'Mountain Men' Star Ivy O'Guinn is an Outdoorswoman and Fish Skin Crafter Extraordinaire

In the History series Mountain Men, survivalists across the United States show off their lives and how they maintain their livelihoods. It's a "no holds barred" look into what it's like to live life in connection with the wilderness, and all the risks and benefits that come from venturing into the wild untamed.

Among these stars are Bret Bohn and his wife, Ivy O'Guinn. Accomplished hunters, trappers, fishermen, and outdoorspeople, the couple shows off their rugged and dangerous lifestyle. Here's what we know about Ivy and the way she uses her hunting and gathering skills to craft art.

Ivy first joined Mountain Men during Season 13 and quickly became a fan favorite. With her good looks and wilderness expertise, she's a stark contrast to some of the gruff, heavily bearded outdoorsmen she appears on the show with.

Ivy and husband Bret tied the knot in early 2024, and they share their adventures as a wilderness couple.

Ivy is an Alaska Native fisherman and an expert taxidermist, and she grew up on Bristol Bay and the Kenai Peninsula. There, she learned the fisherman trade from her mother and grandma.

She and Bret spend their winters in Bret's cabin in the Alaska Range, just south of Denali. They run a trap line through hundreds of miles of wilderness and use what they catch to live off the icy and frigid land.

During the summer, the couple lives in a tiny village on the Alaskan coast known as Egegik, where Ivy spent her childhood. Bret, on the other hand, grew up as a hunting guide and trapper who lived isolated in the bush when he was a child. Although they share some similarities in backgrounds, much of their marriage is about learning to blend their lives and experiences as they work the land and its resources to live.

Ivy has managed to turn those resources into something unusual: artwork. The expert fisherman uses fish skin to craft artwork, and in an interview with Flylords, she shared her thoughts on the unusual craft.

She explained, "Growing up in a small Alaskan village exposed me to some awesome artwork. Before I was old enough to fish, I would spend time at the community center with other kids and do arts and crafts. That experience gave me an interest later on in pursuing Alaska native art." She calls herself "quite the hobbyist" and admits that when she focuses, she can stick with something.

She works in the mediums of wood carving, jewelry making, and fish skin crafting. When asked how she got into the latter, Ivy shared, "As a commercial fisherwoman, using the entire fish to its fullest is very important to me. I’d heard about people turning fish skin into art and I thought it sounded intriguing. I started talking to different people and researching how to fish skin craft." She found a how-to in another language and learned by using an online translator.

"It has been very rewarding to use salmon skin to create unique and beautiful art," she explained.

Her foray into fish skin crafting started with downtime during the pandemic, and these days she works on earrings, and baskets, along with cowboy boots made from king salmon skin.

It may seem odd to an outsider, but the idea of using every part of an animal you trap or hunt is not a new one. Using fish skin to create art may be a whole new level to some, but it fits Ivy's personality completely.