Trout fishing in Wisconsin is a quiet sport with an economical engine

It’s time to catch some fish, ”grandfather whispered.

I jumped out of bed at my grandparents’ house in downtown Franklin, Jackson County. Downtown, that is, it was on the corner of Highway N and Beck Road, across from the Franklin Store, the center of the hamlet of about eight houses.

It was 4 a.m. on opening day for trout fishing, the first Saturday in May 1974. Grandfather and grandmother Keith and Cecile Hardie lived just a few hundred yards from Beaver Creek, an excellent stream of water for trout fishing.

The year before, Grandpa had helped me prepare my rod and trout fishing equipment. It was my first year staying and I couldn’t wait to cast my line. Even though we didn’t catch anything, we knew there were Grandma’s pancakes waiting for us at home.

A few years later, I joined some friends to camp by the creek on the first Friday in May. We cooked food over a campfire, kept our drinks cold in the stream, and woke up at dawn to begin our fishing. We wanted to beat the rest of the first day crowd for the best holes.

After the madness of opening weekend, I returned to fish several times each summer. I learned to be more patient and found that I had a better chance of catching trout when I relaxed. A few hours of fishing and all was right with the world. I could reach my limit by working only a quarter mile of the creek.

It wasn’t fly fishing for me. Just a hook, a sinker and a worm.

Today, Beaver Creek is far from the trout stream it was in my youth, but trout fishing is big business in Wisconsin – especially in the Driftless Area – the part of the state where I live. Statewide, there are nearly 3,000 trout streams totaling more than 13,000 miles.

The Driftless Zone – named for its lack of “drift” as glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago in North America – is a 24,000 square mile region marked by valleys – we call them flows – springs and streams with more than 5,700 miles of trout streams. .

It’s a quiet sport that’s an economic engine. A study commissioned by Trout Unlimited in 2015 estimated that trout fishing had an annual economic impact of $1.6 billion in the Driftless Area. There is no doubt that these almost 10-year-old numbers have increased. The 2015 study indicated that the impact increased by 45% compared to a similar study carried out in 2008.

Donna Anderson, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, authored the report “Economic Impact of Recreational Trout Fishing in the Driftless Zone.”

Among his conclusions:

The typical angler is a 51-year-old, college-educated male earning a median income of $90,000.
The typical angler travels with two companions; each trip lasts approximately 2.5 days.
The typical angler has fished an average of eight different streams in the drift-free zone for almost 18 years and travels an average of 138 miles to fish there.
Overall satisfaction with the Driftless Area fishing experience is very high with 92% of respondents either strongly agreeing or agreeing that they are satisfied with the experience.

Anglers also cross state lines and fish in southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and northwest Illinois.

Continuing watercourse restoration work is important to keep them flowing. The study says 88.5 percent said they were aware of efforts to preserve and restore trout streams in the area, and of those people, nearly 80 percent said they were more likely to fish in the region due to these past efforts.

And 72.7% said they would be more likely to fish in the area if additional trout stream restoration efforts were made.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released its first-ever 10-year inland trout management plan in 2019 with a stated vision: “Outstanding trout populations and cold water resources as part of a healthy ecosystem that brings pleasure to people of all ages and backgrounds. .”

The plan has four major objectives:

Protect, enhance and restore sustainable cold-water aquatic habitats and ecosystems.
Protect, develop, enhance and restore trout populations and trout fishing opportunities based on the diverse preferences and needs of our participants.
Collect, develop and use the best scientific data to guide trout management decisions.
Maintain and expand partnerships and engage diverse anglers, stakeholders and the general public in trout management and angling opportunities.

It has been many years since I fished for trout, but I would love for my grandchildren and their descendants to have the opportunity to enjoy our cold water treasures. ‘

Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a journalist, editor and editor. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won dozens of state and national journalism awards. He is a past president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Contact him at [email protected].