him to navigate its wilds, even after dark. It was said that a doctor once hired John to guide him to every nook and cranny on the flowage which was likely to hold a musky and it took the men two or three months just to begin to cover it. Guiding out of Billy DeBrot's Indian Post Resort and Chris Lee's (later Kelly's and then Herman's Landing), Fleming built up a roster of steady clients over the years, of whom two of his favorites were Bill and Katherine Moretti. The Moretti's used to stay on Moose lake, until they heard a number of glowing reports on the Chippewa Flowage's top guide-John Fleming. John's daughter Delphine was only 12 years old and waiting tables at Kelly's Landing when, during the summer of 1941, she remembered her father guiding the Morettis one day and they weren't out very long when they came back in with a huge musky. Nearly a world’s record, John's fish was the biggest musky ever taken out of the flowage at the time. This 56" class fish was said to have weighed 52#, according to Bruce Tasker. (Tasker, who would begin his own guide career a few years later, was given Fleming's guide boat to use at Herman's, old boat no.23, whenever John wasn't using it.) When John first started guiding out of Lee's, fishermen were still rowing their boats to get out to their fishing grounds. Silk fishing line and direct drive reels were being used back then. John once guided his friend, Gerald Thalacker Sr., to two big muskies in one day, which that early equipment ended up bloodying his knuckles up pretty good. Like all the guides of his day, John prepared shore lunches for his clients, today largely a forgotten pleasure in this more fast-paced world. Fleming was a quiet kind
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