Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Friday, March 7th, 2025.
Have your host, James here with you.
We're joined right now by Todd Forseer, Forseer's Fishing Guide Services, LLC.
We're going to talk a little bit about the Fishing Guide Services he offers, as well as
Walleye Days coming up in 2025.
And Todd, did I say the last name right?
You did.
I did.
I did.
I'm rocking down, Pam.
I never get them out.
Todd, thanks so much for joining us, man.
I really do appreciate the time.
Oh, the honor is mine.
I have to admit to you.
Well, I think there's not a ton of things that I have adapted to here in Wisconsin in
the 20-some years I've lived here.
One of my favorite things is fishing.
I love fishing.
I don't get to do it nearly enough anymore.
I'm here too much.
But I love being out on the water.
I love hanging out with the guys and going and doing it and everything.
There's so much about fishing, I think, to enjoy.
And I'm doing a little homework on you and your business.
I feel like you guys really hit on all the checkmarks of the things that I look forward
to about fishing and enjoy.
It's really looking forward to talking to you.
Before we dive into the business and walleye days, can we get to know you a little bit?
Where are you from?
Let's tell us a little bit about yourself, Todd.
Well, I moved here in 1991, started my career here, retired now from the city of Wisconsin
Rapids Fire Department, and got three daughters that are still in the area.
So it's good to be near family.
My wife now works at Postal Service down at Adams, and Wisconsin Rapids has been my home
since 91.
So.
Very cool.
And that first off, thank you for your service.
Appreciate you doing that and the work that you did there.
Incredibly.
I have a lot of respect for that industry and the people doing that work.
And I also want to second that to your wife.
It sounds like you're a family of people that work and get back to the community.
That's pretty cool, man.
And that's very helpful.
We appreciate that.
Much appreciated.
When it comes to what got you to love fishing, what got you to be into this and want to give
guide tours and some of these things.
Like I said before, I love fishing, but I never thought about doing something like this.
What got you to want to take it to this extent?
Well, I think my dad got me into it, just like all our dads get us into some type of
the old doors, where there's hunting of some sort and fishing.
My dad gets all my credit for the love for fishing.
And then I like to educate.
And as you've seen and have read, it's not just about catching the biggest fish or the
most fish.
How I approach it, techniques that I use.
And if you apply those in time on the water, you will put some fish in the boat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So with these tours, Todd, what are some of the things that people will experience?
What are some of the things people can look forward to?
Well, I get a lot of people that people are flowed, just known as a wildlife destination.
It's called...
It's actually a peat and all flow edge, but you talk to some people and see some literature.
It's labeled lake peat and all.
But remember, it's a flow edge.
It's flooded timber.
So my main goal is to show more to go, we're not to go, we're to go slow.
How I approach the system, far as fishing techniques, whether it comes into play that can
either make or break a day.
But it's just the educational part of it, and that's something I take pride on.
When it comes to being a part of this service and taking this in, where do you guys go?
You mentioned one location there, is that the location you go to other places?
Yeah.
Mainly I'm just here in Central Wisconsin.
So peat and all flow edge is my main basic, you will call it my home water.
And then there's several different stretches of the Wisconsin River.
For instance here in town, we have what I refer to as a pool, a section of river between
two dams.
Once again, take people out, educate them how to fish this area, the hazards, stuff like
that.
So if they do want to go again by the end of our day out, they'll have enough knowledge
and confidence to go back out.
That's really cool.
And this is a really smart service as well.
You know, certainly a shout out to the DNR, to all the fishing programs out there that
help kids from a young age learn and everything.
But I don't think it's far fetched to say that so many people were like you and I in what
you mentioned before.
Most of us learn from our dads or our papa grandparents or something like that.
And when it came to that, there were their rules and their kind of way of doing this.
But there wasn't really a universal way of doing it or certain things that just kind
of get lost in the shuffle that you wouldn't talk about at, you know, where I was learning
the fish and lay camel out over here in town.
There were certain things that my pop taught me or whatever that not, you know, wouldn't
have taught me, what had taught me a different thing at a different lake or a different area
of body of water.
So giving the opportunity to young people to anybody, to be able to kind of get just that
overall understanding of this and everything, no matter where you are necessarily, is helpful
along with that specific, the specific details you can give about certain areas.
Oh yeah, I mean, the biggest change lately in the fishing industry is the electronics.
I mean, now we have sonars that we can dry by and I can see a fish out, you know, 80 feet
from the boat, you know, and they have forward facing sonar so you can see them as they swim
and you can target them.
