Monthly Meetings (Sept. – April) are held on the first Wednesday of each month at:
The Thirsty Goat restaurant,
3040 Cahill Main, Fitchburg
Meetings start at 6:30PM
Many members come early to socialize over dinner before the meeting, the restaurant serves a wide variety of reasonably priced items.
We welcome non-members to join us for a meeting or two, and then decide if we are their kind of organization.
2022-2023 Meeting Schedule
Following a serious fire at the Maple Tree restaurant in McFarland on October 5th, both the Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance and the Badger Fly Fishers have located a new site for our monthly meetings. The Thirsty Goat restaurant, 3040 Cahill Main, Fitchburg, will be our new monthly meeting site. The Thirsty Goat offers a quiet room which will seat 50 people, excellent and affordable food, and a small bar in the room serving multiple refreshments. Meetings for both the WSA and BFF will begin with a social hour/dinner starting at 5:30 PM and the general meeting starting at 6:30 PM. Currently, we will be able to order off the menu and, as long as enough meals are ordered at each meeting, we will be able to continue this practice indefinitely. The alternative will be a buffet-style set up with fewer choices. Therefore, we encourage members to join us for dinner if it will work into your schedule. Except for the month of October, all WSA and BFF meetings will occur on the first Wednesday of the month as listed below. In October the WSA meeting will be at the Thirsty Goat on Tuesday, October 18th. Please note that the WSA and BFF meetings will alternate each month. We look forward to seeing you at our new home.
The following are the dates for our bimonthly meetings:
October 18, 2022 – WSA meeting with Mike Norris
November 2, 2022 – BFF meeting with Rich Ostoff
December 7, 2022 – WSA meeting with Hunter Dorn
January 4, 2023 – BFF with Dan Donovan
February 1, 2023 – WSA with Pat Ehlers
March 1, 2023 – BFF with Tim Landwehr
April 5, 2023 – WSA auction
May 3, 2023 – BFF with ?=
We look forward to seeing you soon!
October 18th Speaker – Mike Norris
Mike Norris is a licensed fishing guide on Big Green Lake and other surrounding lakes in south central Wisconsin. Mike specializes in catching trophy smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike, walleyes and panfish during each of their seasonal peaks.
As one of the Midwest’s top fishing guides, Mike’s exceeds the expectations of his customers when on the water with him. His customers not only catch fish during a guide trip with Mike Norris, but Mike teaches them the innovative strategies and sonar interpretations for how and why they are catching fish. Mike’s extensive knowledge of seasonal fish locations and use of electronics to find them makes him as successful fishing for panfish and northern pike as he is at catching trophy smallmouth bass and walleye.
Mike will be speaking about seasonal peaks and techniques to catch oversized panfish, northern pike, walleye and smallmouth bass on Big Green Lake, and northern pike and largemouth bass on Fox Lake. Check out the Oct/Nov issue of In-Fisherman Magazine for Mike’s approach to catching late fall/winter smallmouth bass.