Adria Gutierrez: The TikTok Charter Captain Live-Streaming Every Trip

Adria Gutierrez: Hi, I'm Adria Gutierrez. This is the Tom Rowland Podcast.

Adria Gutierrez: Hi, I'm Adria Gutierrez. This is the Tom Rowland Podcast.

Tom Rowland: All right, cool. That's good. Wow. Do you have a — is that a long bow behind you?

Adria Gutierrez: Yes, but it doesn't work. It was like one of our first ones. We tried it at a lake. It didn't go too far. We didn't get anything. So it's an ornament.

Tom Rowland: Okay, that's cool. Is that a store-bought one or did you make it?

Adria Gutierrez: No, somebody made it and we got it off like Facebook Marketplace.

Tom Rowland: Oh really? That's cool. So you were planning on fishing with it?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I was trying to bow hunt, but that was short lived.

Gigging for Flounder and What Red Tide Did

Tom Rowland: Okay, all right. I think that a lot of times with those kind of deals, you need the right setup. Like when you go to Louisiana or someplace and they have all their big setup and they have those boats with a big deck and the lights and the whole system. I think that it's kind of involved.

Adria Gutierrez: Right. I mean, after we got that, we're like, you know what, let's just go gigging. So we were gigging for flounder and then turtles started happening and all that stuff. So you couldn't be with the underwater lights. So that was also short lived, but we got a lot of flounder at that time and then red tide rolled around and, well, they're pretty much non-existent for the most part. I mean, I get them offshore, but not any size to them.

Tom Rowland: So do you think that all those inshore flounder, when the water quality declines, they just move offshore, or do they perish?

Adria Gutierrez: Well, either that or they die, you know?

Tom Rowland: Right. What has the water quality been this year for you and your fishing? Have you had issues, or how has it been?

Adria Gutierrez: No, it's actually really nice. We haven't had any red tide, thank goodness, even though recently they did a dump of some sort. So that didn't activate the red tide luckily because the water temperature is still cold. Water is very clear right now. You could actually see down to the bottom from like 40 feet. So it's really nice right now and I'm hoping it stays that way.

Running Charters Out of Venice, Boca Grande, and Charlotte Harbor

Tom Rowland: This is the first time we've gotten to talk, so tell me about your operation and where you are and what you normally fish for.

Adria Gutierrez: So I'm out of Venice, Florida. I run inshore, offshore over here in the Gulf. So much deep sea, but whoever considers deep sea. That's what I do as well. So I do it all. I don't really like to limit myself being a female captain and whatnot. I charter out of Venice, Boca Grande, Charlotte Harbor. I don't go any north from Venice just because I'm not liking the fishery until you get really much to Tampa. So Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor is pretty much everything you got in there.

Three Boats, All on Trailers

Tom Rowland: And you live in Venice? And so do you keep your boat in the water, or do you trailer? What kind of boat do you have? You have multiple boats. And so what's your inshore outfit look like?

Adria Gutierrez: Near Venice, yes. No, I trailer all the boats. I mean, that's cheaper that way. Everything's so expensive. So we run a skiff. It's a spider skiff and then the other one's a 22 Boston Whaler. The offshore boat's center console, Grady-White 30 foot. That's one I mostly run right now. Well, I had four and I just sold mine. So I'm looking to get a new build. Hopefully that happens. And an LTB.

Tom Rowland: Wow. Three boats. What are you looking for? But what size? A 25. And so that boat, where would that fit in your fishing? What would you do with that boat? And how much of your year is spent doing that?

Adria Gutierrez: It's a 25. Nearshore and inshore tarpon. So pretty much here on this coast we start anywhere after the holidays. Around the holidays it's a little crowded and whatnot, then they leave. January is a horrible month to fish here because of all the fronts and whatnot, but March and April are the most packed on my schedule, to be honest. But I do it all through tarpon season and then the summer times, up and down, kids are out of school and whatnot, and then I got really a lot of time September and October, so that's my personal days.

Tom Rowland: And so do you travel in September and October or do you like to stay at home and that's the time you're going to be able to fish yourself?

Adria Gutierrez: Well, I personal fish up here pretty much whenever I can because everything's so local. I'm just so close to all the boat ramps here. But when I travel, it's around my birthday in June, I go down to the Keys. The Keys has my heart. So I try to go down there as much as I can.

Tom Rowland: So have you been going to the Keys for a long time?

Born in Miami, the Keys Have Her Heart

Adria Gutierrez: Well, I was born and raised in Miami. So I was going down to the Keys a lot. And my parents are the ones that hooked me into fishing. I never took it really serious until about eight years ago, but I've always enjoyed fishing and the Keys has always had my heart. So yeah, I love going down there and figuring out the fishery down there. And slowly I've been doing that.

Tom Rowland: Nice. So what happened eight years ago for you to become so much more serious about fishing that you become a fishing guide with four boats, now three? What happened eight years ago?

