Fly Fishing on the North Fork with Paden Wilcox

Four years ago, Paden Wilcox mentioned to Mike Kromrey, executive director of the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, that he’d always wanted to try fly fishing. Kromrey told him to go get a rod, and the rest is history. “It was December 10th of 2017 the first time [we] went fly fishing,” Wilcox says. “We went again in February, and I was just obsessed. I immediately lost myself in it.” He says it brings him back to himself after a busy work week. He could talk for hours about the serene waterscape at the North Fork of the White River, where he finds a kind of peace he can look forward to during on-the-go days. “My wife, if I haven’t been in a while, she’ll be like, ‘You need to go fishing,’” he says. The sport also provides an opportunity to build lasting friendships with clients; he jokes that it’s his version of golf.