I met Ian about six or seven years ago on a foggy morning at Wilson Flats on the Grand River, just a dog's whiz downstream from Inverhaugh.

I had already caught a couple of chub just a rod length from the bridge and waned to tie on a fresh fly . . . something more "trouty.” Digging through my fly box, with my rod tucked under my arm, I didn't have enough hands to hold my line and just let it drift downstream in the current with the old fly still attached

Unbelievably I caught another fish and this time a small trout . .  at that point up on the bridge behind me I heard in a distinctive brogue comment, "Aye that’s an interesting lie!"

Recognizing the voice, I'd heard on CBC radio I didn't bother to turn around when I replied, "That must be none other than the infamous Ian Colin James." To which he replied, "That it is . . . don't move . . . hang on and I'll be down in a mina."

Seconds later, I could hear Ian rummaging around in his trunk and a few minutes later, he came wading .  . . ever so gracefully . . . across the river to me where we made proper introductions and he made an inspection of my hodgepodge of a fly box.

Ian then presented me with a small plastic box containing 15 flies (3 each of 5 different patters) with the comment, [yu shud lern ta tie that little green one cause it's right deadly . . . just a few tuns round the shnk wid a fuzzy floss nd a dab of black cement neer he eye).

Indeed that simple little green worm pattern was "right deadly" and over the next month or so caught about 10 fish on each of the first two before losing one to a snag and another to a fish. It was on one of these flies that I caught a 20 inch brown in the Tombstone area . . . the largest trout I ever caught.

Although most all of those other flies have been fished . . . some caught fish and others were either lost or destroyed through use . . . I still have that 3rd treasured RDGW (Right Deadly Green Worm). I have tried many times to use it as reference to tie duplicates . . . but not once have I ever come close.

I listened to Ian on Peter Gzowski's Morningside program, long before I started fly fishing, when I did start out, his book "Fumbling with a Fly Rod" was one of my first purchases. The book reminded me that fly fishing . . . any fishing for that matter . . . is about a lot more than catching a fish. It's about the experiences . . . all of them . . . the river, the weather, the food, the cast and the catch . . . but most of all, it's about the friends.

Sincerely,

Christopher Singleton

Cambridge, Ontario