Course Instructors

Charlie Griffen

Head Instructor - Course Originator - PA certified Fishing & Fly Fishing Skills Instructor, Licensed PA Fly Fishing Guide

Charlie caught his first trout off a dock at Lake George when he was 5 years old and has been “hooked” ever since. He started fly fishing around age 12 and caught his first trout on a streamer he tied shortly thereafter. He enjoys fly fishing for all aspects of fish, but still has a special fondness for trout, especially those that are wild. In 2021 he became a licensed Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Guide, as well as a Pennsylvania Certified Fly-Fishing Skills Instructor. He loves teaching beginners the basics of fly fishing, as well as teaching seasoned anglers new techniques and places to fish. He also enjoys organizing trips for groups of fly fishermen. Recent trips that he organized included a steelhead trip to the Erie tributaries and a fall trip to Yellow Breeches in Boling Springs, PA for trout. When not fishing or guiding on a stream or river, Charlie can be found in his office where he has been practicing Optometry for almost 40 years. Besides fishing, he enjoys biking and hiking with his wife, Diana and visiting his children and grandchildren. He is on the board of Valley Forge Trout Unlimited and is a member of Trout Unlimited, Fly Fisher’s International, the Little Juniata River Association and the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum. He took over the position of lead fly fishing instructor from founder Bob Moser in 2022.

Mike Costello

FFF Certified Casting Instructor

Mike Costello has been fishing most of his life. As with a young fishermen he began as a bait fisherman, and then graduated to fishing plugs and other lures for bass and other game fish and finally on to fly fishing. Once started, he was hooked on fly fishing and became immersed in the sport for life. His primary interest in fly fishing is in the pursuit of trout and preferably wild trout. But during the warmer months of the year he will spend time targeting bass in the Schuylkill River and the Susquehanna River. Pennsylvania, his home state, is where he fishes most and fishes all the local streams in Chester County, makes several trips a year to the Upper Delaware River system, and to many of the great streams in the State College area. He has fished in the Western US, concentrating in Southwestern Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Within these states he has fished many of the waters in Yellowstone National Park, the South Fork of the Snake River, the Missouri River, the Clark Fork River and many smaller streams. His largest wild trout caught to date is a 24-inch monster brown trout from the Missouri River caught on a #18 CDC PMD Emerger. Mike has also fished the salt for bonefish, permit, redfish and snook in the waters around Florida, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. After several years of fly fishing Mike became intrigued with the mechanics of fly casting and decided to become and instructor to help others shorten the fly casting learning curve. A number of years ago, Mike became a Certified Casting Instructor with the Federation of Fly Fishers. To achieve this certification Mike had to pass a comprehensive examination not only demonstrating casting proficiency but also his teaching ability. Mike is also an avid fly tier and most of the fish he catches are on his own flies.

Dave Zamos

FFI-certified Casting Instructor

Dave’s first rod as a kid was a fly rod, with which he lobbed worms and salmon eggs. He graduated to his own flies in 5th grade and has been at it for decades ever since. His love of fly fishing has taken him many places in the U.S. and around the globe for a variety of fresh and salt water species. In recent years, he’s become enamored with single- and double-handed spey casting and bemoans having gone so many years with only a simple roll cast. Dave’s most memorable fish have nothing to do with size; rather, they’re ones hooked on a well-executed cast. As a certified casting instructor, Dave gives private lessons, has helped Orvis Plymouth Meeting with their “101” classes for years, and offers his time to local clubs. Dave resides in Bucks County, PA, but considers the streams near his “farm” in Sussex County, NJ, as his home waters.

Joe King

PA certified Fishing & Fly Fishing Skills Instructor – Fly tying – Casting Instruction – On Stream Technique Demonstrations

Joe King has been fly fishing since 1975 and has been an active member of the League for most of that time. Joe considers himself to be an all-weather fisherman and can be found plying Pennsylvania's streams during all seasons of the year. Joe is particularly fond of streamer fishing and was also one of the few fishermen around to use a kayak for fly fishing before it became fashionable. Although he prefers to fish his favorite stream, the Little Juniata, for brown trout, he also enjoys the Susquehanna for smallmouths and shad. Joe has fished throughout the US and Alaska for trout, bass and salmon and was one of the few fly fishermen to float the 230-mile reach of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon downstream of Lees Ferry and cast for wild rainbows and hike the back canyons. Joe's been demonstrating his techniques for streamer fishing and tying some of his favorite patterns at our course since it was first offered.

