ECHO Pro Team
Craig Daly - Snowy Mountains, Australia
Craig h
as lived in the Snowy Mountains for over 25 years and has been fishing the local waters for just as many! His quest for furthering his fly fishing knowledge has led him from the wild rivers of Colorado and Montana USA, to the bonefish flats of the Pacific and the northern tropics of Australia. Craig has certification as a Fly Casting Instructor with the Federation of Fly Fishers. He is also a licensed National Parks and Wildlife Service tour operator.
Craig’s love for chasing the trout with a fly led him to guiding others to enjoy the art of fly fishing. He also shares his love for fly fishing by being the driving force behind The Thredbo Fly Fishing Expo - find details here.
Find his website here - clearwaterflyfishingguides.com.au and on Instagram here.
Billy Thrupp - Coromandel, New Zealand
Billy is an up and comer in the sport fishing scene here in New Zealand. We are proud to support him on his quest to make the New Zealand team.
Growing up in a small country town in the heart of the Bay of Plenty, surrounded by the Te Urewera National Park in a small town called Murupara put him in the right place. He started trout fishing at the age of 5 with his dad, 35 years on and he still fishes with him and greatly appreciates their time together on the river.
Billy enjoys nothing better than fishing our beautiful rivers by foot or stalking the lakes edges by boat chasing big rainbow and brown trout. He now resides in the beautiful coastal town of Waihi Beach were he surfs, dives and chases salt water species by fly rod too........but given any spare time he will disappear into the Central North Island chasing trout for fun, guiding clients or competing on the Sport Fly Fishing NZ (SFFNZ) circuit. Billy is a super-friendly and helpful guy, so if see him on the river be sure to say hi.
You can follow Billy's journey on Instagram (TheFlyFishermanNZ) and Facebook (TheFlyFisherman)
Meinrad Rohrs - Auckland, New Zealand.
Yet another person addicted to fly fishing but different to many others, this bloke is obsessed on the mastery of fly casting technique. His ambition isn’t just casting the maximum length of line or to make good presentations, he aspires for the total line control in every situation. When he’s not on the water chasing fish on the flats around the North Island, you will possibly find him somewhere on a sports field in Auckland giving casting lessons or to practice his own casting.
Originally, he is from Germany, where he started fly fishing in 2010. During the next years, he spent all his free time travelling across Northern Europe to catch Sea running Brown Trout in Denmark and Sweden, in Norway he was chasing Grayling, Brown Trout and Seabass, he went to Austria for Graylings and back home in Germany he focused on the fly fishing for Pike and Perch as well as on Asp and Carp. His addiction to fly casting had become so heavily that he decided to become a Casting Instructor to share all his knowledge about fly casting with other people. He chose Christopher Rownes as his mentor for that venture and passed the exam as a Certified Casting Instructor of the International Federation of Fly Fisher in 2014.
Now, he joins our Echo Ambassador Team and runs a Fly Casting School based in Auckland called ‘Cast a Fly’ (www.castafly.co.nz) where he happily shares his knowledge with everyone who is interested in learning new stuff.
Ben Booth- Chirstchurch, New Zealand
Finally on a trip to the Southern lakes of the South Island with his Father Ben landed his first fish on a fly rod, he was so excited. In the years that followed Ben’s skill level grew as he was very fortunate to fish with anglers such as the legends Malcolm Bell and John Kent as well as a number of accomplished anglers from the Canterbury Fly Fishing Club.
Ben’s most memorable moments of his fishing career to date were getting to experience the 2014/2015 season mouse plague where he landed Brown Trout up to a shade under 15lb as well as targeting the flats fishery at the top of the South Island chasing Kingfish on fly.
Ben is also the owner/operator of Boothy’s Fishing School Ltd which is based on Mackenzie Country canal system. The main focus of Ben’s business is to teach anglers the basic and advanced techniques required to capture the truly massive trout in this fishery. With Brown and Rainbow trout commonly exceeding 20lbs it takes a unique set of skill to capture these fish on the light gear that Ben uses.
Claudio Wyss - Taupo, New Zealand
Claudio Wyss was born in Switzerland and picked up a fly rod ten years ago,
catching a range of species in his home country, such a barbel, carp, pike, perch and trout. His love of fly fishing brought him to New Zealand. Not once, not twice, but four times. It was the fourth time where he found love on the Tongariro, with fellow fly fisher Theresa, and they now live and work in Taupo, surrounded by a myriad of perfect trout waters. Claudio loves New Zealand, loves meeting other fly fishermen, loves sharing experiences and learning everything he can from others. He said he’s found Kiwi fly fishers extremely helpful during his time in New Zealand, and in return, he now loves to help other people by sharing his knowledge in workshops or when guiding. While he loves to fish a range of techniques, Claudio’s favourite is European-style nymphing, and you’ll often see him exploring new rivers and new spots with lighter gear on New Zealand rivers. Follow Claudio on Instagram - @wyss.claudio
If you think you have what it takes....feel free to fill out this application letting us know a little about yourself and send it to zac@safarisupply.co.nz