PCC Officers & Board of
Directors
The
Pasadena Casting Club is managed and served entirely by volunteers, a proud tradition
since inception. The Board of Directors consists of approximately 20 members, with
responsibilities delegated to individuals and subcommittees. Many Board members serve
multiple roles. Please meet the current PCC Officers and Board:
Sam Hagen
President
Program Chair
Sam has been fly fishing for many years and is still humbled every time he goes out. Fly tying makes his ADD kick in hard, so he is a fly buyer rather than a fly tier. However, he enjoys the art of fly casting and loves this aspect of our great sport. He and his wife are empty nester's that live in Claremont, but enjoy their time with their adorable dog, Cash. Sam has been a Mortgage Salesman for over 20 years and often introduces his clients to our great sport.
Becky Rakisits
Vice President
Social Media
Women's Program Chair
Born and raised in Pasadena, Becky first started fishing when she met her husband. Being an adventurous woman, she took up fishing right away. She even caught a bigger fish than her husband ever had! While she has only been fishing for about eight years, she has immersed herself into the club to learn everything she can. Other than fly fishing, her interests include cycling, hiking, traveling, hunting, and painting. If you see her around the club house, I am sure she will have her puppy with her, Diesel.
Guy Ferrante
Pool Captain
Nominating Chair
Guy is grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and now lives in Rosemead. He works for a engineering firm that designs geodesic domes, and has worked for the same company for 28 years as a structural designer. Guy started fishing as a teenager in freshwater lakes and streams. He took up fly fishing about fifteen years ago, and his other hobbies include baseball and his cherry 1967 Chevelle.
Ron Escue
Recording Secretary
Event Coordinator
Born and raised in the Midwest - my dad introduced me to fishing as a young boy. Farm ponds and bamboo poles, fly rods were to come later. Nite-crawlers, shiners, dough balls and leeches were the standard bill of fare as we hunted pan fish on many a summer day. Family vacations offered trips north and with that came an introduction to walleyes, muskie and northern pike - along with the occasional brook trout. Shortly after a job transfer to California in 1980 - a close friend introduced me to fly fishing. An enthusiastic long-term member of TU and Cal-Trout, I have benefited from numerous opportunities associated with piscatorial pursuits and the great locales that those adventures have offered. As empty nesters - my wife (Ann) and I reside in La Canada.
Carl Crawford
Youth Program Chair
FFI Southwest Council Rep
A lifelong resident of Southern California, Carl wet his first hook as a 12 year old at Yellowstone Lake on a family vacation. He matriculated to Fly fishing some 36 years later on vacation with his family in British Columbia. A member of the Pasadena Casting Club since 2005, he has coordinated numerous outing to our local streams and beaches. Carl founded and chairs the Club Youth and Trout in the Classroom programs. He is a Financial Advisor, and serves as Youth Director of the Southwest Council of Fly Fishers International, and is a member of the Cal Poly Pomona Alumni Board.
Scott Boller
Outings Chair
Scott was raised in Sierra Madre and Idyllwild California and learned fishing from his father (who was a PCC member in the mid 1960s) and grandfather at local lakes (Legg, Puddingstone, and Big Bear). He started fly fishing in the mid 1970s when his father moved to Bend, Oregon. Other than fly fishing, interests include rock climbing, skiing/snowboarding, spear fishing, scuba diving, hiking, and backpacking. Scott is an Aerospace Engineer, spending the last 27 years at Rocketdyne, including 15 years on the International Space Station program. Scott is a member of TU, CalTrout, and IFFF. He is married to Sonia with two children who also fly fish, Samantha and Sebastian.
Dennis Greninger
Membership Chair
Dennis started fly fishing in 1973, joined PCC originally in 1976, drifted away, and rejoined in 2004. Both Dennis and his wife Erika are avid fly fishers. Their favorite fishing spots include Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Hot Creek, the Madison River, and the Big Horn River. Dennis retired in 2008 after 38 years teaching U.S. History in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His son Ethan is also an active Club member. Dennis is also a longtime photographer and railroad buff.
Steve Terui
Treasurer
Steve Terui was raised in the inner city of Los Angeles, but in his youth formed a great appreciation for both saltwater and freshwater fishing. At the age of 15, he picked up his grandfather’s bamboo fly rod, caught a beautiful Yellowstone River Cutthroat which started his lifelong passion for fly fishing. Although he continues to enjoy the Eastern Sierra, Steve likes to explore new rivers to fish outside of California. Steve co-founded and continues to manage a behavioral healthcare software company in Pasadena to help him realize his fly fishing dreams. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Cal State L.A. and a MBA from UCLA Anderson.
Fernando Vasquez
Holiday Program
Fernando has been a club member for 5 years. He took up fly tying and fishing in the mid 90's. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley spin fishing, he felt that fly fishing presented a much better challenge. Once he had the basics he ventured to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to experience what real fly fishing was like and never looked back. He works as the Head Golf Professional at Alhambra Golf Course.
