Meet San Francisco Native Maxine McCormick

At the 2016 Flycasting World Championship in Estonia, a pre-teen surpassed all the women in the popular “trout accuracy” category and scored higher then all but one man, her coach, Chris Korich. That competitor was Maxine McCormick, then 12.

According to the New York Times, “In the five years since Maxine began fly casting — which she describes as ‘fly fishing without the fish’ — she has become the sport’s youngest champion. And (in August), at 14, she defended her accuracy title at the world championships in England with a score of 52 in the women’s division — 21 points clear of the second-place finisher. She also won the salmon distance category.”

“She’s the most efficient fly caster on the planet,” said Korich, who has been coaching Maxine since 2013. “I don’t know anyone in history that can claim to be better.”

Read more about this young California phenomena here.