WISCONSIN – With the ice fishing season already gearing up, Wisconsin anglers have a new online source to find fishing guides, bait shops and lodging.
Kevin Frontz and Dustin Amenda created the online MaxWells Fishing Directory to help others looking to book their own fishing trips, find their much needed fishing gear and get in touch with some of the great small businesses across the state.
They’ve been building listings now for 10 months for the three categories on the site: Resorts & Lodges, Guides, and Bait Shops.
As they developed the site and talked to the different business owners around the state, they have gathered great feedback and a welcoming community.
“Our focus is simple, we want Maxwells to be a free directory, both for listings and usage,” Frontz said.
MaxWells Group, just as many other outdoor teams came to be, was created through a lifelong friendship and eagerness to get out fishing.
Frontz and Amenda grew up in Belmont, in southwestern Wisconsin and through the years, fishing became part of their lives with family and friends.
Whether on family trips to the Northwoods or the rivers and streams near home, fishing is what they loved to do.
“As we’ve gotten older, our families have grown and friends have moved away, but the desire to fish with buddies remains,” Frontz said. “As with many, a fishing trip is planned each year, for us it is to a new location to learn, explore, and meet some new people.”
“When that time comes and the pursuit of the perfect place approaches us, we start the search. After hours of research, calls, and texts a choice is made and the trip is booked,” Frontz said.
But 2021 was a little different, during a call discussing the trip, they thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if there was a website that had all of this available?” And MaxWells Group was born.
Frontz says MaxWells Group represents their friendship, passion for fishing, and most importantly each of our sons, Max and Wells.
They say they’d like to see the page grow to provide as much value to anglers as possible, support the businesses listed, and see where the road takes us.
“The site will remain fully free for users and listings because it is a fun hobby for both of us, and we feel it brings real value,” Frontz said. “We’ll eventually see what opportunities or interests there are for preferred advertising, partnerships, products or other options in related fields/industry as we build relationships from the work we;ve put in.”
Using the Resource
Whether you’re on a phone, laptop or desktop, we’ve tried to build Maxwells to be a simple process. Many sites have levels and levels of pages, when all you want to know are the hours, directions, phone number or get to a post you know someone shared.
How to navigate the site:
- Go to maxwellsgroup.com, and sign up in the window to get the latest info or click Join Today on the homepage. This will be hook you up for any future listings and info.
- To Use, if you know exactly who you are looking for, enter the name in the ‘What’ search field and hit enter. This will filter based on your entry.
- Want to search an area or roam through an entire category? Scroll down to the Category buttons and select what you are looking for: Resorts & Lodges, Guides, Bait Shops. Click in and start roaming.
- When in a Category, view the listings by location or use the map view to hone in on a specific area and see the listings available. This can be a great tool for traveling to a new area and seeing what they have to offer or reaching out to a local bait shop in the area.
- Each page holds 25 listings, so be sure to page through to see them all, the listings are randomly shown in the list.
- Once you’ve found the listing you want, click the title or image. Within you’ll find:
- “Get Directions” to head to their place
- Call them by clicking the number
- Click ‘Expand’ and see the hours by day
- Visit their social media or websites by clicking the links on the page
- Read about the business, see their photos, and the services they provide
- At any time, click a Maxwells logo and head back to the home page or use the three lines to drop down the menu.
If you don’t see what you’re looking for or…..
- If you know of a business not listed or you are an owner? Click ‘Add Listing’ on the top right on the Home Page and add the details. We will curate the material and set up the listing. We will be in touch for any additional details to make it the best it can be.
- Also on the site, you can find our other pages, including the About Us section, telling a bit about us and our page.
- Visit our Facebook page by clicking the logo
- Go to Contact Us if you want to share your content, ask us questions, or share your experiences.
- Read through our prior Lodge Talks which shares content from across the state of Wisconsin.
- Make a tribute to the person who introduced you to the Outdoors.
Making a Tribute
They’ve also added a Tributary Page to those who would like to recognize their life long mentors.
A tributary, as all anglers know, is a river or stream that flows into a larger river or lake. Without it, many of the waters we fish would dry up or not have been created at all.
But, it also means to pay acknowledgement to a powerful person, and this may be as valuable as the flowing water itself.
“We all have someone in our life who helped us become the Angler we are today, have you paid tribute to them?” Frontz said.
We can always be reached anytime, either through our website, email at info@maxwellsgroup.com, or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Maxwells.fishfinder
