Ashley Hoover has loved plants and animals since he was a young child growing up in his native Philippines. In his early youth, growing up in his traditional Igorot tribal lands of the Mountain Province of Luzon, he was especially fascinated by the small fish he would catch in the shallow creeks and pools of the highlands.

Later he moved to coastal Bataan where his father worked in a refugee camp near the sea. He was obsessed with the beautiful fish of the nearby coral reef but having grown up in the mountains he had never had the opportunity to learn how to swim. The local boys that he befriended built him a wooden box with a glass bottom so that he could float along with them with his own window to the beautiful creatures of the tropical reef. They helped catch fish that he kept in aquariums and studied closely.
Ashley emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 and eventually ended up in the Pacific Northwest, where he was equally obsessed with local flora and fauna. He marveled at the difference between the northwest fishes and other natural beings with those of his Filipino homeland. Though he tried drawing and painting fish with western techniques, it wasn't until he discovered the Japanese technique of gyotaku (fish printing) that he found his preferred medium for expressing his love of the natural world.