From discovering competitive fly fishing in a North Carolina shot bulletin to helping lead

Team USA to the world stage, Chris Smith has spent the past 15 years shaping a new era of American

competition fly fishing. We traced Chris's journey from his first tournament in 2009 to coaching

youth anglers, mentoring future world champions, and representing the U.S.

masters in Spain.

He breaks down the systems and mindset that have helped Team USA rise to the podium, from

water to perfecting presentation to building a true team medal mentality.

Hey, I'm Dave, host of the Travel Podcast series, exploring waters of the West, the people,

and places that define the spirit of fly fishing.

Chris Smith is here to share his best zero-nymphing tips today.

We get advice on adjusting rod angle and leader length to control your depth.

We find out about reading A, B, and C water.

And we jump into what French-style upstream presentation is like and how that differs from more of a up and across versus the straight up presentation.

And we talk about mixing drifts, swings, and subtle jigging for triggering takes on the fly.

This episode is presented by Visit Idaho and Yellowstone

Teton Territory, home to some of the most storied and scenic waters of the American West. All right,

let's jump into this one. Here we go. Chris Smith. You can find him at usangling.org. How's it going,

Chris? Oh, it's going well, Dave. Thanks for the invitation. Yeah, yeah, this is going to be a fun one. You are intertwined in all things Team USA, which is exciting. You know, you're involved. Well, it's cool because your wife, Melissa, was on the podcast already. And I think she was on before the event this year. And she just won a silver medal, the team took home of gold. You've been a youth coach, you are on the senior team, and you're on the master's team. So you've got a lot going to Team USA. Tell me, take it back there real quick. Did you, like, what did it take? Has this been a slow growth to get to where you're all things Team USA? It has. It has. I didn't begin fly fishing until I was in my 30s. And I competed in my first

fly fishing tournament in 2009. In Lake Lower and North Carolina, it was called the Olympiad Flymasters.

And so since 2009, it has been my goal, my endeavor, right, to make the national team and have an opportunity to fish at the world level. So that's a good 15 years or so, 16 years or so. That's amazing. So 2009, you kind of get into it. And how did you hear about fly fishing? What was your first, you know, how did you even realize that was something you could do? Yeah, I was certainly an avid fly fisherman and was spending a lot of time on the water, but I saw an announcement in a local fly shop. There was a two-day tournament in Lake Lour, North Carolina. The format was the first day was a casting competition. And then those folks who finished in the top 10 in the casting competition got to move on to the actual fishing portion.

I showed up and Dave, there was an all-star lineup there. There was Josh Stevens from Team

USA. There was Walker Parrot. He was the ESPN fly fishing masters champion. Oh, wow.

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