The morning temperature hovered well below freezing on Minnesota’s Lake Latoka. An 8-year-old Carly Hysell sat on a bucket beside her father and grandfather, peering into a freshly drilled hole in the ice. There were no electronics, no fish finders, and no screens to tell them what lurked below. Instead, a rope-tethered spear rested nearby, ready if a northern pike appeared. “At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. It worked,” says Hysell, who today is the associate director of communications for Garmin International, in Olathe, Kansas. “It’s probably still something hardwater anglers do, the rope and spear approach that is. But today’s technology would have saved us from drilling hole after hole to find the fish.”

An Early Love of Fishing

Hysell, a Kansas native, spent her summers in Minnesota, too, where the love-of-being-on-the-water bug bit early. She remembers catching sunfish with her grandfather, then returning to the dock where her grandmother would prepare the catch for a family fish fry. When she wasn’t fishing, she was in the water catching tadpoles, searching for turtles, tubing, water skiing, and eventually learning to drive a boat. Later, she decided to stay closer to home and pursue a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communications: Public Relations at Kansas State University.

“I’ve always been drawn to storytelling and to finding ways to make information more relatable and meaningful for people,” she says.

What started as a college internship turned into a career at Garmin when she graduated and was hired in 2007. Hysell was attracted to the company’s culture of innovation and products that help people experience the outdoors. When an opportunity arose to work more closely with Garmin’s marine division, she seized it. Soon after, catching her first billfish, then her first blue marlin on work trips, hooked her on offshore fishing and opened the door to a passion that would shape both her personal and professional life.

“My first billfish, a white marlin, was caught aboard the Waterman out of Virginia Beach more than a decade ago,” Hysell recalls. “I was there for work while an editor interviewed the boat’s captain and owner, Mike, about how he used Garmin sonar and chart plotters to fish and win tournaments. When the crew learned it would be my first billfish, they handed me the rod. The rest is history. And, of course, I was thrown overboard afterward to celebrate!”

Hysell caught her first blue marlin while fishing out of Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. She was with a group of women from across the marine industry. Her fish came up on the teaser, then did a perfect inside-out lure bite on the short right. The crew estimated the fish at 400 pounds and released it at the boat. The experience reinforced a lesson Hysell still carries today: success in billfishing comes not from brute strength, but from patience, technique, and endurance.

“It’s been encouraging to see more women becoming involved in fishing and the marine industry, and I think visibility matters a lot,” she says. “The more women see others participating, leading, and succeeding in these spaces, the more accessible it feels. We’ve come a long way in breaking down outdated stereotypes, and there’s room for everyone in this industry and community,” she says.

Hysell was recognized as a ‘Woman Making Waves’ in 2020 by Boating Industry Magazine.

Hands-On Learning

Working full-time in retail while pursuing her degree gave Hysell an early, firsthand understanding of customer behavior. “You learn quickly that every purchase has a story behind it: what matters to someone, what questions they need answered, what hesitations they have, and what ultimately gives them confidence to buy,” she says. “It also teaches you how important customer service is in shaping that experience. That perspective has stayed with me throughout my career and has been especially valuable in PR, where understanding your audience and what motivates them is everything.”

One story that has stayed with Hysell came from the owner of a Costa Rican charter fleet. “He told me about a client who developed chest pains after catching several marlin in a row,” she says. “The captain immediately grabbed the boat’s Garmin inReach satellite communicator and started communicating with the fleet’s fishing director and emergency responders onshore. They were able to consult with a doctor, and the crew and client were met at the dock by an ambulance.” The angler was evaluated and released shortly afterward. “That was nearly 10 years ago, and the owner told me he’d always use and trust Garmin products after that experience.”

For Hysell, one of the most rewarding parts of the job is watching a product come to life. At Garmin, where more than 100 new products can launch in a year, she has a front-row seat to the entire process, from the drawing board and engineering lab to field testing and launch. She also collaborates closely with the technology teams and often gets to use products in real-world conditions before they reach customers. That direct experience helps her understand not just how a product works, but how it can make a difference on the water.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to keep learning while growing alongside industries and technologies that are constantly evolving. One of the most rewarding parts is translating highly technical information into something people can understand, relate to, and connect with,” she says.

Hysell says the PS70, Garmin’s live sonar for deep-sea fishing, is a great example. Beyond explaining how the system works, she helps anglers see how it fits into their existing electronics package. For captains already using directional sonar, the PS70 helps fill the gap between what the sonar sees ahead of the boat and what’s happening directly beneath it. Its triple-beam technology can help locate fish from multiple viewing angles and better predict where they will surface in the spread, reducing guesswork and helping captains make faster, more informed decisions about how to maneuver toward a target.

“I’ve tried to approach learning with curiosity, a willingness to keep asking questions, and a focus on understanding not just the technology itself, but what it means for the people using it. Whether I’m out fishing, boating, for work, or fun, or both, I share many of the same passions Garmin customers do, giving me firsthand insights that help me tell more authentic stories about our products,” she says.

Life on the Water & Looking Ahead

Outside of work, Hysell enjoys spending time on the water with her family, including her 11-year-old son, Brady. The pre-teen has inherited his mom’s passion for boating and fishing, has fished in Florida and Costa Rica, and loves to tell the story about reeling in his first sailfish 60 miles offshore. Most of their time afloat, Hysell says, is spent around Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks aboard the family’s Chaparral. “Even though there aren’t dedicated rod holders, we still fish from it plenty.”

Hysell also enjoys running and recently began training for the 2026 Chicago Marathon in October, a personal challenge that has become a major focus for her this year.

Looking ahead, “I think marine electronics will continue becoming more intuitive, more integrated, and even more helpful in giving anglers and boaters actionable information in real time. The technology will keep evolving, but the goal will remain the same: helping people feel more confident, capable, and connected on the water,” she says.

The incredible evolution in fishing technology from a very simple, guesswork-driven experience into something far more sophisticated and precise is easy for Hysell to appreciate. If she were ice fishing on Minnesota’s Lake Latoka today, she’d likely have Garmin LiveScope at her side. Instead of drilling hole after hole and hoping a northern pike swam by, she could watch fish move in real time beneath the ice and see how they react to her lure, a world away from the rope-and-spear approach she grew up with.

As for her own future, there’s still one item on her fishing bucket list. “I’d love to fish a tournament someday,” she says. “Hopefully that’s not too far off.”

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