Roy Tanami has a lengthy and varied history in the angling world. He has fished for piranha in the Amazon and the giant taimen (a salmon that can reach 200 pounds) in Mongolia. When he is not travelling the world in pursuit of new fly-fishing adventures and wildlife photography opportunities, he is a West Coast fishing guide. In 2010, he added another credential to his portfolio – a Tidal Angling Guide certification program assessor.
Tanami, now 50, learned to fish in the Fraser River and the waters surrounding Vancouver, where he was raised. “My dad taught me to fish,” he says. “And because of my Japanese-Canadian heritage, a lot of my relatives were commercial fishermen.”
As a freelance photojournalist, his photographs have appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, Field & Stream and Canadian Geographic, among many other publications. His writing focuses primarily on fly fishing, and 10 of his most legendary trips are recounted in his 2009 book, Angling the World: 10 Spectacular Adventures in Fly Fishing, which also showcases his breathtaking photography.
Tanami started guiding about two decades ago as a supplementary revenue stream for his freelance career. He was originally hired at Hakai Beach Resort, and then by West Coast Resorts, one of BC's biggest sport-fishing operations.
The Sport Fishing Institute of BC issues a Certified Tidal Angling Guide designation (CTAG) to successful challengers who apply for such membership status. Now that he is both a CTAG himself and an assessor, Tanami will examine others who wish to be certified in the program's 18 core competencies. “I think CTAG is a necessity in this day and age,” he says. “It puts a standard on competencies that wasn’t there. It formalizes what can be a very precarious job. People are out there in very remote areas, and you want the person to whom you’ve assigned your well-being to have the skills and capabilities that will bring you home safe every night. I think it’s a major step toward professionalism in the industry.”
In addition to putting clients at ease, he believes CTAG certification will also help both the lodges and independent guides. “It really is the first program that’s come along that can define a person as a legitimate fishing guide, versus somebody who just rents their boat out on weekends for extra money. It will be an important marketing tool for both lodges and independents, a way to distinguish themselves. When you are dealing with a CTAG-certified guide, you know that this person has reached a certain level of competency in all the guiding situations you could imagine on the Coast. That is a more significant point than it sounds, because you are dealing with a potentially dangerous situation. People drown on the Coast almost every year. So, it’s very good for the consumer that he now has a way to distinguish between a certified guide and some other guy.”
The job definitely has its benefits. “It’s not like working in an office,” says Tanami. “You’re out there with people who are specifically there to have fun, and you’re there not only to teach them how to catch a fish, but to help them enjoy what is one of the most spectacular places on the face of the Earth. However, in any wilderness-guiding situation, everything is secondary to keeping your client safe.”
