Richard Mitkiewicz

I started my fly fishing and fly tying career in 1972 by badgering the sunfish and bass in Bridgeport pond and the carp in the Grand.

Through the mentorship of Ian Martin and Jack Imhof, I cut my teeth on the selective trout of the Saugeen River system.

From the mid ‘70s through to the mid ‘80s, I explored many of Ontario’s river systems.

My wife and I took any and every opportunity to fish the rivers in the Catskills and the Andirondacks.

I was also fortunate enough to fish some of Britain’s chalk streams and also some rivers in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park.

On a family vacation to Florida in the mid ‘80s, I was introduced to salt water fly fishing, and as the saying goes … “that was it!”

For the next twenty seven years we have fished the Keys, the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades in Florida exclusively.

For the most part my wife, friends and I centered our activities in and around Marco Island.

In ‘98 I purchased my first flats boat and subsequently my second flats boat in ‘04.

My second flats boat was getting long in the tooth so in 2014 I sold my boat and we shifted our fishing focus back to my fresh water roots.

Recently in addition to fishing in Ontario, we have travelled to southern Alberta to fish the streams of the east slope of the Rockies for Cutthroat and Rainbow trout.

We are also doing a yearly redux on the rivers of the Catskills, specifically the upper Beaverkill at Lew Beach and the Willowemoc.

Having said all that I must say that the experience that I have garnered from my Florida days has served me in good stead for fishing for bass, pike, and musky in our northern waters.

Aside from my wife, my first love is trout fishing, but smallmouth bass are definitely a close second …

See here for Richard’s past presentations.

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