the end, I guess money isn’t as important to me as doing something I love.”
Andrew Drasch skipped the ski season in Wyoming this year, coming back to Cedarburg, Wisconsin to work for the winter, which is where I keep running into him. It seems to get earlier and earlier every morning.
“I wanted to stay closer to the area this winter and into the spring. I’ve got some fly guiding trips in the works for the early catch-and-release trout season, and for smallmouth up on the Menominee River in northeastern Wisconsin.” Andrew told me. “I’m trying to establish more of a guide base here in Wisconsin, and to do that I need to spend maximum time on the area waters. I’ll still go out to Wyoming for my clients when the rivers clear, depending on the snow levels and the runoff. Eventually, I hope to make a go of guiding here in Wisconsin full time.”
Andrew has even threatened to take me northeast to the Menominee for smallmouth when spring arrives. If I don’t have to work that day, count me in on that one. That is, if I can keep from being late to work and still have a job when the time comes. But come to think of it, why would I want to let something as trivial as that get in between my fly rod, a guide’s stories and a fighting bass.
If you are interested in fly fishing the Driftless Area for trout or the Menominee River for smallmouth. Or if you are simply interested in hearing some great fly fishing stories, contact: Fly Fishing Guide Andrew Drasch at pikeonfly@gmail.com or Phone at: 414-429-3351