Meet our Board Members:

Libby Wolfensperger - President, Spey O Rama and Youth Programs

I am excited to be the President of this great club and have been a member now for more than 10 years.

I got the fly fishing bug after having fished off and on with my brother. I wanted to learn more about trout fishing and be more independent, so I signed up for LTFF at GGACC and here I am years later volunteering, doing Board and committee work, and enjoying fishing more than ever.

The club is a wonderful place to meet interesting new people from diverse backgrounds and share our love of angling. The diversity of the members and fishing interests is amazing and being a part of the club has added to the pleasure of living in San Francisco.

I am really proud to be an active member of GGACC and look forward to continuing to contribute to the club.

Steve Stark - Vice President

I grew up watching the San Francisco Bay fade away out the back window of the Vista Cruiser station wagon while the family headed off to Yosemite, Banff, Yellowstone or some other glorious wild place. My Grandfather, a legendary fishing enthusiast, lived on a TVA lake in Tennessee where we would sit with a can of corn and catch carp and blue gill. I enjoyed watching my father tie flies in his den.

He was mentored by Charles Barfield a member of the GGACC. I still have a bamboo EC Powell rod that Charles gave him.

From a springboard of high mountain lakes and streams, spinning rods and bobbers I dove into UC Berkeleys Forestry Department in the College of Natural Resources. I still enjoy advocating for the environment in any way that I can. I took to Fly Fishing more seriously after college. Exploring the Sierra , Whitefish Mt, Utah and Oregon with a 9' 4wt rod. I married and went on family camping vacations every summer at Burney Falls fishing the Pit, Hat Creek, the Fall and the Upper Sac. I have enjoyed countless days not the McCloud at Bollibokk and have followed my fly rod from to the tip of South America to Eastern Russia to the Aleutian islands and Bristol Bay. Spey fishing has become my preferred method and the steelhead of the Pacific have stolen my heart. I dream of explosive tight-line grabs and screeching runs. I love how the craft and fellowship of fly fishing brings a common bond to like minded spirits all over the world.

I joined the GGACC 4 years ago and got involved by remodeling the kitchen and cooking for the Spey-o-rama and other events. I designed and had built the Smoker/BBQ that will grace the outdoor kitchen in the coming year and am co-chairing Spey O Rama next year. I also continue to be Talent Scout, Marketing Director, Host and Chief Bottle Washer for the Fireside Environmental Speaker Series. I have grown to love the club and the kindred membership that makes up our merry band. Being on the board is an exciting way so help out and I hope to get involved in more and more aspects of all the at the club does.

Bruce Greenwood - Board Member

Growing up in central Illinois - the Land of Lincoln, corn, and soybean fields - my fishing experience as a kid was a cane pole, a bobber, and a coffee can with worms we dug up behind my grandfather's barn. I really had little interest in fishing of any sort until my wife and I were exploring the Sierra foothills near Grass Valley, California. After viewing anglers on the Lower Yuba and other lakes and streams in the area, she suggested I give it a try…I might like it.

That was about 10 years ago…I subsequently discovered the gem in Golden Gate Park called "the casting ponds" and have never looked back! After attending a bunch of second Saturday casting lessons and then joining as a member, I joined the GGACC Learn To Fly Fish program which was the perfect way for me "wade into" fly fishing for real. A goal I set for myself for retirement was to become more involved in GGACC club activities, and here I am leading the program that did so much for me.

I have found that I really enjoy everything about fly fishing, from simply getting out on the water, to the camaraderie, to making a decent cast on the ponds, to enjoying the many aspects of the club, and maybe catching a fish or two. I look forward to meeting and seeing you at the next club event!

Richard Yerian - Secretary

Growing up in upstate New York, my boating and fishing experience was pretty much limited to the Finger Lakes. Although my father had some exposure to fly fishing in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, where he grew up, spinning rods and plugs were the norm on the lakes for bass, perch, crappies, and the occasional lake trout.

Twenty-seven years ago I joined the GGACC after one of my wife's co-workers introduced me to fly fishing and fly casting at the ponds. I've loved it ever since and have fished mainly in northern California for trout, as well as Montana and the occasional GGACC fish out. My wife and I travel a lot and I'm always trying to take advantage of fishing opportunities elsewhere during those travels - even back to streams and lakes in NY and Pennsylvania.

The past few years of serving on the Board of the GGACC has given me the opportunity to meet many more members and to give back to the Club and the people who have taught me so much. It's an honor to part of the Board as it moves forward with new ideas and finds more ways to respond to the needs and interests of Club members.