The industry, electronic industry has changed the game of fishing.
We have Ross Provost from Burton Aitson once in a while and everything with some of the
event coming, the Expo coming up, we had him on this Monday and it's one of the things
I've talked with him the most and I didn't see comment.
I didn't realize how much the tech industry had impacted fishing and everything.
It's really interesting.
You know, the size of the screens, I mean, our add more batteries to the boats, the thin
batteries.
It's, you know, just like anything else in life, you know, it changes and that.
How have you adapted to that with your services and just in general?
I have the forward facing sonar, I have the side scans in my boat, you know, that's
what gets us through the day.
You know, we basically, I get the goals of the client and then from there we go out and
I kind of create a milk run, if you will, going out and then side imaging, I'll show them.
This is what fish looks like, you know, there's only maybe two here.
Let's keep moving.
Let's find a pot of fish forward facing sonar, I showed them.
So is that just fishing and how to catch fish?
Sometimes it's just about electronics too.
Yeah.
I want to get to those main goals you mentioned there in a second, but real quick something
we kind of talked about in our pre game a little bit was something that I read from your
website and some of the comments that I've seen about your commitment to catch photo and
release.
Can we get a little into details of what that is and what that means?
Basically that refers to the musky side of it that I, you know, so it doesn't matter.
The legal size musky here in our area is 50 inches.
So if you catch a 52, I'm still going to push, we catch photo and release because we can
take all kinds of measurements, all kinds of pictures so we can get a graphite fish made
and that fish is still swimming for somebody else to enjoy it.
The wall I side of it, you know, everybody wants, I mean, that's the main fish to eat.
I mean, it's delicious.
It is.
But during the wall I run, you know, we'll promote, I'll push, let's release the females
because in full of eggs.
So that's, you know, saving the future for my kids, your kids, grandkids, so on and so
forth.
So, um, copy is same to any fish that is we catch it and it's spawning in their time frame
we'll look to release the female side of it.
It's really smart and thinking about not just us, but the future generation.
Oh, yeah, you got to.
If we don't watch out for them, who will?
Right.
Right.
I just, I love that.
Ever one of my favorite quotes, we don't plant trees for us to see them grow.
We plant them for our kids to see them grow.
Just reminds me of that.
That's very cool.
Todd, you, there are some main goals that you have for your clients and for people coming
out on the water with you.
Can we talk about those main goals?
Sure.
Um, so like I said, as the, they booked the day, I'll find out what, why are they here
in Piedmont?
So maybe they just want to learn how to run the river, um, what to look for.
We don't have weeds here, so, but we have timber.
So how do I fish timber?
I need to show them that, um, when they're musky fishing, I'm real, I'll just call it,
I'm real anal and a good proper cast because if you can cast all day long and cast properly,
it's going to save a, a sore back and maybe that will default you from not going out
again.
Um, so there's, I get their list and I try to achieve their list.
And if we catch fish, um, that's a bonus in my eyes, but I go out and show them how to
run it.
For an example, show them how to tie a jig.
I mean, I'll show them, I'll cut it off and I'll make them tie it.
You know, the hands on it, how do you learn, yes, um, and we'll do electronics if they
want to learn electronics, stuff like that.
So I always try to achieve, find out what their goal is, achieve their goal and then everything
above that is a bonus for the day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, if people want to know more if they'd like to start booking with you or something like
that, how can they do that?
You can give me, basically, give me a call through the website.
It shows how to contact me too.
I'm old school.
I love to sit and chat with you if I know it and then we can kind of accomplish your goals,
get some intel from you.
Um, a deposit is required that locks your day in, whether it's a half a day or full
day.
And then I'll be in contact with them two, three days out.
Usually with the weather report, um, make sure they got everything.
I'll send them a Google drop pin and where we're meeting.
Sometimes they're coming from the north and I'll meet them at a box store parking lot.
And they can follow me down right with, um, so I just try to make an enjoyable day for
them.
You really cover all bases.
You really do.
Like, this is a, you think of everything and what, whatever you might not know or what
not, you're giving to the client and letting them kind of, uh, this is what I'm looking
for.
This is, it's really a tailor made.
It's really nice.
Well, it's, you know, lessons learned from the past, just like anything else.
You know, I get some people that were upset, all right, why were you upset?
You know, and I make adjustments and I apologize, you know, and, um, you know, if they weren't
happy, let's get old again, you know, that's, that's smart business.
We just don't always see it.
Yeah.
But it's very smart business.
It's really cool.
And encourage you to check out their website, everybody.