Adria Gutierrez: So I ended up having a kayak and I was just doing it by myself. I started a YouTube channel and I'm like, you know what? I love filming. I love the editing part. Let's just start there. And it kind of started pretty good and I loved that. And from the kayaks and whatnot, I started getting the canoe. Then I got into a little tender and then the boats keep growing and growing. It all really started where I was like, I need to get into the offshore. I want to keep filming. I got the boat for the offshore, figured that out, and I kept filming for YouTube and whatnot. It really got me more focused on learning and enjoying going to Bass Pro Shops. I would not enjoy that at all. But eight years ago is when I started my passion for learning rigs and hooks and tackle and all that good stuff because of my YouTube channel. I was like, I just need to really focus on loving this part and not just loving the fishing part, because it all kind of goes together.

Finding a Niche With How-To Videos

Tom Rowland: So your videos, do you think they took off because people were learning that with you? How did you present your videos? Because I see that a lot of YouTube channels and Instagram, TikTok, all of them, sometimes they do really well when somebody says, hey, I'm learning all of this and I want you to go along with this process with me. And then there's other channels that are like, well, I've been doing this for a long time and this is how I do it. But what was your kind of strategy there?

Adria Gutierrez: Well, I just was like, hey, look at me, I'm going fishing. I didn't know where I wanted to go with it until about maybe five years into it, where I was like, because YouTube has a niche. I don't have a big following on there, but I have had great views on certain videos. So I started figuring out, hey, a lot of girls do it. What's going to set me apart? So I started getting into the how-to videos, as far as how to change your engine oil on your outboard. So I did that and I think I got maybe either 10 or 15,000 views on that. And then some other how-to fishing videos as well. Got a couple thousand views on that as well. So I'm like, okay, so the people for me want me to show them how to.

Why She Left YouTube for TikTok

Adria Gutierrez: But there's only so much time that I have nowadays to do those kind of videos. So right now what I'm focusing on is more on the TikTok because I feel like that's growing for me a lot more. I do a lot of live streams on my charter on there. And so I'm getting a lot more videos that are going viral as well. So from the YouTube, I kind of took a break because YouTube is so hard to build nowadays with everybody doing it and doing the same thing. And after COVID, everybody's a fisherman now, so they all have a video and a YouTube channel. And so I took a break from that just to focus on TikTok where it's actually growing for me. So that's where we're at right now.

Tom Rowland: So when did you kind of see that TikTok was taking off for you?

Adria Gutierrez: When I started my live streaming.

Live-Streaming an Entire Charter

Tom Rowland: And so on the live stream, when you do a live stream on a charter, obviously it's got to be okay with your charter.

Adria Gutierrez: I always mention it. I mean, it's my boat at the end of the day, right? But I do say, hey, we're going to be live streaming. Especially when I have kids, I'm like, are they okay to be on camera or whatnot? And they're like, yeah, sure. And they all have a good time about it. I'm like, hey, when I'm baiting your hook or something, you could talk to the people. And some people do, and they have fun with it and whatnot.

Tom Rowland: So how long are these live streams? How long does TikTok allow for a live stream?

Adria Gutierrez: They'll let you do it all day. They'll recommend you, like, hey, it's time to get off or something. Here's a suggestion. But I'm like, no, I'm gonna just keep rolling. The whole trip. Sometimes I do it like when I get out there and I get anchored, because it's just driving time. So there's really nothing happening except you watching the sunrise or just watching me drive. And other times I do start it from when I leave the dock and whatnot.

Tom Rowland: All day. And so you do it the whole trip? Wow. And what kind of viewership can you get on a charter?

Adria Gutierrez: What do you mean?

Tom Rowland: Well, I mean, you got 5,000, 10,000, 50,000? How many people are watching these things?

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, no, it's anywhere between like a hundred and sometimes a thousand people in there.

Booking Trips the Way an Old Blog Used To

Tom Rowland: That's gonna be really good for your charter business. Do you book a lot of trips from that? I'll bet you do.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I'm starting to. And then I sell my shirts because I wear my company shirts and it has a buff, a hoodie and all that stuff. And they're like, where can I get a shirt? I'm like, well, it's my brand.

Tom Rowland: That's a really good idea. Way back when fishing guides didn't have websites, I had one of the early websites and I would not write a blog about the best day of fishing ever had. It was more like this is what happened today. And then you could go back and look, and man, I booked so many trips from that because people would say, this guy was out there yesterday and the day before, the day before, the day before. And what was missing is that no one could see or hear what it's like. Does this guy yell at you? Does it look like these people are having fun? And I would imagine that that would book a ton of trips.

Adria Gutierrez: It does. It's starting to be.

