Pittsburgh-area man helps team win bronze at World Fly Fishing Championships

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A local man reeled in a big win at a huge competition overseas after competing in the World Fly Fishing Championships.

Fly fishing is a sport that Michael Komara has always enjoyed.

"I've always really loved fishing. My parents got me into it when I was pretty young. I had an aunt that gifted me all of her old fly fishing stuff when I was around 8 years old," he said.

In June, Komara competed in the 43rd World Fly Fishing Championships in southern France where individually he placed 24th out of 115 competitors from 23 countries. His team placed third, receiving a bronze medal.

His teammates were from all over the country. Komara represented Pennsylvania and he handmade all of the lures he fished with.

"It was an awesome experience. It's something I've been working towards since I was 12, so definitely a great time," Komara said.

He trained with local coaches to prepare and he thanks his parents for their unwavering support over the years.

"Definitely got to thank my parents for putting up with it for 12 years, they still come to a lot of my competitions, driving me to the river to go fishing," he said.

His favorite thing about fly fishing has been the doors it has opened up.

"The big thing for me at this point is it's really kind of an interesting way to see the world and travel through a very different lens than most people get to experience. So I've been to a lot of places and ended up in areas that you'd never go to if you weren't there to go fishing. I've met a lot of people I wouldn't have met otherwise," he said.

He enjoys teaching others and currently works as a coach while also planning to compete more in the future.

"The most fish I've caught in a competition was probably somewhere in the 50s in about two hours in a local competition and the biggest fish I caught was called a huchen, which is a bigger version of a trout when I was in Slovenia in world championships, and that was probably close to 3 feet long," he said.