At some point over the last quarter of a century my path and their paths have crossed, and I have been the better for it. At the end of the Kasting for Kids event I am sure you will be too.

When I asked each of them to put together a short introductory blurb for this website, I wanted them to put down a few personal details so you would get to know them. I did not want a chronological and historically accurate shopping list of all the places they have fished, nor did I want a blow-by-blow description of all the big fish they have caught. Their angling skills - and their ability to teach - are above reproach. I wanted a quick insight into their personal life and I wanted to know what brought them to the sport of fly fishing. I think that has been accomplished.

These folk are very, very skilled fly fishermen and very skilled instructors. When you get to meet them, and spend some time with them, you will be amazed at how much fish-catching information they will share with you. Above all, I am chuffed to bits to call each one of them a friend and I suspect that by the end of the Kasting for Kids event you will too.

Warmest regards
Ian Colin James
Franklin Club Pro

Ron Marini
I learned to fly fish when I was in my teens on the Credit River near Bellfountain. Now, some 40 years on I still love it. My teacher was an old Scottish chap who would not mess about with fancy leaders nor pretty looking fishing flies. The flies had to be quick to tie and they had to produce fish. He taught me the way to catch fish was to "fish hard" and to concentrate on what was going on once you put the fly out into the river. That said, I get just as much enjoyment out of sitting on the bank watching the day roll past as I do hooking fish. My great love in fly fishing is the Coal Tar Classic, an event I put together as a fundraise for a local charity here in Hamilton. I think my second love would be sitting down with the good folk in the Hamilton Area Fly Fishers a fantastic group of fly fishermen who have never lost their ability to see that at the end of the day, it's just fishing.

William Gerrard
William Gerrard has been fly fishing for about twenty five years, but he is best known for the passion he brings to the other side of fly fishing: fly tying. Over the years, he has taught people of all ages how to master the art of tying flies. William regularly enjoys fly fishing for trout and bass in Ontario, but has also travelled to Alberta, New Brunswick, Quebec, Scotland, Ireland, England, eastern US and Cuba in pursuit of fly fishing opportunities there. Since 2002 he's been the Director of the annual Winter Hatches Fly Tying Symposium, which is now considered to be one of the premier fly tying events in North America. In 1999, William was manager of the Fly Fishing Canada Youth Team at the International Fly Fishing Tournament in Ireland.

Brad Baker
I started started flyfishing in 1991, and since then my "instant addiction" to the sport has taken me off to pursue both saltwater and freshwater fish with my flyrod. It's a good job I have recently retired from my veterinary practice, or I dare say I could have gone into receivership it due to my many fishing trips. I have fished for bones, tarpon, jacks, barracuda, false albacore, redfish and snapper in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Belize, Mexico and South Carolina, plus a few other places I have forgotten about.
I have enjoyed fresh water fishing in a variety of venues - mainly for brown trout, steelhead and Atlantic salmon - but I am just as happy fishing at a small club near my home community of Oshawa. I have had the good fortune of fishing with Gordon Michie, one of Scotland's most accomplished flyfisherman, on a number of lochs across Scotland - including The Orkneys and the Outer Hebrides. I was introduced Gordon while I attended a "business meeting" - code for a fishing trip - in Edinburgh, and the most wonderful byproduct of our encounter has been the amazing friendship we have nurtured over the past 18 years both on and off the water.

Borys Chambul
Dr. Borys Chambul began flyfishing 17 years ago after his wife, Trudy presented him with a flycasting lesson with Ian James as a 40th. birthday present. Initially, she regretted that day, but over the next several years, has grown to accept it as part of a 29 year marriage packaged deal! When not flyfishing 'at least' one day per week during the season, Dr. Borys, as his patients refer to him, can be found helping people with chronic musculoskeletal pain, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, and sports/recreational injuries,(including flyfishing), while educating his patients on how to become and stay well.
Dr. Chambul's past athletic background has helped him understand and deal successfully with people's health issues. He has participated on two Olympic Teams,('76 and '80), won the gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, set Canadian/Commonwealth and NCAA records in the discus throw and still holds the University Of Washington record since 1976.When meeting Dr. Chambul, you will find him serious about helping people, passionate about flyfishing, but very far from taking himself and Ian very seriously!...Unless, of course when Ian talks about the sport of flyfishing!

