Daniel entered the third and final day of competition for a slot on the 15-member Fly Fishing Team USA with a good chance of taking the silver medal and only a slight chance for gold.

He faced dangerous high water on Fishing Creek in Clinton County, one of four streams that fly anglers from across the country had to fish in three days of competition. Fishing Creek's water raged to flood conditions.

"We were literally fishing in the woods," said Daniel, referring to the stream's overflowed banks.

Daniel is employed and sponsored by the TCO Fly Shop in State College. (TCO is headquartered in West Lawn. Originally known as Tulpehocken Creek Outfitters, the company has grown under the TCO banner to include five full-service fly shops in Pennsylvania and New York.)

According to Daniel's wife, Amidea: "George was on Fishing Creek, one of his favorite home waters, but, he knew it was going to be tough. His "beat" or section of stream was nestled against the mountain and was still flood stage, meaning there was a lot of white water. He knew that he needed to find the most productive pockets and just work them until he caught a measurable trout.

"The volunteer who had controlled that section the entire weekend had yet to measure a fish. Knowing all of this George went into it like any other session and 20 minutes into the three-hour session George landed and measured his first trout, a nice brown trout.

The next trout was caught while fighting white water around the bend in the stream. Once caught he sprinted down to the controller and got it measured, another brown trout. The third trout came all the way from the other side of the stream, in which George fought brutal white water, getting swept downstream a few times while crossing over and back with the trout to be measured. That lucky catch was a brook trout measuring in at 190½ mm. The trout needed to be at least 180mm to count."

This is Daniel's second gold medal in US National competition and he will lead Team USA in the international FIPS-Mouche World Championships in Poland next June. FIPS-Mouche (Mouche is French for fly or insect.} is the governing body for international flying fishing competition.

The fly that Daniel relied on for his impressive win on Fishing Creek was a root beer bugger, introduced to him by a TCO customer.

"Its made with root beer colored chenille, pumpkin legs and a lot of flash," Daniel said.

I suggest that Tony Gehman, owner of TCO Fly Shops, have a good supply of root beer buggers in stock. We have a lot of high water and plenty of determined fly anglers around here too.

A radio interview with George Daniel can be heard at GreatDayOutdoors.com.

Contact Roger Mallon at 610-371-5060 or sports@readingeagle.com