Pro Staff

Tungsten Beads

Team Trout Legend is a competitive fly fishing team based in the North Eastern United States with members currently residing in New York, Pennsylvania, and Quebec. They have won numerous competitions and awards and tie 7500-10,000 flies per year. When tying their flies, they use Rip Lips Fishing Tungsten Beads as do many other professionals all over the world.

Dejon (Day-john) Hamann grew up as both a dry fly purist in the heart of the Catskill Mountains and a steelhead junkie in the middle of Steelhead Alley, Buffalo NY. Every evening his Grandparents would take him down to fish the evening bite behind the A&P on the fabled East Branch of the Delaware River. “Sleepy” Floyd Henderson was his first tutor of the fly and instructed him on using nothing but Adams in sizes 12-18. Near his twenties he set off to test his grit in the wild and did several tours as an Alaskan Guide first with SilverTip Lodges out of Anchorage and then Tony Sarp’s Katmai Lodge which was heralded as the largest fresh water lodge in the world at that time. Fighting off big brown bears with nothing but his knuckles and instructing rich Texan trucker barons on how to catch Sockeye Salmon by swinging egg flies became second nature to him.
After dragging his beloved wife across the continent several times fishing from California Redwood Streams to the Peaks of Colorado back to the coast of Maine Dejon has settled down like a good little migratory trout to rear his young only a few miles from where he was born in Buffalo, NY. His wife Erin, son Jett, and daughter Elle are probably waiting patiently right now for daddy to return from a fishing trip.
In addition to guiding and tying/casting instruction, Dejon spends his time writing volumes of yet unpublished articles and books on progressive fly fishing techniques and generally funny and insightful stuff.
As founder of TroutLegend.com and one of the founding father’s of the “Troutlegend Competitive Fly Fishing Cooperative” Dejon hopes to strengthen and grow the roots of competitive fly fishing in American soil.

Bill Steudler is from State College, Pennsylvania. Home to some of the best wild brown trout fisheries on the east coast. Ever since he was old enough to hold a fishing rod he has been pursuing anything that will tug on the end of his line. He spends the majority of his time trying to fool the selective trout of Big Fishing Creek and Penns Creek. Bill is currently a senior at The Pennsylvania State University where he is majoring in Energy, Business, and Finance, he is also the Vice President of the Fly Fishing Club at Penn State. Bill is a professional guide for the Spruce Creek Fly Company. Between fishing and guiding he spends 250 days on the water every year.

Kalvin Kaloz resides in Harrisburg, Pa with his wife Dawn, and daughter Samantha. His home waters range from Falling Springs to the south and Spring Creek to the north. Kalvin enjoys fishing the diverse stream types of the Central Pennsylvania area. He believes that to be a strong competitive angler you have to be able to fish any type of water and fish for every type of trout. He prefers to target the spooky wild browns of Central Pennsylvania but does not discriminate against the stockies. Kalvin was first introduced to fly fishing by Family Ties when he was 14 years old and the passion has only increased over the years. Rather new to competitive fly fishing, he was first introduced to the competitive world when he volunteered for 3 days during the 2009 USA Youth team clinic/tryouts. He was also a controller at the 2009 National Championship held in State College, Pa. With the encouragement of a few well known competitive anglers Kalvin decided to jump into competitive angling to see where the adventure will take him.

Mark Hanes currently resides in Brookville, Pa. He has been fly fishing for 17 years and considers his home waters the Clarion River and Redbank Creek. Since his first trout at age five he has been addicted to fishing. Fishing with his Dad and brother was a weekend ritual that was always the highlight of the spring and summer. After taking class run by a local fly shop owner Jeff Bucheit in grade school he became interested in fly fishing and fly tying and within a few short years he was helping teach fly tying and fly casting classes. In high school Mark worked on his fly fishing skills and become noted as the kid to ask about current stream conditions at the local fly shop where he worked. To this day he credits the bulk of his fishing knowledge to spending those early days on the water and in the shop learning. There is not much water around Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest that he has not fished. It is on some of these lesser known streams and rivers where he learned to catch fish in a variety of fishing conditions. Currently Mark fishes over 100 days a year and enjoys fishing for small native brook trout just as much as a big trophy brown trout. When not fishing he is active with his local Trout Unlimited Chapter where he currently is head of the yearly fly tying classes.

Tungsten Beads

Danny Marino, age 18, currently live in West Cornwall, Ct. Danny has be fly fishing and tying flies since age 9. Since the summer of 2007, at age 14, Danny has been a member of the US Youth Fly Fishing Team and for the past year been the team’s captain. He has fished in three Youth World Championships finishing 8^th in Portugal, 20^th in the Czech Republic and 13^th this past summer in Slovakia. Besides trout fishing, During the summer Danny can be found on the flats of Indian and Banana Rivers in Cape Canaveral, FL in search of redfish. Being a homeschooled high school senior, he is able to fish almost everyday of the spring, summer, and fall. Danny fishes around 100 days a year mostly on the local Housatonic and Farmington Rivers and also a few weeks a year in Central Pennsylvania fishing Spring and Fishing Creeks.

Tungsten Beads

Jake Ruthven is an avid fly tyer and fly fisherman that resides in Colorado. At fifteen years of age, he balances school work with time on the water. Every opportunity that he gets, he is either fishing, or tying flies. Jake taught himself how to tie flies, and fly fish at the age of eight, and soon realized that he must try his creations out on the local fish. He soon began fishing for crappie and bass at the neighborhood pond. His hobby soon escalated to trout, and now he is pursuing just about anything that swims. Jake considers both the Poudre, and Big Thompson Rivers his home waters, though he has fished many rivers and lakes throughout Colorado. He ties flies commercially, and is a demonstration fly tyer at many shows and events throughout the state. When not fishing, tying, or doing homework, Jake helps out with working booths or doing service projects for his local Trout unlimited chapter. He is a very passionate angler that is always willing to learn from others, and is anxious to see where his beloved sport takes him.

We know the importance of having outside fishing professionals involved with our company. If you are a fishing guide, professional fly tyer, tournament fisherman, semi-pro, pro or the like and are interested in becoming part of our pro staff, please send your credentials to info@riplipsfishing.com Thank You!