Sam Paul Maverakis - 2005 Sweden Championships Competitor

This year is Sam Mavrakis' third year to be invited to represent America at the annual World Fly Fishing Championships. He is a welcome addition to Fly Fishing Team USA.

Sam Paul Mavrakis is a Wyoming native and grew up in the Sheridan area of the state. After completing his public school education, he attended Chadron State College and graduated with a degree in Business Management. Following college, he returned to Sheridan to become a partner in his family's sporting goods business.

He grew up fishing the small streams of the Big Horn Mountains. It was natural that Sam would be drawn to fly fishing, for his Father, Sam Senior, introduced him to the award winning family store, Ritz Sporting Goods, before Sam could walk. He would spend hours listening to sportsmen who came in to hang out and talk about the "big ones". There is even a fishin' hole in Sheridan named "Sam Mavrakis Pond" so named in his Father's honor.

As Sam's fly fishing skills developed, he gradually expanded his experiences and locations where he practiced the sport of fishing. He can now look back on these adventures in angling which found him traveling to a major portion of the Rocky Mountains as well as Alaska, Argentina, Alberta, British Columbia, Bahamas, Belize and Chile. He has been an avid outdoorsman all of his life, enjoying everything that it has to offer: backpacking, hunting, scuba diving, snowmobiling, skiing and his first passion, fishing.

Sam is an annual competitor in the famous Jackson Hole Wyoming One Fly Event. In 1999 and 2002 he was awarded individual top honors.

When asked about his invitation to join the team at the World Fly Fishing Championships, Sam says "I'm eager and excited about fishing in the championships and feel privileged and honored to have the opportunity to do so".

Sam is the Director of Outdoor Activities at the Powder Horn Golf Community in Big Horn Wyoming. He and his wife Carol now live in Banner, Wyoming.