Sid Boyum

FISHING FEVER IS A YEAR-ROUND phenomenon on Wisconsin waters. For serious and amateur anglers alike, the rod-and-reel magic of casting lines into lakes and rivers or dropping lures into ice holes is not simply about the challenge of hooking walleye, bass, trout, pike, or even the mighty muskie. Fishing provides a direct channel to the beauty, rhythm, and mystery of our state’s green spaces and watersheds and to all the other non-finned wildlife that resides therein—from deer to dragon-flies, peepers to pewees, shagbark hickory to skunk cabbage. It’s also just plain fun.

Over his lifetime, Madison-based artist Sid Boyum (1913–1991) created drawings that celebrate the joy of fishing in Wisconsin. His popular Opening Day illustrations, published each spring from 1962 to 1989 in the and , announced the start of fishing season with memorable scenes of big catches and improbable fish tales. The pen-and-ink series stands apart from his other work. Though he is typically remembered His drawings and photography show that prior to becoming an outsider artist, social critic, and sex humorist, he was an artist depicting the natural world in imaginative, alluring ways. His intricate drawings of fantastical fishing scenes are a remarkable expression of Boyum’s piscatorial passion, ranging from the sassy and silly to the sublime.