Stevens Point native Adam Greuel is best known for his music with the band Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. But he’s also a passionate fly fisher and guide He talked with us about the meditative aspect of the sport and its way of “turning mountains back into mole hills.” – as told to Kevin Revolinski
Any time you get a chance to be near water, there’s a certain kind of Zen feeling. The relationship between fly fishing and being Zen is fly casting. People call it the art of casting because there’s a beauty associated with the repetitive motion. Sometimes your troubles blow away and other times it helps you process the things that you’ve been deliberately ignoring in your life.
I’ve often used fly fishing to balance the hectic nature of my life as a musician going from town to town. It’s a great way to take a breath and focus on something relatively simple yet all-consuming – just challenging enough that you have to focus on it if you do it.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
My first memory of it was family vacations to Wyoming and the Rockies, seeing all these rising trout in a mountain stream and somebody fly fishing. Dad taught us, and I was utterly mystified by all the fish surfacing all over the creek, hundreds of them, and I couldn’t get a single one to take my fly! They’re joshing your taters. I was frustrated and yearned to solve the puzzle.
A big part of it is, we’re trying to mimic what fish are actually consuming with artificial materials. I didn’t present the fly in the way that these bugs were being consumed by these trout.
We don’t pay attention to the caddisflies, the mayflies that are coming off a body of water when we’re walking down the road with our dog. When you’re out there in the creek, immersed in it, you become part of what’s going on around you.
There’s a true freedom you get from being out in the wild: waking up early, grabbing my fly rod, seeing the sunrise and casting for fish.
I learned the diverse beauty and majesty of Wisconsin as a fly fisher. That’s the sport’s ability to pull you out of your comfort zone and get you off the beaten path. It’s all still fishing at the end of the day.
What You Need
While you could spring for a guide and expensive equipment, all that’s necessary is a fly rod and reel and some flies. The “weight” of the line varies from 2 to 12 for what you’re catching: “Most start with a 5-weight rod, middle of the road, good for trout and smallmouth bass.” You do need a regular fishing license plus a special stamp if you fish for trout.
Find Your Spot
“People think of fly fishing as casting elegantly for trout. But you can fly fish just about any fish in any ecosystem. I could fish for brook trout in a creek wide as a sidewalk, next day I could throw a fly for carp on a river as wide as a highway. I could fish with a fly as long as my forearm for musky or pike. Always get out and explore; you might find your next favorite place.”
