In 2007, the team of five that made up Team Osprey in The Canadian Fly Fishing Championships had a great time together. Perhaps finishing 7th overall was a bit disappointing for some of us, but overall, it was a tremendous time and I personally will have very fond memories of not only the event, but making new friendships and deepening existing ones.

Not only do I owe thanks to each of the individual members - and all of our team owes our Captain Ernie Kalwa enormous amounts of appreciation for the work, time and personal expense he undertook on his own in order to ensure that not only would we all do as well as we would, but enjoy it too.

There are some others that deserve huge thanks too:

First, recognition needs to go to Tim Rajeff of Rajeff Sports. Through our team's association with Neil Houlding, Rajeff Sports provided all of the Team Osprey members with incredible discounts on Airflow Sixth Sense and Ridge lines. For stillwater and competition fly angling involving lake style fly fishing, the Sixth Sense lines including slow glass, fast glass, DI-3, DI-5 and DI-7 that we used were all found to be superiour to others that we had owned and tried previously. For me personally, these lines matched up perfectly well with my Greys Greyflex M2 rod and the my Meiser System 2 rod (which sadly did not arrive until after the competition)..

I was also impressed with the leader systems from Airflow which included some fast, intermediate, and slow sinking at both 5 and 10 foot lengths that we were able to acquire from Rajeff Sports. Our team proudly wore Airflow hats in thanks to Rajeff Sports for their incredible co-operation and assistance.

I mentioned the association with Neil Houlding above. It wasn't just Neil's association with Rajeff Sports that was helpful to Team Osprey - his help, advise and coaching with some of us that had seldom ever done any sort of lake style fly fishing and his attention to helping us get better and not only casting with long rods and heavy lines but his help in offering advice on organization and strategies was a real confidence booster to this "motley crew" of anglers. Neil has a great sense of humour to go along with his coaching and teaching methods - and it was his assistance that ensured that I only hooked one angler's shirt when the breeze changed direction while sitting on the left hand side of the boat during the compeition.

Ray Collesso, owner of The First Cast shop in Guelph assisted our team in providing excellent deals on the perfect fly boxes we'd use and then exchange with each other after our venues. One of the things that kept us organized was having "team flies" for each venue in separate fly boxes, and the ability to communicate to team members what flies and combinations of flies that had worked during the previous session to the next team member fishing that venue. Ray's assistance was very valuable to us!

On a personal note, I have some others to thank as well:

First, although Ian James had been hired by another team to coach them, Ian has been a friend of mine for over two decades. Ian was very professional in the way he handled his professional and personal obligations. Because he had been hired to provide professional services elsewhere, he was obliged not to assist me in professional ways - but he often did provide me with moral support and encouragment througout my own planning sessions in trying to prepare for a style of fly fishing that I have seldom engaged in. I really appreciated that.

Second, my teammates - Ernie, Arron, Ivo and Graham. Not just great guys to fly fish with - but all have become really good friends too. Thanks guys!

Angler's Pro Shop in Orangeville. I was a bit surprised last year to discover a new shop in Orangeville, but have been impressed with their dedication to all anglers - and how fast and how great they are at getting in gear, material, and equipment for fly anglers. Good job! There were a few times I walked in there needing something and they would do what they could to get it for me.

It would be remiss of me to not mention a certain self proclaimed "Fly Fishing Groupie" that kept in touch with me, wished our team the best of luck, and then meeting her in Grande Praire after the competition. I won't mention the name right now - but it was so enjoyable for me to be in touch over the past several months and receive emails from her wishing our team all the best - and then getting to meet her when I was in Grande Prairie. Hopefully I can get her out on a river or lake sometime. Fly fishing?

I realize this all might sound kind of "maudlin," but I do need to thank some other family and friends too. My sons. All of them - who put up with some of their summer visits with me including handing them a fly rod after getting them into a rowboat. My awesome friend and business partner Wendy, who put up with me heading off to the ponds throughout the summer, and spending some of our money to help get me to Grande Prairie in September, 2007. Couldn't have even thought of participating without her help and encouragement.

And a special thanks to my littlest son, my "wee man," who drew me pictures of rainbow trout, talked about rainbow trout, watched me fly cast, spent some hours in row boats with me even when he just wanted to look at the beavers and osprey all around - while I practiced. And who didn't get too upset when I said, "No!!" when he wanted to throw rocks to make big splashes into the lakes right where I wanted to cast a fly.

Previous Features

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