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Both Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine and Midwest Fly Fishing Online feature local writers and columinsts who live near the rivers and lakes you fish and care about. This page offers you the opportunity to meet some of them.
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Bob Linsenman, Midwest Fly Fishing’s Michigan field editor and Great Lakes columnist, lives in Oscoda County, Mich., about 10 miles from Au Sable River. He has “two labs, shotguns, fly rods, two 4WD Chevies, lots of good friends and spends 200 days per year on the water.” Bob is the co-author of two books—Michigan Trout Streams and Great Lakes Steelhead. He also written a book about the Au Sable River and two forthcoming publications—Streamers (with co-author Kelly Galloup) in 1999 and Blue Ribbon Fly Fishing in Michigan in 2000.
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Ann Miller, Midwest Fly Fishing’s “Natural Settings” columnist, lives in Stevensville, Mich. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her graduate degree from Bowling Green State University, specializing in aquatic biology. Ann
been teaching fly fishing independently and with Dorothy Schramm for six years. Ann has been a member of the Federation of Fly Fishers for many years, serving as the Vice President of Communications for the Great Lakes Council as well as the editor of The Leader. She received a President’s Award of Special Merit and a Contributing Artisan’s Achievement Award. She is a cofounder of Flygirls, a Michigan based organization that strives to involve women in the field of fly fishing. When she isn’t fly fishing or on active family duty (three daughters, one husband), Ann also plays competitive team tennis, designs and makes quilts and enjoys nature walks, fly tying, good Scotch, occasional cigars and e-mail.
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Gary Borger
Midwest Fly Fishing™ magazine's "Techniques and Tactics" columnist Gary Borger lives in Wausau, Wis., where he is a professor emeritus in biology at the University of Wisconsin's Wausau campus. A renowned author and teacher, Gary has written five best-selling books on fly fishing: Nymphing, Naturals, The Borger Color System, Designing Trout Flies and Presentation. Gary pioneered fly fishing video instruction with his release of Nymphing in 1982. Since then he has hosted four videos for the 3M Company.
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Connie Fortin writes a column about what you can do to make your life more "environment friendly." Connie received her undergraduate degree in biology and computer science in 1982 from Gustavus Adolphus College and her Masters of Science Degree in 1988 from the University St.Thomas. Ms. Fortin is currently the president of Fortin Consulting, Inc., an environmental consulting firm. The mission of her company is to "provide project design and coordination that will unite citizens, environmental organizations and industry in the common goal of improving our rivers, lakes and wetlands." She believes that every person has a role to play in a healthy ecosystem.
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Peter Graff, a native Michigander, grew up fishing the Au Sable, then took time off to graduate from the University of Michigan. He moved to Minneapolis in 1973 and for 30 years has taught for the Hopkins Public School system as a junior high school language arts teacher, media director and judo instructor. Graff designed and maintains the Midwest Fly Fishing Online web sites, writes “The Last Cast” column for Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine and has contributed a number of cartoons. His insights and observations have prompted thousands of fishermen to give up angling and take up origami. His personal site is at www.users.ties.k12.mn.us/~pagraff/index.html.
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Tim Holschlag, Midwest Fly Fishing’s warm-water fly fishing editor, grew up in the limestone-stream country along the Iowa and Minnesota border. He spent his youth exploring the dozens of nearby smallmouth and trout streams. Since attending the University of Iowa, Holschlag has fished and explored more than 200 different warm-water rivers in North America. A full-time outdoor writer and smallmouth guide since 1989, a major focus of his writing has been warm-water fly fishing, river angling, smallmouth biology and fisheries conservation. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and co-founder of The Smallmouth Alliance organization. He is the author of Stream Smallmouth Fishing.
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Jerry Darkes, Midwest Fly Fishing’s Ohio field editor, has focused his fly fishing time and energies on Ohio’s rivers, lakes and streams. He is a fly fishing guide, instructor and represents several fly fishing manufacturers in the Ohio area. Jerry has spent considerable time fly fishing and guiding for smallmouth bass on Lake Erie and fly fishes its tributary streams for steelhead and salmon.