The Only Other Guy Live-Streaming a Whole Charter

Tom Rowland: I had another guy on here and he was doing — was it on Twitch? Do you remember that guy, Jake? Austin. He was on Twitch. Have you ever tried that? I think it's mostly for live streaming gaming, right? People get on and they'll watch people play video games. But I think there's a market there too. I think it's mostly kids or maybe a younger audience, but he was doing pretty well with that and he would do the same thing. You're only the second person that I've ever talked to that live streams a whole charter. But that's what he would do. And obviously there's gonna be some boring times, but I think that's such a good idea. One of the biggest things with a fishing guide is learning how to manage expectations.

Adria Gutierrez: No, I haven't.

Tom Rowland: Like people come out there and they want to fly fish for permit. And if they think they're going to catch five of them, they're just going to be disappointed. It's just probably not going to happen. And anyone that thinks that's going to happen probably isn't a very avid fisherman. But there are other kinds of fish that you can go out and you can catch five in the first 10 minutes. Like you could go snapper fishing or something. But I think that that's a really good idea because they see, okay, well there are dead periods in the day and then all of a sudden everything starts happening. Do you feel like that's when somebody books a trip from watching this live stream? Do you think that they already kind of have an idea what's going to happen on this charter? That seems like a really big advantage.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, they have an idea, but it's not always how you saw the video a couple days ago.

Tom Rowland: Right. It's so good. I thought it was yesterday. That was a famous thing that Lefty Kreh says.

Adria Gutierrez: Exactly, you should have been there yesterday for sure.

Cobia on the Surface and the Couch Captains

Adria Gutierrez: For example, I went wreck fishing. Cobia were just kind of on the surface with their tails out of the water. And I just look, I start pitching, I let the clients keep bottom fishing there or whatnot. And then we hook up to the first cobia. It ended up being, I would say like 30 pounds, something like that. And then we hooked up to the next one. It was 50 inches. So it would have been very close, like 45, 50 pounds there. It was a nice big one. And so the live stream went totally ballistic on there. They were all like, show me, show me, show me. And I stayed throughout the whole live stream, even into the filet time too. But then other times we're bottom fishing for grouper and snappers and the grouper right now has been non-existent on their bite, especially with their spawn. And people are like, well, where's the cobia? And where is this? Why don't you go wreck fish? So a lot of people tell me what to do as well on those live streams. It's hilarious, to be honest. But I try to do the same for every charter. It's like, I'm not going to just take you out and just get a grouper and not try to get you a cobia. I'm there to win, because I'm living vicariously through you. Even though I'm not fishing, I'm still helping you fish and I'm putting you on that fish. So the live stream is kind of like a yes, no, because the people are couch captains on there. They like to tell you exactly how to do it.

Tom Rowland: They tell you exactly how to do it. Does anybody ever send you some numbers? Like you should go to this place. Because they don't have any numbers. That's funny.

Adria Gutierrez: No, it's not like they won't send me numbers. I mean, I'll try it if they send it to me. Give me a new number. I need some new numbers.

Starlink, Gifts, and Paying for the Connection

Tom Rowland: I know that YouTube you can do a lot of live streams on there. I've never thought about live streaming a charter, but how do you stay in range? Do you have Starlink? What do you do?

Adria Gutierrez: I do. Yeah, I have Starlink. It's a little expensive. Well, with TikTok Live, people also send you little gifts that add up to a dollar amount. And that's where I'm at now. So people would just send me gifts and you ask for things too. And I'll be like, Starlink ain't cheap. Because it's not, you know? But the bad thing sometimes is that it does lag every now and again and it slows down the speed. But the good thing is that people will tell you, you're lagging, and you could move the little antenna and whatnot.

Six Clients Solo, Still Reading the Chat

Tom Rowland: So when do you even find the time to — I had many of my customers tell me, when you're fishing and you're doing everything. One guy said you're as busy as a one-armed paper hanger, which I thought was pretty funny. But how do you find time to read the comments while you're doing that?

Adria Gutierrez: When the people are just fishing and holding the rod. Sometimes I'll do the charter by myself with six people and sometimes I have a mate as well. If I have a mate, I'm more focused on that so I can also see, look at this person catching a fish. You know what I mean? So I try to kind of have a lot of hats on the boat.

Tom Rowland: So you're taking charters with six people by yourself. You are busy as a one-armed paper hanger when you're doing that. And are you throwing the cast net? Is that a part of your program?

Adria Gutierrez: No, no, I either have live shrimp or frozen bait. We're pretty much going for grouper and snappers on this coast, as you probably know. We'll get the live bait while we're bottom fishing. I'll put that in the live well. And then if we're close to a wreck, that's when I'll start hitting the wreck, or I'll just pitch a free line out there with the live bait and see what happens.

