It’s all here in painstaking detail—
the scrappy beginnings of big-name anglers like Al Lindner, Gary Roach, and Marv Koep; the competition and camaraderie of men who devoted their lives to fishing and the birth of freshwater angling as we know it today. The fishing stories are lots of fun, but when you put down Legends & Legacies, you’ll marvel at how a group of hard-driving, creative fishermen, and a roadside bait-store owner used their good luck—and uncanny abilities to catch fish—to change a sport forever.

—Chris Niskanen
Outdoors Editor, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Legends & Legacies—A History of the Nisswa Guides’ League captures the stories of league members past and present, a number now totaling more than forty. The league’s legacy is firmly and deeply imprinted into this area’s history. To not acknowledge and record this bit of vital area history would have been a travesty.

—Steve Pennaz
Host, Lake Commandos Fishing TV

As I reflect back, the advent of the Nisswa Guides’ League was like a bobber
going down. It was a silent signal that Minnesota’s historic mom-andpop
fishing business was evolving into a stable of celebrity guides who
angled for dollars with passion, biology, and high-tech fishing gizmoes.
Author Ray Gildow has nicely chronicled this fishing evolution with
the perfect title. Indeed, the Nisswa guides and their catches resulted in
Legends and Legacies. I know because I was there.

—Ron Schara
Author of Minnesota Fishing Guide and
host of the Minnesota Bound television show

Gildow Guide Service Information