Tate Lincoln
For me, fly fishing is just another reason to do one of the things in life that I've always loved to do. That is to spend time outdoors. However, the last 10 years or so I've been spending most of my time outdoors wading in a river. The addiction to fly fishing started while camping with my good friend Ian Troup in Fergus' Elora gorge. I met up with Ian and a mutual friend just as they were wrapping up the day of a fishless afternoon. I asked Ian if he wouldn't mine taking me out to the river that was just a stone's throw away from our camp. He thankfully obliged. I remember to this day that within 15 minutes he got me hooked into my first brown trout on a size 14 pheasant tail and shortly after that, I hooked into my second brown trout. It was a great feeling and I knew from that moment that this sport was something that I could not wait to learn more about. Since then, it is quite apparent that the more you know about fly fishing the more there is to know...which seems to be an endless pursuit.
Even though I've been a competitor in the Coal Tar Classic down in Hamilton, and 2008's National Fly Fishing Championship in Quebec, I know that I can make a 1,000 casts on any given day and on any given river, and if I only hook up with either a tree branch or a weed I know that I still would have had a great day of fishing.

Brenda Aherne
I took up fly fishing about 12 years ago, but it became an instant addiction for me. At first light I just love standing in the river listening to the herons squawking at each other, or watching an osprey crash into the water in pursuit of a fish. Although I am often referred to as Big Fish Brenda, it's not about catching fish for me, it's more about just being out there on the river. That said, I do have a knack for hooking big fish and I put that down to being very quite and very relaxed on the river. I am a fan of fishing dry flies as I like to watch the fish thump the fly as it drifts along. One of the greatest thrills for me was teaching my two daughters how to fish, and then watching them pass it onto their friends. I think the highlights of my fly fishing career were fishing at the National Championships and then two or three years ago having the National Post write a full page story on my fly fishing exploits. My kids loved it! I love fishing in Ireland and I tried it in France but I have to say I was not impressed in the slightest, although, somewhat surprisingly, they serve a good cup of coffee in Paris.

Steve "Epoxy" Hunt
I began fly fishing and fly tying at the age of 12 or close to it. I taught myself both casting and tying by reading everything I could get my hands on, then some 24 years later I took casting lessons and tying lessons. Most of my early fishing was for smallmouth bass in the Saugeen watershed near the family farm, where I quickly learned that simple fly patterns produced just as many fish as complex fly patterns. I also discovered the benefits of using epoxy in constructing both effective and durable flies.
When I have the time, I enjoy fishing the Great Lakes piers for steelhead, brown trout, pike, salmon, carp, smallmouth bass and anything else that happens to be swimming past. When fishing off the breakwalls, you never know what you are going to hook into so it's quite the challenge. My other passion is kayaking while fly fishing, it's tricky, but a whack of fun.
I have assisted Ian James in the Intro Fly Tying Course at the Izaak Walton Forum for the last few years and helped him many times when he has putting on fly fishing and fly casting lessons. In 2008 an original fly I created - the Bob Marley - appeared in The Canadian Fly Fisher magazine and it's comforting to know that anglers across Canada are catching fish on a pattern I designed in Burlington. I was a marshall at the inaugural Coal Tar Classic in Hamilton, Ont., and participated in the second CTC capturing the gold medal, which to date is the highlight of my fly fishing career.

Dave Forgeron
As early as I can remember my family and I would make the annual summer vacation trek down home to West Arichat, a village on Isle Madame off the coast of Cape Breton. This is the village were my father was born and until just recently, the homestead was still in the family. My earliest fishing memories were onboard the boat of our nearest neighbour, Paul Paun. He was easily in his seventies, and when the weather allowed, fished in his old wooden Cape Islander. A last of its kind, his boat was completely open and driven by a single cylinder gas engine which was referred to as a puka puka because of the distinctive sound it made as it chugged along.
When I can, I now spend my time chasing the steelhead, salmon and brown trout along the edges of Lake Ontario with streamer flies. It's hardly the same as being out in the Cape Islander, but after 15 years of fly fishing the thrill of hooking a big fish never changes.

Sheryl Breadner
I can't remember when I first thought of taking up fly fishing. What I can remember is that about 10 years ago I took a few lessons from Ian James - long before he was the "Club Pro" at the Franklin Club - on the Grand River. James put me on the fly fishing straight and narrow by showing me that it's not necessarily the fly, but the way that you fish the fly which produces strikes. I mostly fish the Grand River, but I do chase smallmouth bass and pike up at my cottage when I have the time. I am a dedicated streamer fisherman as streamers tend to produce bigger fish, and more fish, than say fishing a dry fly on the surface. Yuck! Fishing streamers also worked for me in Montana, and it was particularly nice to see as my guide was getting skunked fishing dries. I can't remember how many folk I have shown how to cast a fly, but it's always fun every time I do it.

