Friday, July 03, 2009
Fish tale: International edition
Spending summers on Virginia's trout streams helps teen Matt Rose prepare for competition.
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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MARION -- It was at a church picnic next to a gurgling mountain stream when Richard Formato learned one of the potential effects of driving a truck covered with fly fishing stickers.
You might be asked for a favor.
When Beth Marcotte of Wytheville saw Formato's truck, she thought about her 13-year-old grandson, had been talking all summer about his desire to go fly fishing.
"I thought, 'I've got a mountain stream and a man with a fish on his car,'" recalled Marcotte, who boldly approached Formato and asked if he would mind taking young Matt Rose fly fishing.
What was Formato going to say?
"I thought, 'I'll take the kid fishing for an hour, make his grandmother happy and be done with it," Formato said.
That was five years ago, and Formato isn't done with it.
He and Rose, who is 18 now and crazier than ever about fly fishing, are often together on the stream.
Having honed his skills on Virginia's tough trout and under Formato's guidance, Rose has developed into a skilled angler.
In two weeks he will be on his way to the Czech Republic to compete in the FIPS-Mouche World Youth Fly Fishing Championship.
This will be Rose's third time in the world championship, having competed in 2007 in Pennsylvania and in Portugal last summer.
Last year in Portugal, Rose finished 12th, second best on the U.S. squad.
"The streams around here are great practice," said Rose, who lives in Largo, Fla., but spends his summers with Marcotte, who retired to Wytheville from Florida in 2001. "The fish are wild, so the streams are hard to fish."
George Daniel, the head coach of the U.S. team, agreed.
"Matthew's strength is probably small streams and tight brush," said Daniel, one of the top competitive fly anglers in the country. "That's why when we were in Portugal he did so well.
"The waters in Portugal are a lot like the waters back home."
On a recent pleasant June afternoon, Rose was on one of those tight streams, making it look easy as he fished a section of the South Fork of the Holston River.
Rose carefully waded the small stream, arcing graceful casts into spots that looked like they might hold a trout.
He was fishing with a two-fly rig. The top fly was a buoyant dry fly tied to imitate a caddis fly. Below it hung a small nymph that mimics the larval stage of an aquatic insect.
When the caddis fly jolted as a fish took the nymph, Rose set the hook into a feisty South Holston rainbow.
As Rose pulled in his fish he reached for the landing net that hung off a hook on the back of his fly vest.
He really didn't need to net the small trout, but he uses a net always because it's good practice for competition.
After briefly admiring the trout, Rose released it and went back to casting.
Formato stood nearby, contentedly watching.
"My greatest reward is watching Matthew progress as a fly angler," said Formato, himself an avid competitive fly angler.
The transformation from that initial trip with Formato, on which Rose caught his first trout, has been great.
That first introduction was the only time Rose and Formato connected that first summer. But the next year Formato took him out of the water several more times, and they've been fishing together regularly since.
"He is so coachable, and like a sponge," Formato said.
Rose also has spent plenty of time practicing on his own.
"It was really hard at first," Rose said. "I'd go into a fly shop and just be overwhelmed.
"It took me about a year to be able to come out and to fish by myself and catch a fish."
As Rose improved, he became intrigued by the idea of competitive fly angling. In 2007 he decided to try out for the U.S. junior team.
Thirty young anglers showed up for the tryouts on the waters around State College, Pa. As cuts were made, Rose remained. At a second round of tryouts of the top 10 youth anglers, Rose finished in the top five and made the team for the World Championships, which were held in Pennsylvania that summer.
Anglers must qualify each year. Rose made the team again in 2008 and this year.
Because he will still be 18 on Jan. 1, 2010, Rose will be eligible to try out for the youth team for one more year.
Being able to fish well is not the only requirement.
The team has no major sponsors, so members are responsible for paying their own way.
Rose uses the money he makes working as a soccer official to help with his fishing expenses. This summer he's doing odd jobs for Formato to earn some money.
Marcotte helps out financially some, too, as does Formato.
"I've always believed that you don't limit anyone's dreams," Formato said.
On the water, Rose excels because he takes such a good mental approach, Daniel said.
"He's able to relax while still very aggressively attacking the water," Daniel said.
In competitive fly fishing, anglers are randomly assigned to certain sections, or beats, of a river or lake. Because stretches can be vastly different in terms of the number of fish, luck can play a part in the results.
"The world champion can come back the next year and finish last if he gets a bad draw," Daniel said. "If Matthew gets a good draw, he has the potential to be in the top five."
Rose, who graduated from high school this spring and hopes to attend a junior college in Florida in the fall, said he enjoys fishing for high stakes.
"I love the competitive aspect of it," he said. "I've got to get better and better."
Which is why, as soon as he gets back from the Czech Republic in late July, he'll be back on his home waters of Western Virginia, working toward next year's team tryouts.
July 11 Nature: The Blue Ridge Wildflower Society will host a field trip to Bent Mountain, Poor Mountain and along the Blue Ridge Parkway to look for high-elevation flora. Meet at 9 a.m. at Cave Spring Middle School for the free trip, for which guests are welcome. For more information call Butch Kelly at 384-7429.
