Get Every Body on the Water: Serene Cusack, Fatty on the Fly & Outcast Anglers

Serene Cusack is the huge smile, infectious laugh and indomitable spirit behind Fatty on the Fly and Outcast Anglers.

Serene’s hero’s journey kind of started like many others we talk about on the pod - she started looking around while she was doing her favorite outdoor activities, and realized that no one looked like her, and decided she could do something about it, or at least try to show up more visibly as a self-defined fat person who loved to fly fish.

Cue the pandemic, and Serene was stuck at home on furlough thinking all the things on repeat. But instead of getting bummed out and discouraged, she let her mind wander (wade?!?) into all kinds of new ideas about building community around the water. And for trying to hold a very exclusive-not-in-a-good-way industry accountable for its lack of efforts to welcome more and different anglers into the ‘club’.

Please note, I felt like I had to mark this one as explicit because we get a little bit salty when we start talking about internet trolls, but in all honesty, Serene’s message can and should be heard by all but the youngest kids. So I hope you’ll let this one keep on playing, even if you and the tweeners are listening in traffic on the way to the 97th soccer game of the week...

I also hope you’ll go feed off Serene's boundless energy by following her @Fattyonthefly on Instagram and Facebook, and if you have any interest whatsoever in learning to fly fish - actually ON the water, not just a big lawn - keep an eye on ConfluenceCollective.org for more information about the 2023 Outcast Campout dates. Or better yet, connect with Serene and Bri directly if you want to help plan your own campout at your own awesome, local, 100% fish-guaranteed river! Let’s all take a page out of Serene’s book and make a point of building the communities we want to be part of!

Speaking of community, I hope you'll join Guides Gone Wild for our next live event - Iron Chef Weekend - November 4th through 6th! Sign up here for more information, and to be notified when registration is live.

And finally, some links from my chat with Serene:

• Bri Dostie guests on Guides Gone Wild
• Sign up for Confluence Collective’s newsletter and weekly virtual office hours
• Panther Martin lures
• Gallatin River (MT)
• Spider Man rod
• Confluence Collective coloring pages
• Outdoors for All (NC)
• Ranger Outdoors (TN) 
• Miss Mayfly waders
• Madison River (MT/WY) - watch out for those waders!
• Flex Tape
• Plus Snow
• Plus Outdoor
• XTM
• Oros strike indicators (aka bobbers)