James began fishing at the early age of 11 years old on the spate rivers of the West Coast of Scotland with over 35 years experience, fishing all over the UK and the rest of the world. Employment enabled James to fish many other rivers in the UK such as the Ayr, Doon, Girvan, Irvine, Stinchar, Cree, Beauly, Ness, Moriston, Findhorn, Nairn, Nith, Tay, Tweed and many more in his pursuits mainly for salmon & trout. He also had the opportunity to fish in countries such as Germany, Ireland, Cyprus, Falklands and the USA for various other species from tuna to barracuda. I used my free time to volunteer to help veterans suffering from physical and mental injuries, teaching them fly fishing. During 2011 I was offered to take up the post as full time fishing co-ordinator at Gardening Leave in Auchincruive, which I gladly accepted and embarked on a new career. Fishing had now become not just a pastime passion, but a full time responsibility where I had people counting on me to provide tuition and guiding on a daily basis. Instructing the veterans normally consisted of river fishing 3 days and stillwater fishing 2 days, tuition was provided on location as and when required with fly tying over the closed session. My journey as an instructor started with the Game Angling Instructors Association, my mentor was Brian McGlashan who was absolutely brilliant and has now become a very good friend. Within 6 months I successfully passed my first assessment the GAIC single handed, and has continued since then. I still meet up with Brian on a regular basis to practise and maintain our development. At present I conduct tuition for my clients on a weekly/monthly basis and mentoring days with fellow instructors to maintain our personnel development on a regular basis. I hold the APGAI (Advance Professional Game Angling Instructor) for single handed fly fishing, IFFF THCI Casting Instructor and Game Angling Instructors Certificates for double handed casting and fishing, UKCC L2 licenced coach with the SANA and finally as a registered mentor with the Game Angling Instructors Association. I offer professional tuition/coaching/mentoring in fly fishing and fly casting on the West Coast of Scotland and across the UK as a professional APGAI, GAIC and IFFF qualified instructor. I also provide mentoring services for those who wish to undertake professional assessments with the Game Angling Instructors Association (GAIA) for both single and double handed assessments and the International Fly Fishing Federation (IFFF) for THCI double handed assessments.