Hayward Fly Fishing Company

If you’ve ever flyfished for musky, or even seen a video of others doing so, you have to, in part, credit (or blame, for those of you who caught the bug) Larry Mann and Wendy Williamson. The pair had cut their teeth guiding in Colorado but in the late 1990s familial obligations brought them to Hayward, Wisconsin. “Our friends in Colorado pretty much thought we were crazy,” remembers Mann. “Then they came and fished with us. And they said, ‘maybe not so crazy…’”

The area has always been a destination for anglers. In 1949 alone, two world record muskies were caught within fifteen miles of Hayward. The town is also home to the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum which boasts a 143-foot long, four-story tall musky made of fiberglass and steel that you can walk inside of. But don’t let this gargantuan esox distract you from the diversity of fish available in Hayward. The surrounding lakes and rivers teem with large- and smallmouth bass, pike, crappie, bluegill, perch, sunfish, walleye, catfish, and trout. 

“We live in a ‘what do you want to catch today’ neighborhood,” remarked Mann. Drive an hour north and you can target the salmon and lake-run rainbows and browns of Lake Superior. “It’s a great neighborhood to be in.” 

After seven years of guiding mainly smallmouth bass and musky, in 2005 Mann and Williamson expanded their operation to include a brick and mortar fly shop. Hayward Fly Fishing Company sits in the center of the city, on the same block as the taxidermy filled Moccasin Bar which houses the world’s largest skin-mounted musky. The same year that the shop opened, a young angler from the Twin Cities named Stu Neville, who was spending the summer at his family’s cabin, ended up in a Hayward Fly Fishing Company drift boat with a half-deaf guide. “He showed us the river and schooled us up,” Neville told me. “That was my first experience with the fly shop.” Little did Neville know that sixteen years later he would own the business that helped cement his love for flyfishing.

800ish square feet of retail in a ‘what do you want to catch today’ neighborhood.

While studying abroad in college, Neville met a student named Erik Huber, who Neville jokingly called “the puppet master of my life.” (Neville would go on to marry a woman he met at Huber’s wedding.) Huber had landed a gig as a fishing guide for the coming season at Hayward FFC. The pair became tight fishing buddies. Following graduation, Neville worked at Best Buy corporate in sustainability, “and I just hated it. Erik was in my ear the whole time, ‘Stu, come guide. Stu, come guide.’ Eventually I decided that was a move worth making.”

By the spring of 2013 Neville had bought a drift boat and all the gear needed to guide, but that was only part of the equation. “One of the most daunting pieces of getting into guiding up here specifically is there’s just so much water. And that’s a good problem to have,” admits Neville. “But trying to learn all of it and learn it in such a way that you can actually professionally take people down it. Man, that’s a big chunk to bite off.” When Neville wasn’t guiding that summer, he was rowing friends and family for free, putting in the reps to learn the water. “The only reason I made it through my first season guiding up here is because I wasn’t paying rent. I was living at the family place. Uh, I didn’t get a lot of trips…” 

The newly renovated garden & pergola for post-float refreshments and spreading the good news.

By 2016 Neville was a fulltime resident of Hayward, coaching the local high school basketball team in the winters. But an old injury from his college basketball days made it clear that his days of guiding fulltime were limited. “So I thought, well, I really love this, and my heart is here in Hayward. I love this place. How can I make this the place and the thing for me long-term?” Soon after moving to town Neville floated the idea of successorship to the owners, Mann and Williamson, who were reaching retirement age. Over the next five years the idea became a plan before finally, in April of 2021, it morphed into a deed of sale. 

Hayward FFC’s high season runs from the middle of May through October, with the shop open seven days a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The shop has always been small, hovering just above 800 square feet, but a recent remodel makes more efficient use of the space, carrying products that cater to, not only the bass and musky they guide for, but the myriad other species in the area. Half the fly bins are devoted to trout flies while oversized streamers hang from chains strewn overhead. “I pride the shop on service because these days you can jump on your computer and buy whatever you want in terms of fly fishing,” acknowledged Neville. “What’s going to give your customer a reason to come to you? You have to provide them with knowledge and service.” And they do just that. There’s enough water in the area that shop employees can recommend any number of access points to visiting anglers without giving away any secrets.

Visiting anglers who rent the apartment above the shop can enjoy coffee on the porch overlooking Hayward.

Neville has also refinished the two-bedroom apartment above the shop which he rents out to clients. Just this summer they turned the adjacent garden into a space where local and visiting anglers alike can relax with a beer after a day on the water.

 “The hope is to have that now available and better suited to product demo days and customer appreciation,” says Neville. As a former board member of the Wild Rivers Conservancy, he also wants local environmental non-profits to be able to use the outdoor space during festivals, where they can spread their message to the community.

A final goal of Neville’s is to make flyfishing less intimidating. “It’s a big part of our mission to make it accessible to people who are getting started, who are curious about it, but feel a little bit put off by the perceived unapproachable nature of the sport. If you greet people with a smile and tell them they’re welcome when they walk into the shop, that goes a long way.”

He’s also excited to get his daughter, who is now ten months old, out on the water. “Maybe she’ll like it, maybe she won’t. But she’s gonna have every chance in the world to give it a shot.” 

You can visit Hayward Fly Fishing Company at their retail location in the Northwoods of Wisconsin or online at haywardflyfishingcompany.com.