Why This Beats a Booking Site

Tom Rowland: So what you just described, there could be a day — and I guess you're already having some of these days — where you're taking a charter, they're paying you to be on the charter, then they're going to tip you, and then you could also get tips from the audience. That's amazing. I think other guides should be doing the same thing. But to me, that's such a better form of advertising than a booking site or one of those things. Because you get on there, everybody's got the same picture and it's got the boat and some reviews or whatever, but you don't really know. I went to Hawaii and tried to use one because I didn't know anybody there. And I was like, well, we want to go fishing, so how would I find — and I found myself in the same position, just a regular tourist, which I don't find myself. I usually know people everywhere, but we were on an island that I didn't know anyone. And so I went on there trying to find somebody. It's really hard to do. But if you could watch and see how somebody is, because that's really the thing. There are a lot of good fishermen out there. But how many of them do you want to spend the day with? There are some that are a lot nicer than others, right? And if you could go on there and see, okay, I like how this person interacts with their clients. This looks like fun. Their kids are having fun. That's a really great way to advertise.

Adria Gutierrez: I know. It is.

Tom Rowland: And so how did you start that? How did you think that was something that you wanted to do? Like, I'm going to get the Starlink and I'm going to live stream the whole day.

Adria Gutierrez: Well, from the whole YouTube thing, I've always enjoyed filming and all that stuff. So I just kept going to the next social media. That's the now. So Instagram and Facebook, and then I got TikTok when that came out and I slowly started putting videos on there and I started to be able to see how many views on there without getting a second app to see your views and whatnot.

TikTok Is Made to Make You Go Viral

Adria Gutierrez: The reason why I'm more focused on the TikTok now is because my web designer guy said, TikTok is made to make you go viral. So I just focused on that and just kind of ran with it. YouTube is just so hard to be yourself when you're live streaming. I think TikTok is more letting you be who you are.

Tom Rowland: Why do you say that? What's the difference?

Adria Gutierrez: It's just the amount of people that are on YouTube honestly, the different countries and whatnot. You're not able to put a personal video on YouTube and expect to get views of you just saying, hey guys, I'm gonna go fishing today, join my live stream, click the link or whatever. You'll get views on that, and you'll probably get over a thousand views because people are just scrolling all day. And now YouTube has the shorts, but they want to see more action shorts. Not you just saying, hey guys, come click this. YouTube is more, we would call it, I guess, sophisticated.

The Different Vibe on Every Platform

Tom Rowland: That's interesting because TikTok is our weakest platform. I would think that TikTok is there and I really haven't put enough time into it. I don't really use it personally that much. So I don't understand it like I do Instagram. Instagram is our main platform, but I look at TikTok and I think that is the ultimate short form video platform, right? TikToks were really short at first, but now you're telling me something different, that that is the platform that you can just go on there and live stream. And I wonder why that is, like why it's good there. Each one of these platforms has a different audience, I think. And there's a different vibe on each one. You can tell by the comments. Some are way more positive than others. If you go over to LinkedIn, you're not getting a lot of negative comments over there. People are like, this is a great post, thank you. But then you go to the other platforms, and they're like, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard, you're an idiot. And then there's some that are in between. And I kind of feel like Instagram seems like it's kind of in between. You can get some negative there. But YouTube, there's a lot, it feels like. But TikTok, where do you think that fits there with the audience and just the vibe?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, totally. Well, considering that the president was announcing TikTok a couple years ago, that was just self-campaign right there. And that's what makes people want it. Ain't nobody else talking about Instagram or YouTube anymore. So now is the TikTok and it's just easy to get on and post, or not post and just keep scrolling and watch all these lives of people being themselves.

Tom Rowland: Even the threatening that he was going to take it away, that made it even bigger and better.

Live Shopping and Buying From Real People

Tom Rowland: That's where Gary Vaynerchuk keeps talking about the live shopping and how big a deal that is. And I watch those videos and it's amazing. They just bring it in, they're like, buy this, buy this, buy this. And apparently it works really well for some things. Particularly like clothes and other things I've seen. They just have these influencers and they're just bringing it in. They're like, this feels good. And they're just another one and another one and another one.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, because real people are actually trying it. And so people are buying it because real people are trying it. I find myself, I'm like, ooh, I'm going to try this product, and I'll go on Amazon. I won't buy it from TikTok, but I'll go on Amazon because I'm going to get it quicker. But because I saw it from somebody that's actually real, then I'm going to get it.

Where She Sees This Going

Tom Rowland: So if we had talked four or five years ago, or you talk to anyone four or five years ago, and you say, what do you think the future of fishing social media is? I think that some people would have said, I think you're going to see live streaming of charters. But you're actually living that and you're doing that. That's pretty interesting. So from here forward, where do you see this going?

Adria Gutierrez: Well, I just see it keep going. Honestly, it's gonna build up a lot more. More people are gonna want to come from those live streams and book with me. I also see myself expanding to another city, which would be the Keys, of course. And then people would just follow me wherever I go. I don't want to just stay here in Venice. I want to expand this business in other cities as well. And I think that TikTok will help me get there.

