Missouri Angler Profile- Tyler (The Fly Guy)

Name (first only):

Tyler 

Height:

6'3"

Weight:

200 on a good day

Age:

38

Years of Fishing Experience:

35

Hometown:

THE Kearney, Missouri

Currently Residing In:

Blue Springs, Missouri

Earliest Fishing Memory:

Fishing for channel cats with my dad and grandma in the farm pond behind my grandma and grandpa's house.  My dad or grandma would usually hook the fish for me and I would get to reel them in.

Favorite Fishing Story:

While attending Iron Fly Kansas City in 2015, I started talking to the guys from The Midwest Drift.  they told me that I should be throwing flies for wipers in April off the dam of Blue Springs Lake.  The next day, I did exactly what they told me to do and landed an 8 pound wiper.  It is the only skin mount that I own and it was the hardest fighting fish I have ever hooked on a fly rod.

Favorite Fishing Partner:

My dad, my buddy Busch, and my buddy Pat.

One person you would like to fish with (dead or alive):

Jesus

Who/What got you started fishing?

My dad got me started fishing when I was younger.  When I was about 23 though, he bought me a fly rod for Christmas because I had been going down to Bennett Spring with my buddy Busch and catching trout on spinning tackle.  I had mentioned to him that I was really amazed and impressed by fly fishermen and that Busch and I were thinking about getting into fly fishing.  A year later, after becoming serviceable with a fly rod, he got me a fly tying kit.  He said, "You figured out how to use that fly rod.  Now let's see if you can figure that out."

What is your favorite fishing spot in Missouri?

Either a farm pond that will go unnamed or Lake Taneycomo

What is your favorite lure/fly/technique?

For trout, a fly my son calls "The Skeleton".
For bass, The Brave.

What is your favorite species to fish for?

Trout

What percent of the time do you catch and release?

99.9%

What is the weirdest thing that you have seen on the water?

I saw a bullfrog try to mate with the hollow-bodied frog that I was throwing for bass one day.  That was pretty weird.  I also saw a dead tree so full of vultures one time that one of the branches broke and they scattered like roaches when a light comes on.  I also saw a snapping turtle bight a darter in half in a trout stream and a heron catch a crappie so big that it couldn't get it down its throat.

What is one place that you want to fish in Missouri, but haven’t before?

Somewhere for muskie like Pomme de Terre.