Who Is This Guide???

In the summer of 2012 my (then) husband and I hired a fishing guide on Petenwell Lake in Central Wisconsin to take us and teach us fishing.  This was after we had bought into a musky lure business, two people who had barely held a fishing rod in our lives and we were about to run a fishing lure business.  I worked my day job with the guy who started Nauti Lures LLC and because of our business background we were confident we could establish a good sales and marketing platform for the small niche business. 

I had a desire to learn to fish, my husband knew he should learn as an owner in the business, but his passions for the outdoors were more in the arena of soccer, skiing, and pond hockey.  In other words, being an outdoors man was not in his wheelhouse.  On the other hand, I was hooked and I was ready to embrace this wide open new world I was experiencing in the outdoors in addition to my swimming, yoga, cycling, running, and various endeavors.

I don't remember the day very well, which should be your first sign that this was anything but a memorable experience.  I have no recollection of what this guide's name is.  We found his name online doing a common everyday "google" search for fishing guides in Juneau County, near our hunting and camping land.  He gave us his business card at the end of this day and I still could not tell you his name.  We held rods in our hands and did some casting, but neither of us got any kind of education besides the fact that this goofball driving the boat sure knew how to complain about other guides quite a bit.  He had no interest in teaching.  We just paid him a lot of money to be his fishing partners for the day.

Our day of fishing, other than Todd landing a decent sized small mouth was a joke.  A $350 joke + a courtesy tip.  That stung.

Miss Guided Adventures, that's exactly what I went on....allot of misguided adventures and that's exactly how the business came to be.  As a middle aged adult woman I decided to take on the outdoors and for the last 5 years have tripped and stumbled and taken the wrong paths, paid allot of money to incompetent guides, and have some crazy stories to tell about my misadventures.  On the other hand, I have been out with phenomenal guides as well.

My goal is to direct people to the guide and the area that suits them best, to enhance the quality of guides in the business, and to build up the reputation of the professionals who guide for a living and for passion in Wisconsin fishing.  There are tens of millions of dollars pumped into this state every year in the fishing "business".  We have some of the best manufacturers of products such as St. Croix Rods , Suick, Mepp's, etc. and yet we have no type of professional standard by which any guide has to meet.  You pay your $40 to the DNR and you, too can call yourself a guide.

I may never be a tournament angler or anything more than a weekend warrior, but I am going to keep trying.  For some reason, the outdoors keeps calling and despite the obstacles I've had to overcome, I keep hurdling them and keep coming back for more. 

(My first article was published in OnWisconsin Outdoors recently describing my experiences as a woman who barely fished running a musky lure company.)