Dr. Ian Martin

Ian Martin was born in Waterloo, Ontario in 1955, and began fly tying and fly fishing at age 14, when to his chagrin he found he could not catch a rising trout on a hook baited with balogna. Soon afterwards, he began teaching a popular fly tying course for the community recreation department in Kitchener, Ontario. Starting with southern Ontario rivers such as the Grand and the Credit, Ian has since fished wherever he has found water and fish, but particularly enjoys chasing trout, salmon, and steelhead.

Together with other local fly fishers, Ian was a founding member of the KW Fly Fishers’ Club, and today serves as vice-president of the conservation group “Friends of the Grand River” in Fergus. His interest in aquatic environments led Ian to complete a Ph.D. in stream insect ecology, and gave him the background to write the Canadian best selling book “Fly Fishing the Grand River” with Jane Rutherford — his wife, also a biologist.

Ian is a frequent contributor to The Canadian Fly Fisher magazine, and his work also has been published in Fly Fisherman, Guide Peche a la Mouche, and Outdoors Canada. He has given seminars and presentations to fly fishing clubs in both Canada and the U.S.A.

Ian and his family live on the banks of the Grand River, near Elora, Ont., where he can keep an eye open for rising trout, which sometimes distract him from his work as an environmental consultant.