Karen Mondon Scarpulla - Treasurer

I became a member of GGACC about 3 ½ years ago when I expressed interest in learning how to tie flies to my college roommate. She told me that she always wanted to learn how to fly fish so we took a private lesson together - I fell in love with the sport, she did not. I began to appear regularly at the ponds during the week and was fortunate enough to meet the week day cast of characters led by Armando, who all encouraged and patiently guided me in learning the art of fly fishing. As I only live 10 minutes from the club, it has become a regular haunt for come and socialize, as well, as focus on perfecting my skills. There is no end to all there is to learn. I now feel confident enough to enjoy fishing in the delta and Mexico and am always looking forward to the next trip.

I am a native San Franciscan who grew up in the Richmond district with Golden Gate Park as my backyard. My father would frequently take my brother and I to the ponds as well as the archery range as kids, but I hadn't been back since that time period. I have been a tax accountant in San Francisco for the past 40 years and when not working and fly fishing, my passion is to dance tango. I have been on several boards, always in the treasurer position. I have two sons, two daughters and two new grandchildren; hopefully I can entice one of them to try fly fishing.

Lisa Pardini - Membership, Women's Program, and Cal Poly Humboldt Award

I've always been drawn to rivers, oceans, and the outdoors. My "Zen" is wading in coastal rivers, throwing my spey rod, in hopes of catching a wild, chrome, steel head. Becoming a member of the GGACC 12 years ago was the catalyst for me learning how to fly fish and spey cast. Thanks to all of the great programs offered here, I have honed my skills as a fisherperson and caster and have built lasting relationships with like-minded people.

I am a native San Franciscan, and live and work in this dynamic city. My other passions include my meditation practice, fishing the Eel River, and conservation work focused on keeping Northern California rivers, and the wild fish populations that call them home, healthy and strong.

Jim Dawson - Historian

I dig green, old fly rods (especially IM6 Winstons) and I was aware of the GGACC for years from the two organization's history in San Francisco; but I was only able to seriously participate at the GGACC since retiring from a career in high tech. During my working years a two week business trip to Tokyo turned into a dozen years working and living in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London…all of which afforded me many wonderful chances to fly fish. Upon returning to the US, our family settled in the Bay area where I began working at what would become the first of 6 start-ups, the last of which I founded. I am lucky to spend a portion of every year in the Madison Valley overlooking the exact spot on the river where I caught my first fish on a fly that I tied, now 50 years ago. (it was a renegade)

As far as my fishing qualifications go, I can row a drift boat and I was named after a great uncle who was, a long time ago, the Minister of Fisheries in Finland; but it was my Finnish grandfather who took me on a row boat and taught me to catch perch when I was 5, and thus ordained me to a life of tricking fish. My life now revolves around family, conservation, a little tech, fishing for large salmonids with mouse flies, and now the GGACC. We are lucky to have such a unique and storied place; and I feel extremely fortunate to be able to participate here. It is a club like no other.

Valentine Atkinson - Board Member

I went to art school in Columbus Ohio studying photography and design. After graduation, I moved west to California in search of a creative future in art, and much better trout fishing than Ohio.

Interestingly I ended up combining my passion for fishing and photography into one career which I called 'fly fishing photographer.' Friends thought I was absolutely crazy but I stuck with it. Along the way I discovered the GGACC casting ponds in Golden Gate Park where I became a regular and learned to cast from top-of-the-line casters like Fred Claudio, Phil Marivale, Mel Kreiger and others.

I was then hired by Frontiers International Travel as a staff photographer and traveled the world photographing fishing destinations. Sometime during this busy period, I met with Susan Rockrise and we bought a farmhouse on Fall River where we would entertain friends and enjoy life.

I am honored to be a part of GGACC and enjoy brushing up on my casting and meeting with other kindred spirits.

Mark Johann - Board Member:

I came to fly fishing later in my life, having grown up in San Diego raised on ocean fishing at a young age with my dad, returning with gunny sacks of bluefin, yellowfin, and albacore tuna, laid out like trophies before a camera that sadly will never exist again.

Given all the prayers and promises I made to a god at such a young age, if only I'd be grated just a bite while sitting painfully in rented motorboats staring at a bobber while fishing on vast reservoirs with my dad, my life has nevertheless has been blessed by a merciful deity despite most of those promises were unkept; to be fair, most of those prayers went unanswered too and I've known my fair share of getting skunked besides.

Nevertheless, I was drawn to flyfishing as an adult more from a romantic notion rather than as a better way to catch fish, having read books and essays by Western authors while desperately trying to keep a connection to the wilderness and a life left behind after moving to San Francisco after my college days in N. Idaho.

It's led me to stand in waters and nature I might have never have known, into the high backcountry with magnificent peaks, vistas, and territories unknown. And not to mention the camaraderie of fellow anglers and friends met and made along the way.

So perhaps that deity knew better in it's wisdom than to just grant me a meager bluegill on the end of my line, and instead gifted me a revelation in answer to my prayers; that the sum of this sport is far greater than its individual parts.

Part of that sum is the GGACC which I'm proud to be a part of and hope my involvement will add to it.

Hand me a sweet 4wt. fly rod and I'll see myself out.