Published today in Optics Letters is the first demonstration of a gold-nanowire enhanced step-index fiber. In this particular case we show that it can generate TE modes efficiently (we were inspired by some excellent earlier work!), and we even package it all up by splicing it to an FC-connector and connecting it to a commercial light source. We hope this is a first step towards hybrid fibers with sub-wavelength functionality at optical wavelengths which are simple to make and use.