She started fishing to connect with her late husband. She started a company because of the problems she ran into.
Fort Collins woman starts fly-fishing company to introduce other women to the sport and the peace it brings her
She’s Fly/Courtesy photo
Brokenhearted and missing the man she’d loved since she was 12, Dylan Demery dug out her husband’s fishing gear, things she bought him for his birthday, as a way to connect with him.
Tony loved to fish, so much so that he would sometimes go straight from the office after work, and Dylan loved to be with him when he did. She loved the joy it brought him, and she loved the way he’d greet a fish as he reeled it in. “Hey, little guy,” he’d say before thanking it and tossing it back.
She’d hoped for a little of the peace fishing gave him, but she was surprised at how much it gave back. She actually enjoyed it, so much so that she tried fly fishing. She fell in love with it, soaked in the serenity it gave her and felt empowered enough to start a fly-fishing company in 2020 that introduces women to the sport and sells them gear designed to fit them.
Tony and Demery were both 31 when he died in 2009 from a head injury after a seizure. It was quick and awful, she said, and fly-fishing took the horror of it away, even more than meditating, another valuable piece of her healing journey.
“I could get in the water and feel it,” Demery said. “It’s been so incredible for me.”
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