You can find out more information about this.
You can book your trip, pre-trip planning, uh, there's, it's all there for you.
You just go to foreseerfishing.com.
That's F-O-R-C-I-E-R-Fishing.com.
All one word.
Uh, I just tested this out through it into my search bar and it popped right up.
So even if you're not getting too close in the spelling, it will pop up pretty quickly
for you.
Encourage you to do that.
Bookmark that page and start making those plans, everybody.
It's getting nicer and nicer out there.
Well, it's, it's looking good, especially next week.
We're speaking with Todd foreseer from foreseerfishing guide services.
And one of the things we wanted to talk about in our conversation today was wall ideas coming
up.
Todd, one of our favorite events in the Nikusa area, an event for the people of Nikusa,
by the people of Nikusa.
We love this event.
What are some of the things we have to look forward to in Nikusa wall ideas this year?
Well, hopefully we get some water so the river fills up, I mean, it's the number one
under list.
Yeah.
We'll dictate that.
But you got the chance of catching, you know, enough fish for a meal, you know, the restrictions
of the amount of fish and keep changed a couple of years ago.
But get out, enjoy sport fishing.
So I mean, historically, when times are tough, people still want fishing, you know, enjoy
gold fishing with family, take a kid fishing.
That's the future of the sport is get them kids out there and applaud them and get out.
Wall ideas, it's coming up and it's going to last.
There's several events throughout the two, three, four weeks at runs, I believe.
There's a kid's fishing, there's some other tournaments running during that.
And just come down and explore our area here between Rapids, Nikusa, Port Edwards.
Check us out.
Couple of notes there, just to piggyback on things you said that I really appreciate.
One, the idea of keeping this alive with the younger generations, here's the perfect
opportunity to do it, you know, getting them out there on the water, seeing other adults
doing this, no matter what their age, those kids' brains are sponges and they're soaking
all this in.
And they're going to see you having a good time, they're going to see you interacting
with neighbors and strangers and things and having some fellowships, some camaraderie
and everything.
Absolutely.
And you touch on the history of fishing and I'm a sucker for history, man, so you
teed me up there.
One of the things that never gets lost on me, no matter what lake I'm on, no matter how
old I am doing this, is that how many people did this before me, maybe on this very lake
I'm working on and everything, and I'm fishing on and stuff.
There's something not only cool, but they take pride in that and every opportunity they
take pride in our roots, pride in our area, or pride just in general in human history.
That's what you're doing with fishing.
You're not just having a good time, you're not just out there enjoying yourself and maybe
getting your dinner, you're out there keeping history alive.
Absolutely.
It's pretty cool.
I mean, I learned this from a map company, a fishing hotspots.
I knew a couple guys there and, you know, when times are tough financially, it's people
still win fishing.
It's kind of a way to de-stress.
In all of this, we get to celebrate through Nacusa Walleye days going on March 22nd through
April 13th.
It's an annual fishing tournament with prizes and a kid's fishing day as Todd was mentioning.
Their Easter egg hunt in 5K run will be April 19th.
That will be going on as well.
That's going to be a lot of fun and fun to watch as well, even if you're not participating.
It's a lot of fun to watch.
The 5K runner always great and appreciate everybody running those.
Easter egg hunts with kids are always entertaining.
They're old.
I wonder sometimes if they're more for adults than kids just because of how much entertainment
we get out of them.
That's great.
And another great opportunity, bringing the kids down there.
They're experiencing all this.
They're seeing all this.
Even if they're not fishing, they know the event is about fishing.
Right.
Really helping to get that through, again, those sponges, brains and everything.
Midwest Fest going on June 22nd, a summer picnic at the Riverside Park full of live entertainment,
food and beverage vendors, family fun activities and plenty of other great things.
Want you to bookmark that, everybody can keep that in mind, as well as Nacusa Christmas
a little bit later in the year, some of the great things going on in the Nacusa area.
But when it comes to Nacusa Wall Ideas in this event, we want people to be a part of this
one for all the things that Todd and I have been talking about here, but keeping in mind
as well of how much these events help our local areas.
We're all attached at the hip, whether we're talking Rapids, Nacusa, Port Edwards, any
of these surrounding areas.
And while when our high school teams play, we have rivalries and we come at each other
or whatever, make no mistake about it.
We survive together, we survive together, we lean on each other.
It is important that we do that more and more.
And one thing that I try to do, and I think our station tries to do, while we broadcast
from Wisconsin Rapids, we represent all these areas.
And it's important to us to do that, to make sure that our people in this town are going
to that town and vice versa.