Why Marathon

Tom Rowland: That's really cool. And so if you were to blue sky it and you're going to move to the Keys, what key do you choose and why? Marathon's your place. What do you love about Marathon?

Adria Gutierrez: Marathon. Yes, I love Marathon. Well, you can find everything locally there. All the grocery stores, you don't have to go a whole hour to go somewhere else. I know that Islamorada is like that as well too, but I feel like Marathon is not as touristy as some of the other Keys, to be honest. But then you're smack in the middle of whatever you want to do. You want to go to the Gulf, you just go out the other bridge. You want to go to the humps, you're just straight out 30 miles. You want to go to the swordfish grounds, it's right there too. So everything is there. Snorkeling, yellowtail fishing, sword grounds, deep drop. I just like that. And the Bahamas are just a straight shot, which I haven't done yet, but it's right there.

Tom Rowland: Don't forget the Everglades right behind you. The Bahamas are not making it — well, I don't know what exactly is going on with it right now, but they're not making it easy for American boats to go over there. I think they just did some things that a lot of people didn't like and I think a lot of people have decided that they're just gonna take a break from that for a little while. But there is nothing cooler than doing that, taking a boat to the Bahamas and staying there for the weekend. I have friends that do it basically every weekend and it's so cool. It's a fun thing to do.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I wanted to trailer my big boat over there, but with everything, all the extra fees and everything that they want, I saw as, no, I'm gonna take a break. I'm just gonna focus on this fishery right now.

Tom Rowland: Well, there's a lot to do. This South Florida, both coasts and the Keys, that's more than lifetimes of fishing.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, I mean I still have a list of bucket list fish I haven't even caught yet. So there's a lot to do over here.

Getting the Captain's License

Tom Rowland: So when did you decide you were going to get out of the kayak and become a captain and get your captain's license and make that jump from filming? I'm assuming that there was a jump from filming to being a captain. Tell me about that.

Adria Gutierrez: Well, I always still filmed. The day that I wanted to be a captain was, I had gotten this little cuddy cabin Grady-White, you could go offshore, you could do nearshore, whatnot. So I was like, wait, I'm paying for this thing. Why don't I go ahead and get my captain's license and have other people pay for it for me? So that's how it started. And then from there, I just love this career.

From Fitness Trainer to Charter Captain

Adria Gutierrez: I was a fitness trainer before. So I would be doing one-on-one sessions with snowbirds. When COVID hit, that tanked because nobody was coming down. And then the charter business started growing. I already had my captain's license. So I started doing sunset cruises and little inshore trips and all that stuff until I started then getting my federal permits and being able to pass the state lines and all that stuff. And I'm like, I love this. This is my calling. Ever since I was little, I love fishing. So I'm like, this is not a job at all. And here I am. I love it. And I still fish personally. People ask me, how do you still fish? I'm like, because I love it so much. It's my hobby. It's my career and it's my everything. I live for it.

Tom Rowland: That's super cool. What was your fitness path to become a fitness trainer?

Adria Gutierrez: So I was just working out myself and of course I'm like, I could be making money telling people what to do, which I love to tell people what to do. So it went hand in hand, and so does this career honestly. So I kind of said, let me just start there. I wasn't working at the time. I was just really working out every day and I'm like, let me just get my certification. And I did, and I started doing little classrooms with seniors. And that's where it's at, senior and fitness. That's really much better that way than doing younger. Just because you have that YouTube and everybody wants to be a bodybuilder and they could just see that on the videos. Seniors don't have that capability of getting on the phone.

Tom Rowland: Plus you're in the senior capital of the world, right?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, exactly. That's why I moved over here from Miami. It's just because I was able to build a career over here and not over there. It's too much competition with anything. So I decided to move to this coast and just keep going with my fitness career and it went really well for a while. But like I said, COVID just hit and that was just a huge downfall from there. But I was still fishing on my off days and whatnot. And I was still filming throughout that. So I never stopped that fishing part while I was working. It was still together. I'd work in the morning time until probably like two o'clock and then I would just go. I always had my rod with me in my car. I'd stop at a local place and I'd be catching my little, casting my little lures and whatnot, and I kept fishing. I ain't gonna stop, that's for sure.

