Our FATC attended our third Altar retreat in Wisconsin last week. It was an eye opening, spiritual event that many FATC were deeply affected by. The retreat included fly fishing in one of the most famous fly-fishing areas in the United States – the Driftless area of Wisconsin. Our home location was in the Viroqua area of Wisconsin. Jason Randall hosted the Altar staff, a fly-fishing educator and author of five fly fishing books. Jason is one of the top fly fishers in the world and we had the privilege of his tutelage throughout the retreat. Eric Camfield, president of Altar, lead the retreat each morning and evening. Other Altar staff were Jim Young, Mike Haddorff, Tom Starmack and Steve Ebling. Kenny Klimes and John Muckerman had the privilege of being part of the Altar staff for this retreat. We were also joined by Grand Master Tenkara fly fisher, LuYong, who gave some Tenkara lessons to the group.
Our FATC members (Jason Edwards, Bill Grelle, Breck Washam, Scott Doughtery, Pete Drochelman, Ryan Young, Charlie Trankler, Jim Craig, Scott Drooger, Dave Komor, Christopher Beahm, and John Weinstorer) drove up on Wednesday, May 15 to meet all at the “Big Yellow House”. After the Altar staff and the FATC met, room assignments and locations were handed out. Wednesday evening was the beginning of the retreat.
Instead of going over every day of the retreat let’s just talk about the flow of the week. Each morning the gang met for breakfast at 7:30am and had an Altar retreat session afterwards. Around 9:30am we would gather to fly fish in the Driftless area. The Altar staff and Jason Randall selected locations to give the group the best chance of catching fish. The Driftless area contains brown trout and brook trout (yes, a few brookies were caught) but mostly brown trout were caught. The browns are not huge although you can find a “big boy” once in a while. Most of the browns caught on this trip averaged between eight inches and fourteen inches. The group met for lunch on most days – breaking bread together. Everyday Jason Randall gave valuable fly-fishing instruction from Euro-nymphing, dry-dropper, and casting.
At the end of fishing day, we returned to our lodging locations, showered, and met for hors devours , drinks and dinner around 5:30pm. Chef Terry took good care of us the entire retreat. After dinner, the Altar team led us in our retreat studies of R=6+1. Not sure what that means? Then I think you should ask one of the attendees.
On Sunday morning we had breakfast together and recapped the retreat. Where do we go from here?!?! Around 9:30am we were released to travel back home together. Many got more out of the retreat than they thought they would. And that’s great! We need to continue with R.
The pictures below are just a small look at an impressive retreat.
