O’Pros Trout Weekend

A few weeks ago, I headed down to the Viroqua, Wisconsin area to hang out and fish with the O’Pros crew. O’Pros is a company started by 3 brothers from Wisconsin whose goal it is to make anglers’ time on the water more efficient, and their best-known product is their rod holder. Here is a link to a blog we wrote a few years ago after visiting their old headquarters “Catching up with the O’Pros Bros”. They have since moved to a new location and have a new and improved rod holder that has created a lot of buzz.

The weekend was full of laughs and good time spent on the water. In total, there were 11 of us, me being the only one currently living in Minnesota. The others are scattered throughout Wisconsin, but we have all become good friends over the past few years. It’s always a good time spent with other guys that share the same passion and are genuine and fun to be around.

This year we split up into random teams of 2 and fished for the day. I ended up with my buddy Joe, who I have hung out with several times, but had yet to spend time on the water with. We only caught a handful of fish, and walked nearly 9 miles, but had a great time and won the “big fish” contest with Joe’s 16 incher.

As always, I enjoyed the unique experience and sense of stillness and calm that comes during winter fishing, but I imagine the next time the group of us meet with likely be somewhere up north chasing the fish of 10,000 casts with deer hair and feathers.