Fitness as Community

Tom Rowland: I like both the fishing and the fitness personally as well. But I do see that if you were to try to make a living with fitness, it does make a lot of sense to go with the seniors. Because first of all, they have time. They have money. They're concerned about their health at this point in their life, maybe for the first time. I would think that there's a lot of seniors that have always been focused on their health and they don't really need any help. But a fitness class is so good for you socially as well. Like my mom, she goes to these fitness dance classes, but everyone in there is like 40 years younger than she is. And so she's surrounded by younger people. It's a social time. And she loves it. It does keep her young and it keeps her in shape. And then she has a little walking group. But so much of moving and fitness — the healthy parts of that are the community that you build around you. And there are the outliers that just always exercise by themselves. But group fitness in any capacity — tennis, golf, working out, dance class, yoga, any of that stuff where there's a community around. I think that a lot of people think of it as it's only good for your body. It's really so much — almost at some point in your life it moves over to being good for your brain. And so does fishing. Being a fishing guide too is the same way. You're entertaining people all day long and so you're with people and that's really good for your brain.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, it keeps her young.

The Drain of Talking All Day

Tom Rowland: What I always struggled with is entertaining people for eight to 10 hours a day and then coming home and really having not much left for my wife and kids. It's draining. I probably have a maximum number of words that can come out of my mouth in a day. And so if I expend 30,000 words on a charter, I come home and I don't have any left.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I hear you. It's draining sometimes. It's definitely days like that and then being under the sun too. It just depends on the group on how much you need to guide them. And nowadays it's a lot.

First-Timers and Saying It All Day

Tom Rowland: You think that the fisherman and the skill level is lower?

Adria Gutierrez: As far as my clients go, yes. I get a lot of first timers. I do get experts as well, but hey, I walleye fish and I this. So you're not really an expert in salt water, but you're an expert at least fishing or casting and whatnot. But a lot of people are just starting to get into it. I do love those, but you got to constantly say the same thing all day, all day, because they're not getting it. And that's where the energy kind of goes.

Tom Rowland: Right. Don't wind against the drag. Don't wind against the drag. Don't wind against the drag.

Adria Gutierrez: Don't reel up the fish all the way up to the rod tip, up to the guide and whatnot. Okay, there goes my guide. Let me get on it real quick.

The Only Female Captain With Federal Permits

Tom Rowland: So how many female charter captains are there in your area?

Adria Gutierrez: I'm pretty much the only one. If there is, I don't really know of them to be honest, but in this area myself, like the Venice area for offshore, I'm the only female with federal permits here.

Tom Rowland: Really, only one. With federal permits. And that's a big differentiator because you can go to places that other people can't, right? And so it's interesting because you're talking about how you're getting a lot of first timers and a lot of probably families. And I would think that there would be a desire for somebody that is a kid or whatever, like, we're going to go with this captain and it's a female captain, and it would lower the barrier, like the intimidation factor. And so I think that you would probably naturally be getting those. At the same time, you can be really good and you're gonna get all types of clients, but I think that's always going to be something that is in your favor, that you lower the barrier of intimidation just by being a female captain.

Adria Gutierrez: Exactly. Legally. People tell me that. I either went with you because you have great reviews or I went with you because you're the only female here and I wanted to give you a try. And females usually are a lot more patient than men. No offense, but it is true.

Why Women Often Out-Fish the Men

Tom Rowland: Well, they're better fishermen. Usually. Almost every time, because if you take a husband and wife, a family, whatever, and the dude is like, well, I've been walleye fishing my entire life. And she's like, well, you're not doing what she said to do. And I'm just doing that. And here comes the biggest fish, right? Every time. And the same thing when I always see a trout fish out West. I've got people trout fishing and a guy would be like, I've been fly fishing my whole life. And he'd take off upstream. And you're like, dude, there's nothing up there, man. Over here. And the lady would go with you. And you're like, just cast right over there. And she would pull out this huge fish and show it to her husband. And he's like, what? And couldn't believe it. But if he had stuck around for another 30 seconds, he would have found out that that's where you go.

The Hard Parts of the Job

Tom Rowland: But at the same time of having that as an advantage of lowering the intimidation factor, I would imagine that there have been challenges. Have you encountered any challenges?

Adria Gutierrez: Not that I could really think of. I mean, it is hard. I'm not going to say it's easy. It's definitely hard.

Tom Rowland: Well, the whole profession is hard.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I mean the whole thing. Trailering the boat, backing up the boat. I mean I'm great at it. I don't mean to toot toot, but toot toot, okay? Backing up the boat is not a problem for me, but that's all hard. I'm in a 30 foot boat, bringing it down the ramp, winching it up at the end of the day, and then just kind of hosting the whole day and guiding everybody and getting the fish out of the water and taking pictures. It's hard. It's not easy. But it comes natural. And if it doesn't come natural, then it's probably not for you.

Tom Rowland: Well, you got a good attitude about it. Everyone is always attracted to somebody that's excited about what they're doing and passionate about what they're doing. Because there's certainly the other also lives in this profession of just tired of it. And this is basically the only thing that I've got.

Adria Gutierrez: I don't know what else to do basically. That's gonna be the older captains honestly.

