Tom Helgeson's death leaves a vast conservation void in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest.
The onetime Minneapolis Star deputy managing editor who died Friday at age 71 from complications of lung cancer once told me he got out of the newspaper business years ago because it became "too big and corporate" for his taste.
A kind man of broad interests, Tom, for many fly anglers, was the face of their sport in this part of the country. He owned a Minneapolis fly shop (Bright Waters) at one time, and struggled with it, but kept moving upstream and down, around river bend after river bend, as it were, before combining his interests in writing and publishing with fly fishing and, importantly, clean water conservation.
He believed so much in clean water that when he established his first Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo, he vowed that seminars on casting and travel and entomology would not outnumber those on conservation. Frequently, his show offered field trips to area streams to see showpiece habitat projects.
He loved to fish. And to teach about fish and fishing. For many years he traveled to the Missouri River in Montana with a group of anglers who not only valued the opportunity to learn about fly fishing, and to see new places and especially new waters, but valued also the opportunity to spend time with someone whose undivided attention was theirs.
Similarly, Tom's annual October trips to Kodiak Island in Alaska for steelhead and silvers became pilgrimages of renewal for him and his friends.
He was, in sum, a very good guy who gave more than he took.
Below is a question and answer interview did with him that was published in the Star Tribune in 2006 on the eve of the third running in the Twin Cities of his Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo.
Q: What's new and different at the Fly Fishing Expo this year?
A: We're expanding the conservation concept this year. Will
Steger will speak on global warming and his experiences from his
most recent Arctic trip. We're also going to have a field trip to
the Vermilion River at 7:30 Saturday morning. We had room for 42
people and the trip is filled, with 20 on a waiting list. At the
river, the DNR will give a presentation about why the Vermilion is
so special and why it's important to save it. We'll also have a
mini-fly fishing clinic there.
.
Q This is your third expo. What was your original vision for the
show?
A: I wanted to create a gathering place for fly fishers in the
Midwest. I also wanted a show that would be committed to
conservation and the need for good stewardship on our streams. That
was the dream. I got a lot of good help from the conservation
groups and the DNR. And I think the show has helped make that
connection between fishing and the need to conserve the rivers.
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Q: Is fly fishing growing as a sport?
A: Nationally, it's fairly static. But there's a whole new
generation of people coming into the sport. They're interested in
fly fishing as a traditional means to fish trout. But they're also
interested in warm water species such as smallmouth bass, northern
pike and other fish. Our expo reflects that interest and growth in
the sport and new opportunities in fly fishing. The Midwest is an
amazing resource for fly fishing because we have so many species
here to fish. More, really, than any other place in the world.
.
Q: Women are also coming into the sport.
A: Yes, and we'll have two women in fly fishing workshops. Women
will be teaching other women how to get into fly fishing, and I
think that's very exciting. Diana Rudolph, a Florida Keys guide,
will be on hand to teach women about fly fishing, as well as to
make general presentations at the expo.
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Q: Minnesota's own Larry Dahlberg will also be at the expo.
A: He's probably the best known of our celebrity presenters.
He'll be talking about techniques he's learned while fishing around
the world - techniques that in some cases originated in spin
fishing and bait casting, but can be applied to flying fishing.
.
Q: Your magazine, Midwest Fly Fishing, has grown in its 11 or so
years of publication and now is distributed in 14 states.
A: The magazine really took off when we started the Expo three
years ago. They kind of feed off each other. We write about people,
about techniques and, importantly, conservation in every issue.
.
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