All of our economies are tied together.
We might as well help each other and have a darn good time while we're at it.
So when you're doing these things, regardless of where you're listening to us having this
conversation, you come on down to Nacusa, have a good time, enjoy it, bring the family,
and know that you're helping your whole community wherever you live.
This is a fun event.
Todd, is there one part of this event you've been doing this a long time?
Is there a part of this event that you look forward to the most or anything?
I just look forward to seeing what we touched on this earlier as I'll get families.
Not necessarily the full family, but I'll maybe get a dad and daughter, dad and son, and
then more of the summer time when the vacations come in, the kids are out of school, I'll get
a lot of family time.
So it's getting these families out, showing them what we have to offer, showing them how
the fishing is down here and educating them.
What are mind everybody, too, that if you want to be a part of the tournament, you want
the gym-freement tournament registration that is available for you, along with registering
that big fish once you catch it, kids fishing day, you can find out all the information
for that at f-o-r-n-nacusa.org, f-o-r-n-nacusa.org, go there to find out all this information,
keep up the date on this, and maybe make some plans for as you're planning this out of,
it's a big event, and there's a lot of days of it, so you want to plan this one out
a little bit.
In fact, they have a Walleye Days map that you can check out, just to help you do that
everybody, so go ahead and head on over there.
Did want to say a thank you to everybody involved with this event, like you, Todd, that are
helping make this happen.
Certainly, a thank you to all the volunteers out there, and not to put you on the spot,
but don't know if we need more volunteers for this event or not, but I'm just going to
go ahead and throw out there that we might, because every event could always use more
hands on deck and everything.
So if you are looking to volunteer, you're looking to be a part of this, I encourage you
to do again, go to the website, reach out to them, there's plenty of about you, about
us, and ways to contact people to find out more information about that.
Mention the Facebook page as well, that's another way.
You can direct message people through there, and of course, like that page and share their
posts on your page, you never know who might see those things otherwise.
And Todd, with your business, again, before we wrap up here, I want to remind everybody
that you can be a part of these fishing guides and take them in.
One of the things we wanted to make sure to mention Todd is that this is available quite
a year round, isn't it, I believe, or just about year round.
Just about.
I mean, I've been out already, and I'll be going out in the coming days.
You look at the temperature, and you just gotta get out, right?
And then once to the fall, October, November depends what Mother Nature gives us.
If the boat landings are still open, we're still launching.
It's been a while since I've been jealous of a guest.
In a second, you said that I immediately just, it's like, oh, he's been out there already.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
I do want to remind everybody as well about the kids fishing day.
I was waiting for my computer to pop back up here.
The Jim Freeman boat landing is where this will take place pre-registration.
You do that, and you get a free t-shirt, tons of giveaways for the first 150 kids, including
minnows with a gallon buck, a brother's bait, and all kinds of cool stuff.
This is all happening thanks to some amazing sponsors and some amazing people putting back
into their community.
A big thank you to all of these businesses.
When we encourage you to buy local support local, this is what we're talking about.
Businesses that support these kind of events, support them, they support us.
Let's have their back like they have ours.
And Todd, before we let you go, was there anything else you wanted to touch on?
Do we cover everything?
I think we kind of hit it, and if anybody has any questions, I mean, the website's got
my email.
You can text me if you're looking to book a day.
We've got off for a full day, half days.
I mean, we're entering my 32nd year of guiding, so I've been down there a few times, but
yeah, if you're happy to take you out and show you what I know.
I'm already thinking of what my goals would be, because I want to see how I want to go
out there, but I got to check this out.
I cannot wait.
And I cannot wait for Nukusa Walleye days.
Really do appreciate the time, man.
And again, thank you to you, your family, everything you guys put into the community.
We appreciate that.
Good to hang out with you, Todd.
We'll talk in.
Appreciate it.
Again, you can find out more about a four-year fishing at F-O-R-C-I-E-R-Fishing.com.
And be sure to register and find out more about Nukusa Walleye days.
You can do that by going to their Facebook page, just type into your search bar.
And of course, you can go to F-O-R-F-O-R-Nukusa.org.
That's F-O-R-Nukusa.org.
Be sure to get on over there and enjoy Walleye days, everybody.
Be sure to be listening next week, everybody, for more jam-packed, fun, informative information
for you with Midday Magazine.
A big thank you to all of our guests this week.
All you listeners out there and a special thank you to the heart of WFHR, our head scheduler,
Pam Hilke and the amazing work she does week in a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
And appreciate all you guests.
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