Meet our Field Testers
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Bob Arwine One of the first field testers for BlueSky, Bob fishes both fresh and saltwater species. Semi-retired, Bob is a very creative fly designer and does commercial fly tying. His patterns are noted for their durability and practicality. As a FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor, Bob enjoys teaching fly casting to both beginning and advanced students. He now lives in Northern California and loves to fish the San Joaquin Delta area often. He has fished exotic locations like Kamchatka, the high Arctic, as well as big pike in Canada. |
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Bart Landwehr Bart is the senior guide at Tight Lines Fly Fishing Company in DePere, Wisconsin and a genuine fishing bum. Not many people can say they put over 30, 000 miles per year on their cars driving to fishing spots. Bart can. Having guided anglers in Wisconsin, Montana, and Colorado, Bart puts years of experience to work for his clients. A wonderful caster and fly tier known for his patience, Bart is an excellent fishing resource. He knows the entomology, the water, the fish and the directions! A trout fisherman first and foremost, Bart spends his late summer months chasing giant smallmouth bass in his drift boat. Bart truly is one of the busiest Smallmouth bass guides in the country. This is for good reason; he spends more hours on the river and understands the fish better than most. Bart has been seen on ESPN Outdoors, OLN as well as in many fly fishing publications. |
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Gregg DeLong Not many men practicing the art of fly fishing have more breadth and depth of experience in both fly fishing and tying. Gregg learned to fly fish from his illustrious and famous uncle, the late Joe Brooks. Beside benefiting from Uncle Joe’s influence and teaching, Gregg was also befriended and mentored by the great rod builder Russ Peak - the master in glass. Peak rods are valuable collector pieces now. A consummate fly tier, Gregg tied commercially for years. He has fly fished all over the world, both fresh and saltwater. Gregg lives with his family in Southern California. Besides his valuable advice to BlueSky, he also tests fly lines for Scientific Anglers. |
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Dr. John Hardeman John is an avid Florida fly fisher. While growing up in Missouri, he honed his fly casting skills on freshwater lakes, ponds and streams as he fished for bass, bluegill and rainbow trout. He and his family live in central Florida and John fishes mainly on the west coast of Florida for his favorite targets of Redfish, Trout and Snook. John has been using BlueSky Furled Leaders for over 5 years and has been a technical consultant for the past year. John is also involved with fly tying and has developed several original fly patterns that he has been using and sharing with his fishing friends in Florida, Massachusetts and Louisiana. |
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David Brameld David learned how to fly fish on the upper reaches of the Dart River on Dartmoor in the west of England. Fishing out of a coracle in 1951 David caught his first river-run five-pound Mahseer (Indian Carp) on a fly in South India. As a young man he fly fished for Atlantic salmon in the Hebrides, and spent countless hours in the salt fishing off-shore for Yellow Fin Tuna, Barracuda, Dolphin and others in Indonesia, Sabah and the Philippines. David settled in Washington State in 1978 and spent much time early on fly fishing in the salt for salmon and sea-run cutthroat. He has fished in Eastern Washington, Canada and Alaska for Pacific salmon, browns, steelhead and rainbows, and the Caribbean for bonefish. David has for the last six years spent a great deal of time learning how to sight fish for carp. He feels that carp are the most difficult and demanding fresh water fish to take consistently on a fly. |
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Donald Larmouth Don is a retired college professor whose interests in fishing has taken him to many fresh and salt water angling destinations, none more treasured than his cabin on Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. He is best known for his book,Tarpon On Fly, which was co-authored with Capt. Rob Fordyce in 2002. Don is well known as a speaker on salt water and fresh water fly fishing. He has given many talks at fly-fishing club meetings and workshops and has published articles in Fly Fishing & Tying Journal, Salmon Trout Steelheader, Fly Fisher, Atlantic Salmon Journal, and the Lake Superior Steelhead Association Annual. In 2006 he received the Federation of Fly Fishers Silver King Award for his efforts to increase the interest and enhance the skills of anglers in salt water fly fishing. |
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Dave Pinczkowski Dave brings over twenty years of fly fishing experience, and fifteen years of guiding to the table. In the past, he was the driving force behind two-handed casting in the Great Lakes theater. With almost two decades of Spey casting under his belt, he has a lot to teach. More so, Dave has been on the cutting edge of fly design for steelhead and just about any other migratory fish. He also happens to be one of the country's foremost authorities for smallmouth on the fly. Outside of Dave's wealth of knowledge and experience, he brings a genuine enthusiasm fueled by his deep passion for fly fishing. Dave has recently joined the full time guide staff at Larimer’s Outfitters, a premier guide service in the Pacific Northwest. |
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Capt. Tom Stocks Tom has been a full time fly fishing charter captain in the Florida Keys for over 15 years. He began fishing in the keys as a young boy. Today as a charter captain, he gets just as excited about each trip as he did when he was a kid. "When I started Finatic Charters, my focus was on using a very fast, fishable boat so that if necessary, I could cover large areas of water to adjust to the fishing conditions. I am also committed to the use of high quality light tackle. I chose this area for my business because of the great year round fishing. "So, if your dream is to do battle with a big Tarpon, permit, Shark or Cuda, or bottom fish for Grouper or Snapper, don't dream it, let's go catch it!" |
