Rich Osthoff guides fly-fishers for trout on his home waters, the Driftless Area of western Wisconsin. (Dale Osthoff is also now guiding in the Driftless. Trips with Dale can be booked through Rich, or Rich can put you in direct contact with Dale.) Rich guides on dozens of streams both north and south of the Wisconsin River, including the Viroqua area, Grant County, Richland County and the Kickapoo Reserve/Wildcat Mountain area. Chicago, the Twin Cities and Milwaukee are all within a 2- to 4-hour drive of dozens of streams that support healthy populations of wild brown trout and brook trout.Rich's YouTube videos,on the Driftless Area, click here, will give you a good look at this fishery. For details on Rich's Guiding Area, click here.
Rich offers three guided trip options. Split-Fishing, click here for details, is a uniquely educational spring creek experience and the best guiding value in the Driftless. Instructional Guiding, click here for details, is part fly-fishing school and part guided outing. Rich also offers Traditional Guided Outings, click here for details.
All terminal tackle, including flies and leaders/tippets are provided on all guided outings. Anglers are free to fish their own rods and reels or to uses Rich's outfits. For complete info on Rich's Guiding Policy, click here, (includes tips on what gear you should bring).
Trout Fishing in Wisconsin's Driftless Area runs from the first Saturday in January through October 15. Seasons of the Driftless, click here, provides a good overview of what to expect in the way of insect hatches, trout activity and fishing conditions throughout the fishing year.
Rich Osthoff Signature Flies
Rich Osthoff markets his innovative fly designs directly to anglers throughout the U.S. and beyond via his mail-order catalog.
Rich personally ties every fly he sells using premium
materials, including Tiemco and Daiichi hooks, and Whiting and Metz
hackle.
Rich designs and offers the key imitative flies for cracking mayfly, caddis, and midge hatches, plus outstanding attractor dries, nymphs, and streamers for working trout on all water types, from spring creeks to freestone rivers to alpine lakes.
Rich also offers high-performance flies for smallmouth bass and other warmwater species.
Competitive pricing. Volume discounts. To see the Fly Catalog and Photos, with detailed fly descriptions and pricing, click here. To see the Fly Order Form, with ordering information, click here.
Books by Rich Osthoff
Rich Osthoff has fished extensively throughout the Rocky Mountains, from the famed rivers to the remote golden trout lakes of the backcountry. His first book, Fly-Fishing The Rocky Mountain Backcountry,is based on 20 summers of hiking and fishing throughout the wilderness areas of the Rocky Mountains and is considered by many experienced backcountry anglers to be the bible on backcountry fly-fishing. From the trophy golden trout waters of the Wind River Range, to rocketing rainbows deep in the bowels of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, to the premier westslope cutthroat trout rivers of Montana and Idaho, it’s the only first-hand account of exploring wilderness waters throughout the Rockies. Rich’s second book, No Hatch To Match, is loaded with insights into fly-fishing resourcefully between hatches. From anticipating temperature-induced feeding binges, to prospecting at a productive pace, to identifying and exploiting niches of active trout, you’ll find innovative techniques and strategies for fooling trout between hatches on demanding public trout waters, from your local streams, to the famed rivers and alpine lakes of the Rockies. Rich’s third book, Active Nymphing, includes an eye-opening 52-page chapter on compelling reasons to move the nymph, rather than dead-drifting so dogmatically. Ultimately, it is moving the nymph on a tight line, not dead-drifting on a slack line, that gives you precise manual control over the speed, path, and the behavior of the nymph. Also includes a major chapter on fly-casting weighted nymphs with high line speeds and near dry-fly accuracy. Active Nymphing is full of dynamic nymphing strategies that bring much of the precision and visual excitement of dry-fly fishing to the nymphing game. It will take your nymphing to new levels of success and enjoyment on all types of trout water, from spring creeks, to rivers, to lakes.
For more detailed information onActive Nymphing, No Hatch To Match, orFly-Fishing The Rocky Mountain Backcountry, or for pricing and ordering information, click here.
Rich Osthoff has also written on fly-fishing and fly-tying for many magazines, including Outdoor Life, Flyfishing & Tying Journal,American Angler, Fly Tyer, and Midwest Flyfishing.
