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Farewell, teacher and friend

One of Ian’s great strengths was his ability to connect with people. When it came to fishing and the environment, his teaching skills were second to none. He had an ability to simplify recondite problems into soundbites that anyone could grasp. Through his many classes, seminars and guiding services it’s arguable that he converted more people in Ontario to fly fishing than anyone else in the last 50 years.
 
Ian was a good friend of Winter Hatches Fly Fishing Club and, for 19 years, was a strong supporter of the Club's Fly Tying Symposium where he was a regularly featured instructor. In fact, it can be said that Ian’s presence anchored the Symposium. Although the Symposium continually sought out and offered new fly tying instructors, including many from other provinces as well as the US, Ian’s classes were always the most popular. People kept coming back to his sessions year after year because Ian always had something new to give – new observations, advice, patterns, or techniques. And he gave freely. Anyone attending one of Ian’s sessions knew that he would likely demo one or two bonus flies that weren’t listed in the program. Often, he had to be literally dragged away from his classroom and his enthusiastic followers to get a break for lunch. 
 
Television journalist Tom Brokaw once said, “If fishing is like religion, then flyfishing is high church.”  Similarly, if flyfishing is high church, then Ian was the parish priest. But, as such, he was a bit of a Third Worlder – not only in his generosity, but also in that he had a way of challenging accepted beliefs, traditions and policies that, to him, did not make sense. He would willingly take apart old theories on fly fishing leaders as much as poke at the logic of provincial natural resources administration. Ian was generous, but took no bull from anyone.
 
As a Symposium instructor, Ian’s credentials were unequalled. He was one of North America’s top fly-fishing guides and the first professional guide on Ontario’s Grand River. For over 30 years, Ian applied his “no-bull” approach to fly-fishing to help folks learn how to cast, find fish, and catch the fish they find. Ian was also the first person in Canada to teach an accredited flyfishing course. His classes at Fanshawe College, in London, were honoured with the President’s Distinguished Part-Time Teacher Award in 2010. Ian’s flies were sold worldwide and several of his patterns are in the Orvis catalogue. Ian and his flies were profiled in Volume 3 of Steve Thornton’s prestigious book series “Flytyers of the World” alongside the work of people such as Eric Austin, Chris Helm, Malcolm Greenhalgh, and Eric Leiser. 
 
Ian’s down-to-earth flyfishing methods were combined with a razor-sharp, Scottish wit that he often aimed at himself. He asked that the following quote from Orvis’ Shawn Brillon be included in the Symposium brochure. “Ian’s patterns are some of the most innovative, impressive, best-selling flies for freshwater species we at Orvis have had the pleasure to sell, which is remarkable as he is colour-blind and his fingers are the size of sausages.”  
 
I have never known a more honourable person than Ian Colin James. Over the many years that my wife Jean, my son Iain and I worked on the Symposium, we got to know Ian well and a warm appreciation grew between us in that time. As much as Ian’s skills and talents will be missed by many, more than anything we will miss his wonderful, warm friendship. A real cracker of a man, so he was.
 
William Gerrard
Past Director
Winter Hatches Fly Tying Symposium
Posted by William Gerrard
Tuesday July 7, 2015 at 11:02 am
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