The Best Guides Nobody Can Find Anymore

Tom Rowland: Some of them. But there have got to be some — I noticed this when websites came around, and different ways of booking. And now it's a whole different world even from that. But you would have these guides that would have world records, and they would have the best clientele. It was like a badge of honor that you went from fishing 300 days with 300 clients to fishing 300 days with three clients. And that was kind of my career path. The longer I did it, the fewer clients that I had because you would have people that would book 50 or 100 days. And it was great. They became like family. But if something happens to those people, if they die or decide that something happens in their life and they're not going to fish as much anymore or move or something, it became really, really hard for older captains that did not — like they didn't need to build their website or their social media platforms or anything, or even hotel concierge or anyone, because they were top dog and people were waiting to get on their schedule. And then those people go away, and it's really challenging for somebody like that to compete in this new world, even though they are literally the best. But no one seems to know that anymore, because they're not on TikTok. There's not new content. It's no content.

Adria Gutierrez: Right. You're not putting new content out there. They're not on TikTok.

Tom Rowland: There's not a digital footprint of any kind. And that's a challenge. I don't even know where you would begin. I would think that some of the guys could live stream their charters. Be like, you want to see some fish? I'll show you some fish. Here we go. But getting set up and doing all that.

Adria Gutierrez: Sure, totally. But that's an investment too. And a lot of people don't want to do that investment or don't feel that they have the time to be on a social media platform to do this kind of stuff. If I'm working by myself, I just leave my phone there and I'll tell the chat, hey, I'm working by myself today. I might not be talking to you guys as much. Just enjoy the ride. And then if I'm driving from spot to spot, then I'll just get on there and I'll tell them how it went, or did you guys see that fish, or whatever the case may be.

Tom Rowland: So it's all done on your phone. Wow.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, it's all done on the phone. And I just leave it hooked up to a little mount and that's it.

They Told Us to Do Saltwater Experience Live

Tom Rowland: That's incredible. That's a really good idea. It really is. I remember somebody telling us a long time ago that that's how we should do Saltwater Experience, our show. They were like, you should just go out there and do it live. We were like, live? But back then, there was no Starlink. It was like, okay, well, what do you do when you're not in range? And so it just seemed like such a far off concept, but it's here. It's right here and you're doing it. It's really cool. I like that.

17,000 and Growing

Tom Rowland: And so what about the other platforms? Do you pay much attention to — you said YouTube a couple times, but are you paying much attention to anything else?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I'm on Instagram. I'll post on Instagram, but my Instagram is so dead for years. I haven't even passed that like 8,000 follower mark, honestly. It's just dead. I'll get a couple of likes here and there. So I don't even focus on it anymore, to be honest.

Tom Rowland: So would that be advice that you would give? How many followers do you have on TikTok?

Adria Gutierrez: 17,000 and growing.

Tom Rowland: And would that be advice that you would give to people that are trying to build up their social in any business, in any kind of activity — that you find the one that seems to be easy for you or that your content is somehow resonating with that audience for whatever reason and then double down on that and don't worry about the others? Or what would your advice be?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, I would definitely capitalize on the one that's actually putting you out there. Because at the end of the day, the algorithm right now, that's the key. There used to never be an algorithm until about, what, maybe five, eight years ago or something like that. Maybe I'm wrong, but let's just put that number out there. Now AI. You say a couple of words and then AI is gonna push your video. So wherever your social media platform is gonna push that out for you, stick to it because the rest will grow later on. Everything will tag together eventually, but you can't dip everywhere.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, I think people try to be everywhere all at once. And some of the platforms, for whatever reason, just don't work with that content.

Six Months Here, Six Months in the Keys

Tom Rowland: So where do you see — you want to move to the Keys. You want to expand your guide service. Does that look like only you? Or would you hire other captains? What would you think if you were to blue sky it?

Adria Gutierrez: Oh man, it's so hard to give up the title, honestly. I'm going to have to, obviously, but my idea is spend six months up here, six months down there. There's a very slow season here where it's just dead, no calls, no nothing, but in the Keys you're gonna be getting calls. So I'd be going back and forth. When it's busy here, I'll be up here. When it's busy down there, then vice versa. So that's where I see myself getting there. Personal fishing. Eventually I would like to hire a captain that I'm gonna be comfortable with, them driving the boat and doing maintenance and all that stuff. I really want to focus on building myself as more personal fishing than anything and then just give up the charter life for a while. But probably in the next 10 years I could foresee that happening. Because again, it's really hard to give it up. And my business is people are coming to see me and pretty much no one else. Like if I give it to my significant other, they'll be like, but I want to go with you. I heard a lot of good things about you. And I'm like, well, it's going to be the same, but I'm busy. Let me reschedule you.

Tom Rowland: Oh man, this is one of the most difficult things. You could be a fishing guide, or you could be a doctor, or you could be any of those professions where you build a name for yourself. And especially when you're live streaming and you're showing, this is how it is when you go with me. People want that, and they don't want anything else. And that's why they're coming to you. But I guess you could start live streaming with your significant other. So you bring him and you do joint charters for a while and then now there's just a live stream with him and then people are like, okay, maybe you could work into that.