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Larry Gavin, editor of Midwest Fly Fishing’s Currents (fiction and poetry) section, grew up in Austin, Minn. Larry’s poems have been published in several outdoor magazines and literary journals and he has written frequently for MFF. Larry teaches English in Faribault public schools.
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Clarke Garry is Midwest Fly Fishing magazine's entomology columnist. Dr. Garry earned a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin/Madison and teaches biology at UW-River Falls, including BIO 333, Entomology. During recent research on aquatic insects, he was engaged in documenting ground beetle diversity in boreal and subarctic regions of Canada and Alaska; these studies took him to both sides of Hudson Bay, into the far north of the Yukon, and up the haul road to Prudhoe Bay. This work paralleled fossil insect work on ice age geological deposits in the Upper Midwest. He has conducted an aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity study on the Kinnickinnic River of western Wisconsin, logging approximately 400 hours in-stream. Identification and analysis of the Kinnickinnic sampling specimens will be completed in another year or two.
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Capt. Pat Ehlers writes on new fly fishing products and consumer awareness for Midwest Fly Fishing magazine. Operating his store, The Fly Fishers Fly Shop in West Allis, Wis., gives Pat a unique understand of the choices buyers must confront when shopping for tackle, clothing or related gear. Pat is a licensed United States Coast Guard captain. He has taught fly-fishing schools, fly-casting and fly tying classes around the country, serves as an advisor to many fly fishing and outdoor sports businesses and is a co-owner and an instructor for The Chequamegon Bay Smallmouth School in Wisconsin. Pat is a retail advisory board member of AFFTA (American Fly Fishing Trade Association).
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Wayne Bartz, Midwest Fly Fishing’s Fly Tiers’ Exchange columnist, is a life-long resident of Southeast Minnesota. He grew up in a small town a few miles from a trout stream and has fished for trout all his life, fly fishing for them since the mid ‘70s. Wayne has taught fly tying and fly fishing classes for the last 15 years and tied flies commercially for six years. Wayne has written for MFF since its inception. He lives and works in Rochester, Minn.
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Dennis Potter has been a fly tying fanatic since he spun his first “bug” over 25 years ago. Every one of the hundreds of dozens of flies he ties through Riverhouse Fly Co., reflects his commitment to maintain quality, simplicity, proportion and, above all, durability. He has been a fly tying instructor for over 25 year and now specializes in group classes and seminars using studio-quality, macro video equipment. He stresses technique and durability over speed and numbers.
Having fished extensively throughout the Midwest, West and Alaska, Dennis seeks out the challenge of fishing the "little" fly hatches on the AuSable River in Michigan. Midges, Tricos and Tiny Olives, which drive some anglers to take up the game of golf, push Dennis to the edge of “angling ecstasy”. He lives in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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Michael Furtman, Midwest Fly Fishing’s conservation and environmental issues editor, is a full-time, freelance writer. He is the author of seven books on fish and wildlife ecology and several books on the Boundary Waters and Quetico wildernesses. He is a passionate environmentalist. His work has won numerous awards, including the 1999 Minnesota Book award for nature writing and the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute's Citation of Excellence for environmental writing. Contact at www.michaelfurtman.com.
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EDITOR/PUBLISHER
Tom Helgeson has been a professional journalist and editor for the past 35 years. He founded Midwest Fly Fishing magazine in 1994. Helgeson grew up in Redwood Falls, Minn., where he learned to appreciate life in the outdoors. He regularly fly fishes the rivers and streams of west central Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota for trout and smallmouth. He has fly fished in Alaska each summer for more than 20 years and currently sponsors a trip to Kodiak Island for fall-run steelhead. Each spring he fly fishes for tarpon in the Florida Keys; occasionally he catches one.
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