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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Teach a Man to Fish: Award-winning fly-fisherman Tony Yap has been casting for 35 years. Yap teaches free flycasting lessons in the Los Gatos Creek Park.
Public Citizen
A Pretty Fly Guy
Fly-fisher Tony Yap lives to share his passion for the sport with the public
By Moryt Milo
On any given day a walk into Campbell's Los Gatos Creek Park can lead a nature lover to discover the fly-casting area. Once there, chances are good that award-winning fly-caster Tony Yap will be out there practicing--or instructing newcomers to the sport.
Yap, 62, a retired employee from the county probation department, has been fly-fishing for 35 years. He was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States at 24. A Campbell resident since 1967, Yap says it was during the 1981 World Games (for sports that don't qualify for the Olympics), as one of the fly-fishing judges, where he developed his casting techniques.
"I was really fortunate to see the best of the best casters in the world," says Yap. "I was so thrilled."
Watching and absorbing the various styles, he incorporated what he learned into his own unique technique. He's dubbed it his "eclectic approach and casting."
His style has earned him numerous awards in competition and accolades from professional peers. Last summer, competing at the national tournament in Long Beach, Yap brought home a silver and bronze.
"It wasn't that important to me," says Yap, "until I cast a certain cast and people back East said, 'Tony, you are one of the smoothest casters we have ever seen.'" Yap says it was the "ultimate compliment, and better then any medal."
Yap practices on a daily basis to remain competitive. The San Jose Fly-casters has a six-member competition team and Yap is the chairman of the club's casting tournament team. He also coaches his members and proudly mentions that one of the woman members, who had been casting fly for less then a year, took first place in the "Best of the West Women Casters" in Sacramento.
The pleasure Yap has discovered in fly-fishing had him wanting to share his sport with the general public. He approached members of the San Jose Fly-casters Board with a proposal to start a fly-casting program that includes free lessons. The board gave the plan a thumbs up.
Now, after spending half his life along the rivers, Yap says, "It got to the point where, it wasn't so much that I wanted to catch a fish, as I wanted to go out there and enjoy the scenery, or whatever else was going on. Catching a fish was a bonus."
For Yap these times are "so relaxing it's like a therapy." But it's much more. He talks about one Sunday that found him fly-fishing alone on the Sacramento River. "I looked up and saw this wonderful bird, flying with a snake and then looked over by a tree and saw a baby bird had fallen out of its nest," says Yap. " I went over and saw it was dead. I bent down and buried it. It seemed like the right thing to do"
Yap says this is what the sport is all about. Allowing a person the time to "see things you'd otherwise take for granted." And that technique he calls "mental rejuvenation."
Free casting lessons are offered the second Thursday of the month at the Los Gatos Creek Park Casting Area. For information, call San Jose Fly-casters at 408.371.6530, or visit www.flycasters.org.
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Campbell, California
