In this episode we WadeOutThere with Tyler Mills from St.Paul, Minnesota. Tyler grew up gear fishing with his friends and family in upstate New York, spending nearly every day of the summer on the St. Lawrence River. It didn’t take long for Tyler to find fly fishing, which he took with him to Seattle where he worked in the snowboard industry.
When he lost his job during COVID, Tyler ended up finding himself learning a new fishery every three months while he visited his then girlfriend, and current wife, who was a traveling nurse. When they landed in Wyoming, Tyler left his life in Seattle and turned to fly fishing for the presence and peace that it brought him and others, while he supported his wife’s nursing career.
Tyler’s passion for fly fishing also brought him a new career in Minnesota, where he is a fly fishing guide and jet boat captain on the Upper Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers, targeting smallmouth.
We discuss how fly fishing helps us all be more present, how COVID gave Tyler the opportunity to grow as an angler by learning new fisheries, and Tyler’s two favorite presentation techniques for hooking up with smallmouth on top of and below the water.
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