Steve Posner
AV & Website Support
Born in a lake of fire, raised in the trunk of a 1965 Dodge Coronet, Steve Posner is known for his no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners, impatient not-catching-many-fish style of angling. In spite of this, he is known in his own mind as not just an expert, but a self-proclaimed expert, which he insists is the best kind.
Jack Chang
Youth Committee/Scouts Committee
Jack grew up in Huntington Beach and preferred to hang out on the pier instead of in the mall. He naturally took to water activities like fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving but was unfortunately not so good at surfing. He later went on to study Ocean and Marine biology and continued expanding his interest and hobbies ever since. He is now working for his family’s business in a Logistics company specializing in heavy duty equipment and commercial trucking. Fly fishing is his latest interest and so far, it has been a gratifying experience for him.
Matt Swanson
Finance Committee
Matt Swanson grew up in Arcadia CA and still resides there. In 1970, His mom took him to the Pasadena Arroyo casting pond at age 10 which is where he learned to cast. It was many years later on a corporate fly fishing trip in 2009 to the Watauga River in the Tennessee Appalachians that he caught the fly fishing bug. Since then, he has fished all over the west and has also started tying flies. His favorite river is the Lower Provo in Utah. When not fly fishing, Matt is a commercial real estate appraiser.
Kevin Winder
Grounds Chair/ Scouts Committee
Kevin was born in Eastern Idaho, and raised in Southern California. he spent most of his summer vacations back in Idaho, camping and fishing with his family, cousins, aunts and uncles. He caught his first fish off a bridge across the dry creek next to the campgrounds when he was 4 years old, it was already cleaned gutted. Kevin started fly fishing with the help of PCC members at the casting pond, especially David Bird and Mike Miller. They taught him it wasn't his entry level equipment, it was just him, and to keep practicing. Kevin has worked for UCLA Facilities Management since 2000, starting off as the Grounds Equipment Maintenance Mechanic, and is now the Operating Engineer for all the Sport and Recreation buildings. Kevin loves camping and fishing in the Eastern Sierras, no matter what time of the year.
Chuck Swab
Refreshments & Bamboo Chair
Libby McCarthy
Librarian
Libby got hooked on fly fishing one summer on a trip down the Jordan River in Northern Michigan. Despite being promised a huge trout haul because of the famous ‘hex hatch,’ she caught exactly one fish -- which was not a trout. She joined the PCC in 2013 to learn how to catch more fish and get more trips on the books with her dad. In her spare time, Libby likes to bake, travel, ski, and try out other new hobbies. She reads a lot and works for a nonprofit that raises money for libraries, which makes her uniquely qualified to be Club Librarian. She grew up in Claremont, CA and now lives in South Pasadena.
Bryan Hoyos
Conservation Chair
Bryan found his passion for fly fishing years ago when living in Mammoth after college. Since then, he has been hooked, spending as much time as possible fly fishing in the Sierras. His passion for fishing has brought him to many off the grid locations such as Patagonia, central Chile, mainland Mexico, South Africa, and throughout the US. Bryan joined PCC to be part of a fly-fishing community and to become more involved in activism for the places we need to protect. In his spare time, he chases winter storms with his snowboard buddies, and in the summers spends his time at the beach surfing. He enjoys hanging out with his two active heelers, Zulu and Thor, who always keep him on his toes. Bryan grew up in La Canada and lived in Pasadena for many years, but now resides in the hills of Elysian Heights.
Eric Callow
Public Relations
Eric Callow started fly fishing in Idaho at age 7 but it wasn’t until he joined the PCC in 1994 that he truly started to learn the sports of fly fishing and, ultimately, casting. Eric became a Certified Casting Instructor in 2014 and now serves as Director of Casting Activities for the Southwest Council of Fly Fishers International. He is active as a tournament caster in the American Casting Association. He served as President of the PCC Board 2000-2002 and led a number of initiatives for the club, including landscaping the grounds in 1998. Currently, he chairs the Public Relations Committee b.
Naomi Okamoto
Fly Tying Chair
Fly tying has long been a favorite interest of mine. Teaching fly tying for the Pasadena Casting Club,FFI, SWC, other clubs and venues has given me the opportunity to
meet many wonderful people who love the sport and art of fly fishing and fly tying. Teaching and demonstrating at various venues allows me to give back in a small way to the community of fly fishers.
Fly tying is always a very rewarding experience which allows people with like minds to become friends who share and explore limitless techniques in fly tying.
With any group of fly tyers the shared and combined knowledge and experience in fly tying, fly fishing and LIFE are immense and priceless!
I am very fortunate to be involved with the Pasadena Casting Club, the fly fishing and fly tying community. It is an honor and privilege to be the fly tying chair for this very
special club!
Michael Miller
Casting Chair
Born and raised in Indiana Michael learned that his choices were trolling and ice fishing on lakes with his dad or learning to play piano with his mom. Being hyperactive he chose Fly Fishing. Happily clueless in virtually everything he was always in motion catching bluegills and scaling them with a fork in the kitchen. Although not asked to leave, he did move to California in 1968 where he learned to surf and do other things. When they finally moved out, he joined PCC and met others less clueless who fished.