Ribbons of fog hung over Bald Eagle Creek as Angelo Conti made cast after cast into the stream’s slightly off-color waters on Wednesday morning. Things could have been going better for the 17- year-old Conti — at the beginning of the contest session, he had spent 13 precious minutes re-rigging his fly rod after losing his fly and part of his leader on the stream bottom. Then he hooked, played and lost two nice trout in rapid succession.

Conti had just finished the final day of his high school junior year in New Jersey, and his father drove him to State College the following day to participate in the first-ever U.S. National Youth Flyfishing Championship. The two-day competition was held in Centre County on June 21-22.

Conti had only landed four trout during the first two sessions of the contest and now he was having difficulty again on day two. The same drama was being played out on different segments of Bald Eagle and Spring creeks as 26 teens vied for a medal in the U.S. Championships and possible placement on Team USA for future world competition. The young anglers had been selected from their participation in clinics, which had been held earlier this year in Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

In a neighboring beat, Boone, N.C., angler Matt Michel caught his first trout of the session on Wednesday.

“I could just feel the weight being lifted off of his shoulders when he landed that first trout,” commented Michel’s controller, Paul Swanson.

Conti did manage to land and release three trout — measuring 20, 32 and 32 centimeters, respectively, before the end of the three-hour session. The trout earned him second place within his sub-group. Michel also caught three trout, but they were smaller and netted him fifth place.

Using a combination of luck and considerable skill, other young anglers fared better during the four-session competition. Contest streams were high and discolored on Day 1 of the competition, but nearly perfect on the second day. The 26 young anglers landed a total of 379 trout.

Cameron Chioffiof Wellesley, Mass., caught the longest trout, a Spring Creek brown measuring 50 centimeters (about 191/ 2 inches). State College angler Aston Boone caught the most trout — 42 — but using the official scoring system which pits small groups of anglers against each other for placement points, Boone finished with a bronze medal rather than gold. Stephen Salwocki, another Pennsylvania fisherman, caught 38 trout, the second-highest number, but his placement points put him fourth.

Suwanee, Ga., angler Hunter Hoffler caught 27 trout and had enough placement points to take the gold medal. Cody Burgdorff, from Lafayette, Colo., recorded 26 trout and won the silver medal.

Winning strategies

Several of the top anglers shared their successful techniques.

“I usually work my beat from bottom to top so that I do not spook anything,” commented 15-year-old Hoffler. “I really tried to mix things up — constantly fishing the same ‘hole’ using different flies, techniques and angles to try to pick up those trout that everyone else might have missed.” After catching a trout, Hoffler usually rested a particular spot for about 30 minutes before returning to it and trying a different technique.

Burgdorff used a heavier tippet to help get his flies “down to where the fish are.” He thinks that is always essential, particularly in higher water.

Boone, who fished over 150 days last year, credited knowledge of his local water as being an advantage. “I just knew that the trout were there, so I worked very slowly through the best areas in my beat,” Boone said. “The drift was more important than the type of fly. I worked to get a natural drift through the best holding lies. Seventeen of the 23 trout that I caught on Wednesday morning came from just 15 yards of Spring Creek.”

Salwocki also acknowledged his familiarity with the streams and the importance of recognizing where to find fish. “The Bald Eagle Creek was off-color Tuesday, but knowing that there were stocked rainbow trout in the stream dictated where and how I would fish to them,” Salwocki shared. “Having fished Spring Creek numerous times this year during receding flows, I also knew where the fish would hold when I fished it on Wednesday.”

Salwocki caught 31 trout on Spring Creek the second day.

Successful flies

“On the first day, when Spring Creek was blown out (high and cloudy), I used the flashiest nymph in my box, which was a fly I tied using a hare’s ear ice dub blend and a hairline rubber legged tail, as well as rubber legs in the thorax,” Hoffler offered. “On Bald Eagle Creek, the size 18 rubber-legged Yellow Sally nymph worked really well.”

Burgdorff had success with several flies. “I used size 14 and 16 sow bugs on Spring Creek. On Bald Eagle Creek, I caught most of my fish on size 20 pheasant tails or stripping small olive woolly buggers through the deeper holes,” he said.

Salwocki, of Danville, varied his flies based on water conditions.

“I used a Vladi worm and hare’s ears to win the first session and get a fourth in the second session on Bald Eagle,” he said.

With more normal water on Wednesday, Salwocki took trout on terrestrials such as sunken ants, beetles and green weenies.

Making it work

According to Team USA president John Ford, about 75 volunteers were necessary to make this event a success.

“This was a cooperative effort by the team directors, volunteers and the Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau,” Ford said. “It is the volunteers that make an event like this possible and I want to thank each of them, as well as the Visitors Bureau.”

According to Team USA treasurer and webmaster Bob Vierck, it is likely that the 2012 youth national championships will be held in North Carolina or Colorado next summer.

“Although some might like to have it in Centre County every year, this is truly a national competition and we want to involve as many teenagers from different areas of the country as we can,” Vierck, of State College, said.

Event volunteer coordinator Chris Haser said team coach Lance Wilt, from Lamar, will soon be naming the travel team who will compete in the 2011 World Championships, which will be held in late August and early September in Italy. The World Championships were last held in Pennsylvania in 2007.

“The entire event was successful and everything worked out well,” Ford said. “We are here to help make the kids proud of themselves and this is the best group of kids that we have ever fielded. We are looking for good things to happen in Italy.”

Haser agreed, “In my opinion, this is top-to-bottom the best group of kids we have had to date.”

Mark Nale, who lives in the Bald Eagle Valley, is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association. He can be reached at MarkAngler@aol.com.