John Sumwalt’s favorite fishing spot on Willow Creek, north of Loyd in Richland County, on the old Sumwalt farm. John said, “The first day of trout season in May was a huge deal back in the 1960s, second only to Christmas and the Fourth of July. People came from all over to our Class A trout stream on the second Saturday in May.” (Courtesy Photo)
Special to United Methodist Insight | Aug. 3, 2026
When it comes to fish stories, this is always the first whopper I tell.
A man was stopped by a game-warden with two buckets of fish leaving a lake well known for its fishing. The game warden asked the man, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?" The man replied to the game warden, "No, sir. These are my pet fish."
"Pet fish?!" the warden replied. "Yes, sir, every night I take these here fish down to the lake and let them swim around for a while. I whistle and they jump back into their buckets, and I take ‘em home."
"That's a bunch of hooey! Fish can't do that!"
The man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, "Here, I'll show you. It really works."
"O.K. I've GOT to see this!" The game warden was curious. The man poured the fish into the river and stood and waited. After several minutes, the game warden turned to the man and said, "Well?"
"Well, what?" the man responded.
"When are you going to call them back?" the game warden prompted.
"Call who back?" the man asked.
"The FISH."
"What fish?" the man asked.
I learned to fish in Willow Creek, on our farm in Richland County, Wisconsin. The first day of trout season in May was a huge deal back in the 1960s, second only to Christmas and the 4th of July. People came from all over to our Class A trout stream on the second Saturday in May.
Cars were already parked up and down the road in every possible parking space by the time I got to the barn for milking at 6:00 A.M. I couldn’t wait to get out there with my willow pole, among all the city slickers with their fly rods and hip waders.
I would like to tell you that I caught more trout than they did with all their fancy equipment, but that would be another whopper. The few rainbows and browns I did catch were thrilling moments I have never forgotten.
A couple of years ago I took my young grandsons down to a stand of willows along the marsh near our town home and told them to pick out a pole. I showed them how to strip the bark and add the line, bobber, sinker and hook. Then we went fishing on the Menomonee River above the falls in Menomonee Falls. And to my surprise they loved catching fish my “old farm kid” way, even though they have rods and reels and, yes, even waders at home.
Dutch painter Pieter Lastman depicts the moment when the “whale” vomits forth a dramatically airborne, twisting Jonah. “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah…, go at once to Nineveh… and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah set out to flee… from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3 (Public Domain Image)
My favorite fish story in the Bible is the one about Jonah, who was swallowed by a big fish. It wasn’t a whale, contrary to popular belief. And you don’t need an expensive seminary education to know this. Just look up Jonah 1:17.
“The original Hebrew text of the Old Testament specifies that Jonah was swallowed by a "great fish" (dag gadol), not a whale. The misconception that it was a whale largely comes from English translations, such as the 1535 Coverdale Bible and later the King James Version in 1611, which translated the word as ‘whale’ in the New Testament reference to the story in Matthew 12:40. However, the ancient Hebrew did not make a specific distinction between fish and whales, treating any large marine creature simply as a ‘great fish’.”
The fishiness of this well-known story about a bumbling fool named Jonah has less to do with a miraculous fish, and everything to do with this reluctant prophet’s stubborn refusal to do what God was clearly calling him to do.
I received a letter recently from a not-at-all reluctant prophet, who for years has been calling for the repeal of some foolish regulations that have led to an acute drop in the number of people fishing for trout in southwest Wisconsin.
Roger Kerr, from Boscobel, Wisconsin, was the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fish manager in Richland County, Wisconsin from 1972 to 1992. He wrote to tell me why trout fishing is no longer the popular sport it was when I was fishing there with my willow pole in the 1960s.
Roger said, “When I became the Richland Fish Manager in 1972, Richland County had 19 streams listed as trout streams in the DNR trout stream booklet. Maybe 60 other Richland streams appeared to be suitable for supporting trout, but no fish manager tried to manage them for trout.
“I began stocking trout in these 60 streams. And they all supported trout year-round. By 1980 Richland probably had five times as many trout as it had in 1972.
“Only one stream had natural reproduction, and that was Willow Creek by Loyd, (a mile south of Sumwalt farm). I remember a shocker surveying Willow Creek by Loyd and above Loyd. I asked your father (Leonard Sumwalt) for permission to survey Willow and another stream (in Happy Hollow) just above Loyd on his farm.
“Louis Grassman farmed a large area on Willow Creek two or three miles south of Loyd. I wound up buying (for the DNR) most of his land in this area (along the creek). He was quite willing to sell it because it really was a wetland that never should have been farmed.
“The lack of natural reproduction in most Richland streams was due to hatchery trout spawning in late September instead of November. This was due to genetic manipulation in the hatcheries.”
Roger said that by mixing wild brown trout with the hatchery trout he was able to significantly increase the number of trout to 4,000 per mile in one stream. He said, “This stimulated the DNR to create a wild brown trout stocking program which began around the year 2000.
“By 2006 southwest Wisconsin had 20 times as many brown trout as it had in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. An unbelievable transformation. But, by 2006 hardly any Richland anglers still fished trout because in 1990 the DNR created a new trout program that increased the rules from a few words to 32 pages.
“It was a huge turn off. Most anglers who lived in Richland Center, Dodgeville, Lone Rock, Boscobel, Platteville and so on, quit trout fishing… Richland County probably has 50 times as many trout now as it had in 1972. You can drive all over Richland on a nice day in June or July and not see any vehicles on Richland streams. What a shame!
“Overall, southwest Wisconsin is now one of the best fishing areas in the world and hardly any local people use this resource because the DNR pushed them out of trout fishing in 1990.”
Roger Kerr concluded his letter by asking: “I’m curious if you know any of this and if you were one of the dropout trout anglers since Willow Creek was near your house when you grew up.”
I wrote to Roger that I did not know any of this and have always wondered where all the enthusiastic trout anglers that waded the streams of my youth had gone. Perhaps I will get out one of those willow poles I made with my grandsons, head back to Willow Creek and dip a line by the old farm.
Send me your favorite fish stories
The Rev. John Sumwalt (Courtesy Photo)
The Rev. John Sumwalt is a retired pastor and the author of “Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives.” Email him.