For Sue Kerver, fly fishing was never just about learning how to cast a line.

It was about learning how to come back to herself.

Today, Sue is a Montana-based fly fishing instructor, Coast Guard veteran, and soon-to-be published author of The Starfish Chronicles: One Warrior Woman’s Odyssey from Surviving to Thriving. Through her program Two Gals and a Boat, she teaches women how to fly fish, but what she’s really creating goes much deeper than the river.

Because for Sue, the river is where everything started to shift.

For years, Sue built a life rooted in service, working in federal roles, spending over a decade in the U.S. Coast Guard, and navigating high-level leadership spaces. From the outside, it looked strong, capable, and put together.

But like many people, there was more happening beneath the surface.

She describes always being drawn to nature, growing up in Colorado, connected to the sun, the grass, and the outdoors, but it wasn’t until she found fly fishing that something clicked in a new way.

At first, it wasn’t easy.

“It was intimidating and a bit scary,” she said. “How do I do this thing that seems so complicated?”

There were tangled lines, flies stuck in trees, and moments where she felt like she didn’t belong.

“I was usually the only woman,” she said. “And I felt like I had to represent this whole group.”

That feeling, of being unsure, out of place, and trying to prove yourself, is something many women know well.

In 2020, Sue decided to attend guide school, not because she wanted to become a guide, but because she wanted to understand, learn, and improve.

“I was so tired of feeling like the worst person on the river when I was out with my veteran friends. I was always the one getting my flies stuck in the trees, and honestly, it hurt, because I wanted to be better than that,” she said.

What she found there changed many things.  For the first time, she was in an all-women’s environment where learning felt supportive instead of intimidating.

“There was support, there was lifting each other up, there was encouragement,” she said. “We could fail and it was no big deal.”

That experience became the foundation for the work she does today.

Through Two Gals and a Boat, Sue created a seven-part fly fishing series where women learn together over time, not just the technical skills, and not a guided trip down the river, but most importantly they learn to open up and trust themselves in the process.

“They not only learn the skills,” she said, “they also find their community. You’re succeeding together, failing together, trying together.”  And that’s where something powerful happens.

Women join Sue’s course for all different reasons, some want independence, some want connection, some just want to try something new, but many arrive carrying the same quiet doubt.

By the end, that doubt begins to shift.

Sue remembers standing in the river during the final session one season, watching the group as the sun set.

“They were helping each other,” she said. “These women who didn’t know each other before were reminding each other what to do.”

And in that moment, it all clicked.

“They did it,” she said. “They’re standing there doing the thing they questioned whether they could do.”

For Sue, that transformation is the real purpose.

“It’s not about catching fish,” she said. “It’s about understanding that you have the capacity to do the things you want to do.”

That same journey, of learning, struggling, and stepping into something new, eventually led Sue to another challenge: writing her book.

“I had been trying to write a book for the better part of twenty years,” she said. “Start, stop, start, stop.”

It wasn’t until she launched a podcast and began interviewing dozens of extraordinary, everyday women that something shifted.

“I decided to do a podcast as a way to reclaim my voice and get past my fear of being vulnerable,” she said. “I interviewed 50 women doing extraordinary things, women you’d see at the grocery store, at church, just everyday people showing up and doing the thing.”

As she listened to their stories, where they started, where they were, and what they had learned, she began to see something bigger.

“I was like, holy smokes, this is amazing.” Sue exclaimed.

Then one evening, standing in her kitchen, she had what she now calls a “glimmer.”

“It was like, Sue, this needs to be a book.”

She committed in early 2025 and spent the next year writing while still working and running her program.

“It took me a full year,” she said. “Working full time, writing the book, doing the fly fishing program, it was a lot.”

But the hardest part wasn’t the time.

It was the honesty.

“One of the hardest parts was going deeper than I thought I could go,” she said. “Being as transparent and honest as possible.”

The Starfish Chronicles is not just a story, it’s a reflection of who Sue has become.

She explains that a starfish has a hard exterior, the part we show the world, but underneath is a softer, vulnerable side where nourishment and life happen.

“In my own journey, I was that hard exterior,” she said. “My nickname was ‘Battle Axe.’”

But like the starfish, the real strength comes from integrating both parts, the strong outer shell and the softer inner self.

The title also reflects the starfish parable: a little girl throwing starfish back into the ocean one by one.

“You may not save them all,” Sue said, “but you make a difference to that one.”

For Sue, the women who supported her along her journey were those people.

“The women who lit my path,” she said, “they were those little girls for me.”

Now, through her work on the river and through her writing, Sue is doing the same.

Helping women step into something new.
Helping them feel seen.
Helping them realize they are capable of more than they thought.

Because sometimes, outdoor adventure isn’t just about the activity.

Sometimes, it’s about what happens beneath the surface.

And sometimes, that’s where everything changes.