Cattaraugus Creek Outfitters

Trading also as CCO Fly Fishing, this western New York guide service is owned by Vince Tobia, a New York State registered guide who grew up on Ellicott Creek, took a law degree at Syracuse and worked as an Erie County prosecutor before changing direction in the late 1990s to guide full time. He reckons more than forty-five years fishing the region and over twenty-five guiding it, and he lives in Williamsville, New York with his family. Guiding duties are shared with Rick “Fishman” Fisher, John Partsch, Rick Kustich, Jake Kocic and Phil Sirianni, all of them raised in western New York. The company’s range extends past the Lake Erie tributaries to the Lake Ontario tributaries, inland trout water, fly fishing lessons and hosted travel to the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, British Columbia and Montana. Conservation runs through it: the owner is a Trout Unlimited life member who has served on his local chapter board and edited its newsletter. Rob Czubaj and John Partsch double as ambassadors, working fly fishing shows and company events.