Silvia D'Amelio - Pro Staff Silvia D’Amelio is the Ontario Biologist for Trout Unlimited Canada where she works with provincial chapters in rehabilitating and conserving their local waters.

She spends much of her work and personal time studying our watersheds to better understand our fish populations and their ecosystems.

Silvia has been fishing for over twenty years and is known for designing and testing new fly patterns that work. She shares her knowledge of aquatic biology to help new anglers become effective in the sport, has been a featured tier at many events including the Izaak Walton Forum, Winter Hatches and has taught various fly patterns for many clubs in southern Ontario.

Roy De Giusti - Pro Staff having fished for a variety of species in numerous locales, Roy has settled on one fish - the Brown Trout and one river - The Credit.

He has perfected his skills for more than three decades on the Credit River. When he's not dying material for specific fly patterns, he may be found fine-tuning a bamboo rod of his own creation.

Roy's patterns have been included in various magazines and books. He is well known for his realistic patterns that could fool humans as well as trout.

Larry Halyk - Pro Staff Prior to his current Stewardship Coordinator position, Larry Halyk was the MNR biologist responsible for the introduction of brown trout to the Grand River tail water. As the senior management biologist for the MNR Lake Erie Unit, he chaired an international panel of fisheries managers developing a management policy for Lake Erie steelhead.

Larry has seen a lot of changes in the Ontario steelhead fishery in his 35 years of experience as a fly fisher and Steelheader. His technical advice has been sought after and acknowledged by the authors of several books on steelhead fly fishing, including John Nagy, Bob Linsenman, Matt Supinski and the Kustich brothers. For the last 10-15 years, Larry has been one of the Great Lakes steelheading pioneers leading the movement away from “chuck and duck” and bobber techniques to the swinging fly and two-handed rod.

Josh Jagelewski - Pro Staff Josh has been fly fishing for 14 years and has traveled and fished on both Canadian coasts, Ontario, and neighbouring states. He grew up fishing the Saugeen River and its many headwater tributaries. With a passion for migratory species, steelhead and Atlantic salmon, Josh still has a soft spot for local inland trout. He is patient, detailed oriented, and soft spoken always willing to help others in their pursuit of fly fishing and its many aspects.

He received his BES (bachelor of environmental studies) at Waterloo and has a diploma in natural resources law from Sir Sanford Fleming. Previous work experience in the fisheries field and with government agencies has given Josh an understanding of many important fisheries and environmental issues.

Tom Karrow - Pro Staff was introduced to fly-fishing by his grandfather over twenty years ago on tributaries of the Beatty Saugeen. While at home he has focused on fly-fishing for Bass and Pike but his passion lies in chasing salt-water species across the canals, shores and skinny water of Florida in his Maverick flats boat.

Though he now teaches Science, Technology, History and Geography Tom spent over a decade working in the outdoor retail industry and six years managing one of the few fly shops in Ontario. He is an accomplished fly tier, known for his meticulously designed flies that imitate every large food item a toothy fish would want to eat.

Aaron Todd - Pro Staff has been fishing for 30 years and fly fishing for the last seven years. He works for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment where he manages the province’s stream water quality monitoring program.

Aaron is also active in local conservation initiatives including the Speed Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Aaron fished competitively in bass tournaments for a few years but is now fly fishing almost exclusively. In the last few years Aaron has fished in some interesting places including Tanzania and Newfoundland – where he caught his first Atlantic salmon on the fly. But most of the time he can be found closer to home stalking big browns in the Grand River (often at night) or chasing steelhead in Lake Huron tributaries.

Arron Varga - Pro Staff has been fishing for 35 years and fly fishing for about 20 of those years. Since 2006 when the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships where held on the Grand River, he has been competing in the FFC Canadian National Fly Fishing Championships. As part of his competitive fly fishing he has become adept at many competitive techniques including Czech nymphing, French nymphing and loch style stillwater fishing.
Arron spends most of his time fishing the Grand River and Conestogo River with a few trips a year to the Credit and Saugeen Rivers. With his competitive angling, Arron has been fortunate to travel and fish across most Canada.
On the river or in the store, he is always ready to share his knowledge and open his fly box with other anglers and has recently started teaching learn to fly fish and czech nymphing courses thru the store.
Arron has competed as part of the Canadian National team at:
2008 Commonwealth Championships in New Zealand where the Canadian team came 5th
2009 Commonwealth Championships in Scotland where the Canadian team came 4th
2010 Qualified for the Worlds and Commonwealth teams

"The best part about fly fishing is that you never stop learning or developing your skills."