Emerson Cannon

PA certified Fishing & Fly Fishing Skills Instructor - Casting Instructor and On-Stream technique demonstrations

Emerson Cannon began his fly fishing exploits in 1972 when he met a member of the Dame Juliana League on French Creek and decided to join the club. His 7 foot, 5-weight Fenwick fiberglass rod has long since been replaced with a stockpile of high-tech fly fishing rods and reels to match his passion for all aspects of the sport. Emerson has fished many areas of the east coast for various species including smallmouth and landlocked salmon at Grand Lakes Camp in Maine, stripers in Maryland and Delaware, redfish and albacore tuna in North Carolina and tarpon and bonefish in Florida. When he is not jetting off to Alaska to fly fish for salmon or pike or to Guatemala for marlin (last year he caught a 250 pounder), he spends his time on the local streams of Pennsylvania, such as nearby Valley Creek, fishing for wild brown trout. Emerson has been active in the club for many years and is our current Vice President. Emerson�s knowledge of the sport has been shaped by taking instruction from numerous people at fly fishing shows and from FFF and other qualified instructors. His advice is that taking guided trips always provides lots of instruction. All of the guides will provide you tips on tackle and techniques that are invaluable in developing your skills. Things that also help are on-going practice, instruction, reading, listening and talking with others in the fly fishing community or your local club. Taking a fly tying class each winter at A Marblehead FlyFisher with Terry Peach as an instructor has also helped and keeps me in the tying mix. Remember...learning never ceases with fly fishing!�

GEORGE M. CHRISTIAN

Project Biologist/Laboratory Supervisor

“Mr Christian is a Project Biologist with Normandeau Associates, an ecological consulting firm in Stowe, PA. He is an aquatic insect specialist certified by the Society for Freshwater Scientists for taxonomic identifications. He is also an avid trout fisherman since the age of 12 and is familiar with many of the wild and stocked streams in the southeastern region.”






Dianne L. Tidy, FFI CI

Dianne’s first fly-fishing lesson was in the Atlantic surf at Island Beach State Park in NJ nearly 15 years ago. She remembers being “the only woman fly fishing on the beach! I was lucky to have some of the greatest saltwater fly fishermen willing to share their knowledge with a beginner girl fly fisher.” Their willingness to share is the reason that she continues to mentor and encourage others to discover and enjoy fly-fishing. Dianne is a Fly Fishing International Certified Casting Instructor and the only certified woman instructor actively teaching within the contiguous states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and NJ. Always busy in retirement she has volunteered and taught for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Casting for Recovery, Fly Fishing International, International Women Fly Fishers and various other fly fishing clubs and organizations. In August 2014 she became the first, and only, woman from the East Coast to lead the FFI Women’s Fly Fishing Program held in Livingston, MT. Dianne has taught the “Introduction to Fly Fishing for Women” at the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show for the past 4 years. Dianne currently sits on the Board of the Directors of the Chesapeake Council, FFI and the Chesapeake Women Anglers. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) of Maryland, North East Chapter. Dianne and Ken Tidy live at the head of the Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. Currently they are restoring a 1988 Airstream and hope to have it on the road later this summer. Taking their two (2) mini dachshunds along, they are headed west to fly-fish in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming

Skip Krause

PA certified Fishing & Fly Fishing Skills Instructor - Course Coordinator - Casting Instruction – Leaders and Knots

Skip is an accomplished boater, fisherman and fly fisherman with early roots in the salt of Barnegat Bay, the trout pools of the Wissahicken Creek and the tournament largemouth bass lakes of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Skip’s saltwater experiences range from the Annapolis River basin in Nova Scotia to the reefs and offshore humps of the Florida Keys. He has traveled to Mexico and Guatemala in search of sailfish. He prefers fishing the lower Chesapeake Bay for large striped bass or cobia and the Gulf Stream out of Cape Hatteras for tuna and billfish. He is comfortable casting from the beach as well as trolling or deep dropping offshore, but will quickly pick up a fly rod if the stripers are crashing bait or the Mahi are active in the sargassum weed line. In more recent years Skip has focused on fly fishing and fly tying. He has fly fished for trout locally and on a number of the classic trout streams in PA, Colorado and Montana. Large brown trout and salmon from Lake Ontario tributaries are fresh water favorites as are the smallmouth bass and northern pike from the shield lakes of Ontario and Quebec. A recent catch of a thirty three inch brown trout from a Lake Ontario tributary on one of his own flies has given him memories for a lifetime. Skip practices CPR (Catch-Photograph-Release) and encourages others to do so. He is an environmental advocate, an amateur photographer and enjoys sharing what he continues to learn with others. Skip is a member of the American Professional Captain’s Association, the International Game Fish Association, Federation Fly Fishers International, Trout Unlimited, Dame Juliana League and is a former board member and Vice President of Green Valleys Association.