My name is Andrew O'Neill and I am the founder and owner of Freeflow Outdoors. I founded Freeflow Outdoors after graduating from The University of Wyoming with a B.A. in Communication in 2015. FFO was born from a lifelong passion for the outdoors and a developing fascination with trying to capture and share what made hunting and fishing so special to me. After a few family vacations to Colorado and Wyoming, I was absolutely hooked on fly fishing, the western landscape and the wildlife that roamed it. By 2011, I found attending college at UW to be a pretty good excuse to move out west, and I have been in Laramie ever since.
I grew up in upstate New York (never even been to the city), cutting my teeth on waterfowl, turkeys, and deer. By the time I was 13 years old, I started taking along the family video camera on our waterfowl hunts and started making my first video edits. My passion for photography and filmmaking grew alongside my passion for the outdoors which would lead me to Wyoming to pursue a career in outdoor photography and videography.
Since then, a number a friends and family have been out to visit me in Wyoming and never left, and I have also been fortunate to meet a few new hunting and fishing buddies out here who share the same obsessions as I do. As I begin to close in on a decade as a Wyoming resident, my goal with this blog and website is to share some of the difficulties, frustrations, and challenges that came along with being a first-time, DIY hunter and angler from back east. I hope that this blog, and the resources available on this website can provide useful information to prospective hunters and anglers making their journey out west for the first time, and highlight new potential experiences for experienced veterans.
My aim for this blog is to provide tips and tactics on the things I have learned during my time as a guide and DIY hunter/angler in Colorado and Wyoming, and share my experiences as I continue to learn while diving deeper into my exploration of southern Wyoming and the surrounding areas, and all it has to offer. I regret to inform that I won't be giving up any honey holes (for a number of reasons, the primary one being my own safety), but hope to provide useful information regarding the Wyoming application process, fly fishing tips, archery elk hunting tips, antelope and deer spot-and-stalk tactics, and recommending local guides and outfitters.
I do not claim to be the most experienced hunter or angler in the Rocky Mountains by a long shot, but I have spent a considerable amount of time in the field since moving out west (at the expense of my academic and social life), and have completely immersed myself with learning the country, the habits and behaviors of the game and fish I pursue, and the ins and outs of doing it all on public land. I have been fortunate to work for multiple outfitters in Wyoming and Colorado as a fly fishing, big game and wingshooting guide, and have been able to learn from some of the best in the business.
As Freeflow Outdoors grows, we hope to continue to offer educational, informative, and entertaining short films, timely blog posts, and guided trips. I have been in the shoes of a brand-new, DIY western hunter and angler, so I hope that the resources on this site can take some of the guesswork out of the staggering logistics of planning your first western hunting or fishing trip. Feel free to reach out anytime with questions, comments, or business inquiries:
Thanks for visiting,
Andrew