August 12, 2025
By Fly Fisherman Staff
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Mike Komara grew up competitive trout fishing, first with the US Youth Fly Fishing Team and most recently with the adult Fly Fishing Team USA where the team won a bronze medal at the 2025 World Fly Fishing Championships in the Czech Republic. But trout are only one piece of the puzzle for this young guide, educator, and owner of Innovative Angling. Mike also chases snakeheads in the Chesapeake, muskies in big rivers, and he’s traveled all over Argentina on a DIY adventure for golden dorado. In this episode, Mike shares his dry-fly secrets, how he never uses rooster hackle, and how he made his CDC dry fly flies bounce, hop, and skitter at the world championships.
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Truncated transcript:
00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:51.460: Hi, I'm Ross Purnell, editor and publisher of Fly Fisherman Magazine. Welcome to Loop to Loop, where we take a deep dive into the people behind the magazine. We're sponsored today by Patagonia. Patagonia has a great new line of kick-ass waders, Swiftcurrent Waders, and they have Stealth Switch Packs that are built to go with the waders. If you like a system that works great together and a product package that doesn't use any PFAS, those tiny little micro-molecules that pollute the waterways, check out the new waders and packs from Patagonia.
00:00:51.700 --> 00:01:21.660: We're also sponsored today by G. Loomis, American-made fly rods made in Woodland, Washington. I've been using G Loomis rods for well over 20 years. My friend Steve Rayjoff got me started on them decades ago. And currently in my quiver right now, I've got NRX Plus, Asquith, IMX Pro rods for different situations and different applications. If you haven't tried G Loomis rods, you should check them out.
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00:02:04.460 --> 00:02:43.740: Today, we are honored to have in our studio with us Mike Komara, who's also from Pennsylvania. Our studio is here in Pennsylvania. And Mike was recently a member of Team USA Fly Fishing. They competed in the World Fly Fishing Championships in Czechoslovakia the last week of May and the United States won a gold medal, which is impressive. Second championship in a row where didn't Team USA win a bronze in the previous one in France?
00:02:43.740 --> 00:03:18.940: We did, yeah. This was our second bronze and second time being pretty close to silver actually. Well, welcome. I'm glad to have you in the studio, and there's so much I want to learn about you and what happened with the team. What it's like to do competitive fly fishing. Just like a little disclaimer, I don't know Mike at all. Hardly at all. So we are going to have a conversation where we get to know each other. And I'm betting we know a lot of the same people, though.
00:03:18.940 --> 00:03:38.300: I'm sure. I'm sure. But yeah, thanks for having me out. Honor is all mine. So I really appreciate you having me on the podcast to talk about what I love to do. So. Well, I'd like to know a little more about you. This is this your first time being on the like the World Championship team for Team USA?
00:03:38.300 --> 00:04:06.700: So last year was my first time on the men's team. So the uh over 18 or over 19 squad um and then I was also on the U.S. youth team for I believe five four or five years um in my youth, so from like 2016 to 2019, I think. And I went to three world championships with them…
