Professional Bio

I’m a professional Fishing Guide based in Stockton, California. I mainly guide in the local area and consider myself an expert on the Lower Mokelumne River below Camanche Dam. I love exploring new areas and am always looking to expand my expertise in other areas. I also guide trips to more remote and exclusive locations based on availability. If you’d like to tour with me, just get in touch. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

 

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Personal Bio

Bill grew up in Lodi and when he was four years-old; his parents built a home on Turner Road across the road from Lodi Lake. By the time he was six years old, he was fascinated with fishing, hunting, and exploring what is known now as the Lodi Lake Wilderness Area.

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Upon graduating from high school and after less than a week at SJ Delta College, he make a life decision, stay and attend business classes or go on the road with a rock band. After eleven years on the road touring as a professional musician including opening for Hank Williams Jr’s Whiskey Bound and Hell Bent Tour, he moved back to Stockton, married Debby and raised two sons Wil and Mike. Bill worked in the Solid Waste Industry since 1986 for Cal-Waste Recovery Systems and retired in April of 2023. Bill has worked as a professional musician since 1972 and performed with several bands and is currently playing with Georgetowne. He has operated a fishing guide business on several Central Valley Rivers since 2005.

 

His passion for pursuing trout started with hooking and landing his first wild rainbow along the on the Dardanelles section of the Stanislaus River. His uncle Merle introduced Bill to fly fishing in my early teens on fishing trips to Nevada and Idaho.

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Bill resides in Stockton, California with his wife Debby. They have been married over forty years and they just finished an eighteen year run with a Bluegrass based band called “Stringin’ Along”. They played throughout the Central Valley and Sierra Foothills and recorded and produced two CD’s of the band’s music.

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Bill started Mokelumne River Outfitters with the idea of guiding and teaching as a part of his retirement package. Sharing his knowledge of fishing the Mokelumne for over fifty years and seeing his clients learn and be successful is one of the most rewarding things he has have learned to do.

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Bill was the recipient of the 2017 Frank Beeler Watershed Stewardship Award for his many years of conservation efforts, organizing river cleanups, and his work that was instrumental in the startup of the Kid’s Don’t Float Program that provides free life vests to the public to use on the Mokelumne River.

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Spend a day on his Mokelumne home water and you will have memories to last a lifetime.