'He knows it in his blood': Misty Dhillon brings love of fly fishing from the Himalayas to Ellicott City

Apr. 25—Misty Dhillon's obsession with fishing has taken him around the world, from the Himalayas to Howard County.

The passion was sparked in front of a television set in his childhood home in Uttarakhand, India, a state known for its stunning mountain scenery and Hindu pilgrimage sites, earning it the nickname "land of the gods."

Then 15 years old, Dhillon drew close to his TV screen when amid a sea of broadcast cricket matches an episode of "Walker's Cay Chronicles" would showcase American angler Flip Pallot catching tarpon in the sparkling waters of the Bahamas. Dhillon was hooked.

"I just had this vision of these scaly fish jumping," said Dhillon, 45, who lives in Ellicott City. "I said, 'Hey, we could do this here in the Himalayas because we have such beautiful, amazing rivers."

Dhillon became determined to catch the Himalayas' own version of the tarpon, the golden mahseer, a hard-fighting game fish that can grow up to 9 feet and lives in the region's glacier-fed rapids and lakes. He became one of leading mahseer experts, pioneering fly fishing for the species and working to conserve its critical mountain habitat.

"Misty's passion is just completely contagious," said Dhillon's wife, Aikta Suri, 45. "When he talks about fishing, it's like a PhD. ... He knows it in his blood, in his bones, in every way possible, and he loves to share it with other people."

The couple are co-founders Transformative Travel, an Ellicott City-based travel agency dedicated to crafting unique trips that immerse individuals in nature and local communities through Maryland, the U.S. and the world. Whether it's on the Caribbean Sea or the Patapsco River, Dhillon wants to help others discover the same sense of wonder he did when he first picked up a rod.

"The 'wow' factor has to be there," Dhillon said. "People are driving on [Interstate] 70 every day unaware of the magic that's happening just 15 feet away from them."

Fishing with tigers

With fly fishing in India historically confined to elites and Western tourists, Dhillon had to teach himself and make much of his gear by hand. He spent sleepless nights playing with hooks and fiddling with lures, all in the pursuit of mahseer.

"There's a very important aspect of how you can put two and two together if you're in the middle of nowhere and really make it work," said Dhillon, who has spent much of his life outdoors.

When he was 20, Dhillon joined a whitewater rafting company and spent up to 300 days per year leading expeditions on Himalayan rivers, some at altitudes as high as 14,000 feet. Four years later, he founded his own travel company, Himalayan Outback, on the outskirts of Jim Corbett National Park, a world-famous tiger reserve.

"My own company gave me a lot of flexibility to go and check out various places, do various reconnaissance, and really do things my own way," he said.

Spending his days scouting mahseer habitat in the Himalayan backcountry didn't afford Dhillon many social opportunities. When he spotted Suri from across the room at a New Year's Eve party in Delhi in 2005, however, something "just clicked." After an eight-hour date the next day, Dhillon knew he had found his future wife.

While Suri spent the next several years bouncing between India and her native Howard County, she joined Dhillon at his travel operation fulltime in 2010.

"It was kind of a package deal," Suri said. "[If] you're gonna marry Misty, you have to live where the mahseer are."

The pair built a 1,500-square-foot mud house with a thatched roof to live in alongside guests' lodges. With tiger roars echoing through the valley, wild boars running through their camp at night, and the nearest road a kilometer away, it was unlike anything Suri had ever experienced before.

"It transformed my whole relationship to the elements and to our natural resources and how precious they are," she said. "Where we stayed, we just had solar lights and lanterns, and then we lived in the wild."

After Suri became pregnant in 2016, the couple decided to move back to her hometown of Ellicott City. Dhillon immediately began fishing on the Patapsco, and the two began brainstorming ideas for a new travel company.

They soon discovered a group of likeminded guides called the Transformational Travel Council that espoused the acronym H.E.A.R.T. — humble, engaged, aware, resilient and thankful — as travel principles that Dhillon and Suri decided to build their new agency around. Transformative Travel launched in 2019 and has been connecting patrons with Dhillon and Suri's "travel tribe" of trusted guides around the world ever since.

"It's such a great opportunity to change beliefs, change conditioning, change preconceived notions about yourself, about others around you," said Dhillon, who works with any budget and individuals, families or corporate clientele.

While Dhillon's path has put him in touch with some of the world's best anglers, he says the most fulfilling part of his job is still watching a patron catch their first fish. That pure moment of joy is what matters most to him.

"Guys in the highly paying fishing competitions, they really ignore all that," he said. "It's not about the ego. In fact, the ego should be crushed to be able to bring that substance out where you connect with the environment."

Fishing's future in Howard County

After becoming India's first Fly Fishers International-certified casting instructor in 2011, Dhillon set about training the country's first generation of local fly fishing guides. He wants to continue bringing fly fishing — an angling technique that uses an artificial, lightweight fly — to younger and more diverse audiences, this time in the U.S.

Studies show that people of color are less likely to visit national parks and participate in nature-based activities for a variety of reasons, from socioeconomic status and cultural differences to systemic racism and a lack of access. Bowie State University professor Sumanth Reddy helped found the school's Outdoors Club last year to get more students at the historically Black university invested in outdoor spaces.

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After taking a private lesson with Dhillon at Centennial Lake, Reddy knew he had found the perfect instructor to introduce his students to fishing.

"He was fantastic," said Reddy, who took the club fishing with Dhillon earlier this month at Patuxent Research Refuge, where several students got hooked on smallmouth bass and sunfish.

While Marylanders might not readily associate land-locked Howard County with quality fishing, the sport has become increasingly popular in the community during the past few years, according to Matt Medicus, who supervises the Department of Recreation and Parks' Outdoor, Nature and Adventure programs.

"Particularly during the pandemic, everyone wanted to get outside," Medicus said. "Fishing is a great, lifelong sport. It's something that you can get started doing when you're a kid or you can jump into it anytime you want."

Residents can enjoy a number of Recreation and Parks-run fishing programs, including the upcoming annual fishing tournament at Centennial Lake on May 6, and visit local streams and ponds stocked with trout by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

As younger generations fall in love with fishing, Dhillon hopes they will become more aware of their natural surroundings and the threats they face. The waters he grew up fishing in northern India are now largely devoid of mahseer after the construction of hydroelectric dams and water diversion destroyed prime breeding grounds, Dhillon said.

"This is a sport which really brings attention to your ecosystem," said Dhillon, looking at the swirling waters of the Patapsco. "These rivers are the veins of our planet."