Ray and Niko Macoritti
Ray and Niko Macoritt are a highly competitive, and enthusiast, father and son fishing duo. Ray has been fishing since he was old enough to hold a fishing rod, and he passed on the fishing fever to his son Niko, before the poor boy could speak. The boys have honed their traditional fishing skills using spinning and bait casting techniques and then progressed to the art of fly-fishing. They have fished in Muskoka, Lake Simcoe, Rice Lake, Niagara River, Credit River, The Grand River, Bay of Quinte and even the Caribbean Sea. They have caught small and large mouth bass, walleye, giant perch, brown trout, pike, crappie and bone fish. Niko's very first pike was caught at the tender age of 5!
In 2002, Ray and Niko joined The Franklin Fishing Club and they have become avid fly fishermen catching lots and lots of rainbow trout and speckled trout. Niko started fly-fishing at the age of 7 and his smooth casting technique has put many Franklin members to shame! After three years of fly tying lessons at the club, both Ray and Niko have become adept at tying their own flies using a variety of materials including their secret weapon; cat fur dubbing! The boys have taken several lessons with top Canadian fly fisherman Ian James. Niko hopes to continue gleaning knowledge from the Scottish Master in the future.
Over the years the boys have won several fishing trophies from various bass and trout tournaments. Niko has won the Mckay Lake Fishing Derby and the Franklin Kids Fishing Derby, while Ray is the 2009 Franklin Lake Derby champion. When father and son are not fishing, they are watching The World Fishing Network, reading fishing magazines or shopping at Bass Pro Shops. The madness never ends!

Heather Ward
My dad is a fly fishing fanatic. Eventually he got me into the sport ... and I loved it. I don't know when I started fly fishing, but I do know that what started out as an innocent and inquous exercise in catching a few fish off the cottage dock in Muskoka has now developed into a full-blown addiction for me. There is a yearly saltwater fly fishing trip to Florida, the fall pilgrimage to Alberta for a drift down the Bow River - awesome - and more evenings fishing on the Credit River than I care to count. Over the years I have developed a bit of a reputation for being able to catch "picky" trout, the fish everyone has cast over but which refuses to take the fly. I don't honestly know why I am so lucky at catching these fish, but I always put it down to my dads teachings ... well I do when he is around. Thanks dad!

Stephan Eszes
Stephan Eszes has been fly fishing and fly tying for 37 years, after being introduced to the sport by an uncle. He was taught to tie flies by an elderly Scotsman in the mid 70's, and has tied all of his own flies since then. He lives near the Grand River with his wife and sons, and has hundreds of outings to that area under his belt. Stephan also chases carp, bass, pike, gar and salmon, in both still and moving waters. Stephan has fished all over the province, but his true passion is to chase speckled trout in the rivers and creeks of Grey County. Stephan works rotating shifts, and uses his frequent days off during the week to escape from town and spend time on the rivers with no one else around. Stephan enjoys teaching others to flyfish, and when the conditions are poor he can be found at home restoring old vehicles. The highlight of his fly fishing career is that he once landed two carp plus a female mallard duck all on the same cast, and in the process he discovered that ducks are particularly trick to get into a landing net.

Ian Troup
Ian Troup has been fishing for almost 30 years and Fly Fishing for close to 20 of them. Ian helped coach the first all woman team to compete in the 2007 Canadian National Championships and was a competitor in the 2008 National Championships in Quebec. Ian is always looking to improve his skills and has had the benefit of learning from some of the best anglers in Canada, USA, Austria and Australia. Ian spends most of his time fishing the rivers Thames, Maitland, Saugeen and Grand.
Ian is a certified FFF fly casting instructor and part-time fishing guide based out of London, Ontario.

Gary Allen
I started fly fishing about 15 years ago trolling a Black Ghost streamer behind my canoe for brook trout in Algonquin Park, and since then I have never looked back. I am just as happy fishing for Chinook salmon on the Credit River, as I am fishing for Atlantic salmon on the Miramichi or saltwater fishing in the Bahamas. Covering all the waters I love to fish, for me an ideal year would be something like starting out on Spring Creek and then progressing through Cold Creek, the Credit River, the Grand River, the Beaverkill, the Restigouche, Grand Cascapedia, the Madison, Gallatin, the Bow River and ending on the Dean River. When I am not fly fishing I spend time with Buster my German wire-haired pointer which I use for hunting pheasants at the Goodwood Club or I can be found racing horses-trotters and pacers at both Woodbine and Mohawk. In the summer I race my vintage Porsche and in the winter I like to put my Neon ice-racer through its paces. All in all, I lead a quiet life.