For professional fly fishing guides working full seasons on Great Lakes rivers
Angling Division invites a limited number of professional guides to participate as observational contributors.
If you guide the same rivers repeatedly across a season, you already see patterns most anglers never do. Angling Division exists to preserve that knowledge in a form that outlasts any single year, hatch, or client cycle.
This is not about tips, spots, or performance metrics.
It is about documenting how a river actually behaved across a full season.
As a guide, you operate at the intersection of repetition, timing, and environmental response.
You see:
When fish shift before conditions visibly change
How pressure accumulates differently across reaches
How insects, flows, and temperature interact over weeks rather than days
How “normal” years quietly differ from one another
Angling Division gives that accumulated experience a place to live.
Your individual entries are not published as guide advice. They are aggregated, interpreted, and folded into a regional seasonal record.
The value is preservation and context.
Why Guides Participate
Guides submit structured observations throughout the season using a fixed schema.
Entries typically include:
Species encountered (caught or not)
General reach context (never spot-level)
Timing and conditions
Broad behavioral or environmental notes
There is no storytelling requirement.
There is no expectation of completeness on any given day.
Consistency across time matters more than detail in any single entry.
What You Contribute
Participating guides receive:
The printed River Ledger at season’s end
A watershed-scale view of how the season unfolded beyond your home water
Longitudinal context as successive years accumulate
Recognition within Angling Division’s internal archive record
The Ledger is a tool for reflection, calibration, and long-term understanding, not marketing.
What You Receive
Angling Division does not publish:
Precise locations
Access instructions
Client-derived intelligence
Competitive advantages
Participation does not replace your professional judgment or obligations.
All observations are synthesized at a scale that protects waters, clients, and contributors.
Boundaries & Ethics
Eligibility
This program is intended for guides who:
Operate primarily within the Great Lakes watershed
Fish the same river systems across full seasons
Value long-term understanding over short-term leverage
Participation is limited and reviewed.
Seasonal Commitment
Guide participation is priced to respect professional time and sustained engagement across a season.
The cost supports the infrastructure required to preserve guide-level observation without extracting, repackaging, or commercializing it.
This is not a marketing expense, it is a contribution to a record that outlasts any single season or client list.
Trade Memberships
Working guides and independent professional guides receive the River Ledger at season's end, professional recognition as a contributor, the ability to submit structured observations, and eligibility for shop sponsorship listing. The Ledger gives guides a watershed-scale view of how the season unfolded beyond your home water, giving you unique perspectives on what is happening across the region. The Ledger is a tool for reflection, calibration, and long-term understanding, not marketing.
Career guides receive everything the working guides receive, plus a highlighted guide profile (non-promotional), priority visibility in River Ledger context, first access to methodological updates. The Ledger gives guides a watershed-scale view of how the season unfolded beyond your home water, giving you unique perspectives on what is happening across the region. Fly shop sponsorship can cover this tier.
Express Interest
If you believe your practice aligns with this work, you can request participation details below.
© 2026, Ryan Dewey. All rights reserved.