Scott Pros
Noah Thompson
United States, Texas, Austin
Email: noah.thompson@colorado.edu
In my short-lived 20 years, I have been fortunate to have traveled and fished more places than one could ask to see in a lifetime. My love for the outdoors began from a very young age when my parents refused to ever let me sit in front of the TV or a computer screen longer than I had to be. I never had a play station or an xbox controller in my hands, but I did have one of the best bass lakes in the south running through my back yard, Lake Austin.
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, I spent every moment I had in the woods trying to get my hands on the most poisonous snakes and spiders I could find, or on my dock staring at my bobber for hours on end even when the fish didn’t want to cooperate. Around the time I came into this world, my father had recently taken up fly fishing, and for my fifth birthday celebrated in Telluride, Colorado, I got my first fly rod; an 8 foot 6 inch Orvis 3 weight, and shortly thereafter I caught my first fish on a fly, a small brookie from the San Miguel. For the years to come, my entire summers were spent all over the west traveling with my father from Colorado to Wyoming to Utah, Idaho and Montana, and fly fishing quickly became a way of life, and a passion which would foster my relationship with my dad far beyond the rivers edge. I remember year after year my father returning from his trips to the Keys and telling me about tarpon and permit and fish I had never seen, I was intrigued to say the least. When I was 9, I was finally introduced to the salt for the first time in Marathon, where I came tight on my first tarpon from a large school of chaining fish. The thrill of a big bass smashing a popper or an airborne rainbow was undeniable, but the rush of something on my line that was bigger than I was opened my eyes to a new world, and since, saltwater has consumed me.
When I was 11, by an act of chance I crossed paths with the former coach of the US Youth Flyfishing Team, John Wilson. Wilson began coaching me in the tactics of competitive angling, and the next year, I attended the World Championships in State College, PA, as an unofficial observer. At 14, I was finally eligible to compete, though again traveled with the team to worlds in the Czech Republic as an unofficial alternate. The next year, 2010, I fished with the team as a competitor at worlds in Slovakia where I finished well enough to earn an individual bronze medal. In 2011, we traveled to worlds in Italy where I individually finished 8th, and for the first time in history the US Youth Team brought home the team gold medal. The next year, I traveled with the team to France, where we took home the team silver medal, and although I had two more years of eligibility I chose to resign to pursue other opportunities.
I am currently a sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder pursuing my degree in business with a concentration in adventure tourism business management, though when I am not in school, I enjoy chasing just about anything that swims. When home in Texas, I spend every chance I get running my 17 ft Ankona Native skiff along the central Texas coast in pursuit of primarily redfish, tarpon, jacks, cobia and kingfish. The only thing I love more than coming tight on a big fish myself is sharing my passion with others and guiding friends into the experience of a lifetime.
I have a sister 8 years younger and a brother 6 years younger, who has much to learn, but I am proud to say he’s following in my footsteps, and I cherish every moment on the water with him. Each summer I spend a month or so in the Bay Islands of Honduras working with Flyfish Guanaja, operating a student program with an emphasis on sustainable development, habitat restoration and an introduction to saltwater flyfishing. Next to fishing, my second love is waterfowl and bow hunting, whether it is chasing Rio Grande turkey, wild pigs, and white tails in the Texas hill country, or Merriam’s and bugling bulls in the Rockies, for me it is the only thing that can compare to the sweet sound of a screaming drag.
