Moragan Lands Team USA Gold In World Fly Fishing Competition

Moraga's Robbie Wirth is a fisherman. And not just any sit-on-the- bank, wet your line and wait for the fish to do the work fisherman, nossir. When he ticks off the list of countries he's visited in pursuit of his elusive prize each one comes with a story of the time he spent fly fishing there.

The Campolindo High School senior describes riding a helicopter over the mountains of New Zealand to find waters that had never - ever - been fished. Above the equator, there’s the time he fished on an island near Honduras that was about the size of a basketball court. And then there was Wirth’s latest destination - Sansepolcro, Italy - most recent venue of the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships.

Competing there with Team USA earlier this month Wirth helped the team to a Gold Medal finish, while placing tenth himself in the overall individual competition.

In three-hour blocks at the Tiber River, each fisherman tried to rack up catches. Wirth said the closest he came to an Ernest Hemingway-style fight of man versus nature occurred when he yanked a fish from behind a log, pulled it through the air, and landed it in a net.

But for the most part, fly fishing is not a sport known for flair.

“It takes a lot of patience, I don’t know how to describe how much,” he said. “You can go a whole day without having a bite, then you have to have the will to go out and do it again tomorrow.”

Wirth, who also plays varsity basketball for Campolindo, said he prefers fishing because it’s such a complex process. 

“You have to find out what the fish are eating, present the fly to them correctly, know where the fish are in the river,” he said. “There are a bunch of different aspects that anybody who doesn’t fly fish doesn’t understand.”

He paints a picture of the river in Italy in strategic terms: The clear water runs at a high pressure, which makes the fish scare easily. The trees flanking the banks are a common hiding place for the fish.

Since joining Team USA a few years ago, Wirth has learned about the art of angling during international competitions with teams from countries such as South Africa, Ireland and the Czech Republic. He  practices different techniques with his teammates when they meet in Pennsylvania three times a year.

But much of his know-how comes from years of experience – Wirth’s uncles taught him to fly fish when he was six years old, and he’s been going on family fishing trips ever since.

More recently, his uncles inspired him to build a 16-foot drift boat over nine months. Wirth uses his boat to travel locally, on the McKenzie River in Oregon, the Sacramento River and the American River.

One day, Wirth hopes to compete for the national men’s fly fishing team, but for now he’s occupied with schoolwork back in Moraga - and dreams of languid water and eager fish.