Rick Whorwood - Stoney Creek, Ontario
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| Rick
Whorwood & GPS |
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Stoney Creek
is a long way from the tarpon flats of Florida, but don’t
be surprised to hear Sunshine State anglers singing the praises
of pro fly tier Rick Whorwood. Although he’s more recognized
for his outstanding classic salmon flies, Whorwood, 48, has
recently been tackling saltwater flies, and one of his original
patterns, the GPS, has accounted for a score of 100-pound-plus
Florida tarpon. In a fly-tying career spanning 25 years so far,
Whorwood has been profiled, fêted, hired, awarded and
showcased numerous times in both Canada and the U.S. The honour
he’s particularly proud of, though, is the Jack Sutton
Fly-Tier of the Year Award, presented last year by the Izaak
Walton Fly Fishing Club. Of course, tarpon aren’t the only
saltwater gamefish to have been seduced by Whorwood’s flies:
coho, stripers, false albacore and barracuda, among others,
have also found them irresistible. In the ever-expanding world
of fly fishing, Whorwood is proving himself to be one of the
industry’s leading innovators.
Brian
Chan - Kamloops, British Columbia
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| Black
with Red Butt |
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Almost as
soon as Brian Chan could hold a rod, his father had him fishing
the waters around Vancouver, and within a few years he was already
tying his first flies: small herring baitfish imitations with
pipe cleaners for bodies and polar bear hair for wings. They
proved successful for immature coho and Chan was hooked. Now
a fisheries biologist with the B.C. government, 48-year-old
Chan makes his home in the B.C. Interior, where he has continued
to find inspiration for new patterns. It was while studying
the food of the area’s world-renowned native ’bows,
for example, that he noticed the trout seemed to favour chironomid
pupae with red- or maroon-coloured rear ends. Enter Chan’s
Red Butt series of trout flies, one of which—the Black
with Red Butt—is now a standard pupal pattern in many western
North American stillwaters. Still more of Chan’s flies
have been showcased in numerous publications, including two
books he co-authored. So what are his favourite flies to tie
and fish? “Usually chironomids,” he says, “but
certainly whatever the trout are taking.” It’s hard
to argue with that.
Ruth
J. Zinck - Calgary, Alberta
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| B&B
Zinck Mink |
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Although
she started fishing at the age of three, it wasn’t until
she was 42 that Ruth J. Zinck threaded her first bobbin. Since
then she’s received considerable recognition for her tying
skills, including 13 consecutive invitations to tie at the annual
FFF Conclave. Zinck, now 73, is also the first woman ever to
win the John Riezebos Memorial Senior Fly Tying Trophy, presented
in 1984 by Calgary’s Hook and Hackle Club, and in 1998
the FFF’s Rocky Mountain Council named her Fly Tier of
the Year. One of her most successful patterns has been the Zinck
Mink nymph, which she modified a few years ago by adding a bead
head and a peacock-sword beard. The resulting B&B Zinck
Mink quickly outperformed its ancestors. Nonetheless, Zinck
considers her Royal Lady series of six flies her finest contribution
to the sport. Inspired by a stint teaching fly tying to breast
cancer survivors at the Casting for Life Retreat in Alberta,
the flies also appear in the FFF’s Patterns of the Masters
series. Yet another honour for the person often referred to
as “the grande dame of fly fishing and fly tying.”
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