Known to be a hard and reliable worker, early on John worked for the family of Jess Ross at their sawmill near Moose lake and also worked for a logging company operated by Jack Morrison. On October 23, 1928, John married Marie DeMarr and the two operated a store for a few years, just to the west of the West Fork bridge, at new Riverside, a store which was called the Trading Post and later run by Ken and Anne Ackley. At that time, John operated his own sawmill just across the road from his store and employed a number of his relatives to work for him. A kind-hearted John allowed many of them credit and, once they couldn't pay him back, John ended up losing the business. Always possessing a natural love for fishing and the outdoors, John had begun guiding fishermen by this time, vocation which he carried on for the next 42 years and one which had brought him much notoriety. Along the way, John and Marie eventually had 11 children: Delphine, Jerome (who died as an infant), Theresa, Art, Mary Rose, Julie Ann, John E., Eugene, Virgil (James), Agnes, and Floyd. John also had another son, Frank, from a previous relationship before he married. But in addition to his blood family, John began building a loyal guide clientele of repeat customers…some of whom became part of John's extended "family." Although he did some guiding on Grindstone and Lac Courte Oreilles, Fleming's primary fishing grounds were the sprawling waters of the Chippewa Flowage, with the Blueberry Creek area, Sand Island, Pete's Bar, and, of course, Fleming's Bar being but a few of his regular haunts. Old John knew this entire confusing maze of islands, bays, shallow bars, and moving bogs, known as the flowage, well enough that it had become second nature for
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