Michael Bradley

2026 FIPS-Mouche World Fly Fishing Champion — the first American to win the individual world title since the championship began in 1981 — and member of Team USA's 2026 World Championship gold medal team.

Michael Bradley won the individual title at the 2026 FIPS-Mouche World Fly Fishing Championship (45th edition), September 13–18, 2026, held across venues in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. He finished with 20 placing points and never placed worse than seventh in any session. He was a member of the Team USA squad that won the program's first-ever Senior World Fly Fishing Championship team gold in 2026.

Michael Bradley is one of the most decorated competitive fly fishermen in the United States — an internationally recognized angler, proud member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and a deeply rooted steward of the waters of western North Carolina. His story is inseparable from the land and people he comes from.

Michael grew up in Cherokee, NC, on his family's campground along Bunches Creek, a property his grandfather purchased in 1950. Surrounded by the ancient ridgelines of the Great Smoky Mountains and the cold, clear streams threading through the Cherokee Indian Reservation, he began fishing at a very young age alongside his grandfather. That early bond with moving water planted a seed that would eventually grow into one of the most impressive competitive careers in American fly fishing.

He took up fly fishing seriously in 2011 and quickly fell in love with the technical precision and competitive dimension of the sport. His rise was rapid. By 2016 he had earned a spot on Fly Fishing Team USA, and he has represented his country at the World Fly Fishing Championship continuously since 2018, competing on the international stage in Italy, Tasmania, Spain, and Slovakia. His World Championship résumé includes a Team Bronze and an Individual Bronze earned in France — results that place him among the elite of the sport globally.

Domestically, Bradley's record is equally impressive. He has accumulated 11 FFTUSA competition medals over his career, including three individual National Championship medals — one gold and two bronze — plus a team silver and a team gold. He has also won the prestigious Rumble tournament four times, cementing his status as one of the most consistent and formidable competitors in the sport.

When he is not on the international competition circuit, Michael is on the water at home. He logs up to 300 days a year guiding through his business, Fly Fish Cherokee, taking anglers of all experience levels onto the waters of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Tuckasegee River. His guiding reflects both technical mastery and a genuine love for sharing the sport with others.