This past week (April 15-20), Jim Craig and Kenny Klimes attended the “The Fly-Fishing School” held in Wisconsin Driftless area. It was also attended by two other FATC members, Joe Vigor and Alex Vigor (son), who attended with Joe’s father, Kent. It was great to have a couple other FATC brothers at this school. The fly-fishing school was also attended by five other fly fishers from all over the United States. By the way, the same school will be taught again in Wisconsin in late September. Are you in?
The instructors at the school were some of the best in the country!
1. Jason Randall, fly fishing author, educator, and innovator
2. Josh Miller – fly fishing author, educator and coach of the three-time USA youth world championship fly-fishing team
3. Nick Conklin – Temple Fork Outfitters fly-fishing product design manager and fly-fishing author
4. Eric Camfield – President of Altar Fly Fishing
5. Mike Toft – Minnesota Driftless area guide
6. Tom Starmack – owner and fly tier of Zoetic custom flies
The Wisconsin Driftless area is a region in southwestern Wisconsin known for its technical limestone streams offering outstanding brown trout fishing. The average browns run from 8 – 14 inches while some can go up to 20 inches. The streams are narrow and having good technique is a must.
The school started on Wednesday, April 15th as all instructors and participates met at 1pm at Jason Randall’s beautiful cabin which sits just south of Viroqua, Wisconsin. Once the participates arrived the instruction went into full speed ahead. The course was on the latest in ESN (European Style Nymphing). The first afternoon concentrated on casting techniques as the line used in ESN is of very small diameter – like 4X diameter. A new technique to cast 30 feet of 4X line is needed and the highlight of the afternoon. A casting course was set up for all the participates and the practice began.
After proving that we can cast 30 feet of 4X line, we went back to the cabin and started our course instruction. Discussion on tension drifts started the program. At 6pm was our welcome dinner and I have to say the meals throughout the entire week were awesome. We teased Jason that the meals were better than the school but truly, both were far better than expected. I won’t go into everything we learned (because some is close hold as we learned the secrets that allowed our USA Youth team to win three World Championships in a row) but I will give you a brief synopsis of what we did during the school.
Each day the school started at 7am with a hearty breakfast, then a discussion of the day’s teaching, followed by fly fishing in the driftless streams. Then we would usually have lunch by the river as we discussed the techniques we just learned. The afternoon usually had another fishing session followed by a happy hour, dinner and more classroom instruction. Some of the things we covered in our classes were drift/line management, sighter angle, advanced tension drifts and American Euro nymphing. We worked on the frisbee cast (new), Euro dry-dropper techniques, situation and scenario based ESN, priority based nymphing, and Euro-streamer techniques. Of course, there were long discussions on how, what and why we can do better. The instructors did critiques of our techniques, and we got to critique the instructors. It was an unbelievable learning experience. The days usually ended around 9pm – into bed and do it all over again.
When you get out to the stream or river to fish, first identify the challenges of each situation and have a game plan for each situation. Each area of a river (runs, bends, pocket waters, pools, riffles and flats) has its challenges, and a game plan is needed for each one. Once you figure out your game plan then your concentration can switch to getting in the strike zone, having a good drift, and knowing your strike detection. The ESN flies will range from tiny perdigons, Walt’s worms, dry flies to euro-streamers. They all work when fish properly – the ESN way.
When you get a chance to work, side by side, with some of the best fly fishers in the country you take it. Again, the next ESN fly fishing class will be Wednesday, September 23rd to Sunday, September 27th, 2026 in Wisconsin. Watch for the sign-up period on your emails and Teamup calendar. Of course, Jim and Kenny will be sharing the techniques with any of our FATC members who are interested. Our FATC will have 13 members attending another special school, “Advanced Fly-Fishing Skills for Western Rivers”, in Colorado this June. Your FATC is on the move – join us!!
Kenny Klimes
