As Westlake High School students headed back to classes last week, the halls echoed with tales of what everyone had been up to over the summer.

While many of his classmates were lounging by the pool, heading to the lake or blazing through the latest video game, sophomore Noah Thompson was braving frigid water to compete in the Youth World Fly Fishing Championship in Slovakia to bring home the bronze medal.

The 15-year-old angler said that after the competition he was told he became only the second American in his age group to ever bring home a medal and is possibly the youngest youth team member to medal at the world championships.

Thompson began fly fishing at age 5 with his father, Randy, near their home on Lake Austin.

“I really liked it a lot, and I just stayed really focused on it,” Thompson said. “As I got older, my dad and I started going on trips, and we just kept doing it during the summer.”

Some of his favorite local fishing areas include Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake and the Pedernales, Colorado and San Marcos rivers. He catches mostly catfish, gar, bass and carp there but rarely keeps anything he catches.

“I hate keeping fish,” Thompson said. “I can’t do it. I throw back pretty much everything I catch – I’ll eat fish, but not the ones I catch.”

In addition to the local waterways, Thompson has traveled to Alaska, all over the western U.S., Florida, parts of Europe and Honduras to cast his line. He fishes nearly every weekend and gets to spend a lot of time with his dad taking trips.

“It’s definitely a father-son thing,” Thompson said.

During his travels, he’s picked tips and tricks from guides and other anglers.

“You pick up all the smaller details – where to fish, how to fish,” Thompson said. “I’m constantly learning new things.”

He joined the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing team in 2007, but this summer was the first time that he competed at the world championships, although he traveled with the team to championships in Pennsylvania, Portugal and Czech Republic.

“It’s different in each place that you go to,” Thompson said. “You have to go after the fish differently. You have to know the different types of fish and know the conditions and adapt.”

The team usually goes a few days early to each competition to practice in the water, but they spend months learning the fish, the conditions and the types of bugs the fish will like.

At the world championships, team members, ranging in age from 14-19 for the youth competition, fish a given stretch of water over two and half days. Individual and team awards are given.

During the competition in Slovakia, Thompson thought he had a less-than-great last day on the water. As he walked up to his teammates, they told him he had taken the bronze.