Adria Gutierrez: We do that now, but he's not for the live stream, honestly. When we do it together, he's like, no, I'm not doing this. It's just, you've got to focus on it too much. But I've been the one filming since the get-go. So I'm more passionate about it. He's more of like, just take me fishing. But I'm like, I can do both. I'm a multitasker.

The Fish Still on Her List

Tom Rowland: So you mentioned a couple of times that there were fish that you have not caught that you really want to. What are those?

Adria Gutierrez: Oh boy, they're really kind of deeper — queen snapper. I hooked up to a swordfish, but I have not got him into the boat. He broke off. So swordfish is definitely my number one. I can't think of the other ones right now. I've got my clients on sailfish. I have not hooked one personally. So anything with a sword on it, I definitely would be it.

Tom Rowland: So are you rigged up and ready for deep dropping?

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, I got an electric reel and all that stuff. So when I go to the Keys, that's what I do. When I went down to the Keys to film and whatnot, I was like, I'm gonna be one of the ones that's gonna get a swordfish on a Beastmaster. And I did hook up. I rigged my whole setup myself. I rigged my own squid, I did my own leader line, the whole nine. I hooked up. And then the line went slack when we took off the weight and there went the fish.

Night Sword Fishing With Kenny Harris

Tom Rowland: But you did it. In my opinion, that's the hardest part, is finding them and making that presentation. It's pretty involved. When you get out there and you're doing it and you're with somebody that really knows what they're doing and they're moving the boat in a certain way that seems — if you haven't done it before, you're like, why are we going so fast? It's like, dude, we're not going fast. We're barely moving. And it's just that the current there is different than here and the wind's blowing and everything. And it just seems like you're moving pretty quickly, but your bait is actually not moving that quickly. And you're just kind of trying to deep troll across, trying to present the bait through the right area.

Adria Gutierrez: All these canyons that you're going through.

Tom Rowland: There's a lot to it. It really is incredible. The first time that we ever caught a swordfish, we went with Scott Walker. And it was when everyone was night fishing for swordfish. That's how you did it. And the first time I ever went sword fishing was with Kenny Harris in Key West. And he took me out. We had the lights. He had these eight foot lights. And you put them in the water. And it was really an incredible thing. The star show out there is amazing. The time that he wanted to go was right in the middle of my tarpon season, so I'm usually getting up at four o'clock in the morning and then going tarpon fishing very early in the morning. And so to go out there at night, basically you fish all day, you come home, take a quick nap, meet him at the dock, go out all night, show back up at the dock, get on the skiff and fish the next day, and then with no breaks from there forward. So it was so hard to catch up. I got to admit that I didn't really want to go do that again. Certainly not that time of year, because it just took so much out of me. But it was so cool. And the star show out there is amazing. It is really beautiful. And we did hook one but didn't land it that night and got to see it come up. And it was pretty cool.

Scott Walker and Daytime Swordfish

Tom Rowland: But then Scott Walker started kind of pioneering this daytime sword fishing in the Keys and he said, if we go, we will catch one. And we went and basically, I'm an inshore guy. The day before we had been fishing for tailing redfish and then we go way out there and all of a sudden he's just like, okay, we're here, and we dropped down and catch one on the first drop. And I just looked at Scott Walker. I was like, man, you are amazing. In this entire ocean, you dropped a squid on top of a swordfish. How did you do that? It's just not my world. I like to do that and I've done it a few times and we've caught them and been successful and also been unsuccessful many times. And so I've seen both sides of it. But that first time was just such an amazing experience, to just feel like you're in the middle of nowhere and you drop and you catch this monster, like a literal sea monster that is such a bizarre fish.

Never Get in the Water With a Swordfish

Tom Rowland: The swordfish is such a bizarre fish that it can live at those depths and hunt in that temperature of water. And here you are, you're sweating and it's hot. And this fish comes up from literally almost frozen water. And the way that it can regulate the blood in its head and the way that it can come up from those depths and not experience barotrauma like the other fish. It's an incredible fish and a mean fish. Never, ever, no matter how many views you think you're going to get, get in the water with a swordfish. We had a diver in the water and he had a camera, a hard plastic camera cover, like an underwater housing on this camera. And the swordfish — he got in a bad situation where, if you're pulling against a swordfish, you want to be on the outside of it so that the fisherman can always pull it towards the boat and the diver's on the outside. But if you get on the inside of that, the fish can turn and not have any tension or any resistance, right? And so that's where our diver found himself, and he knew better. And he was in the wrong place. And I have this video that this swordfish is over here like this. And you can see his eyeball go clunk and look at the diver, turn and shoot straight at the diver and attack the diver. And he would have put his bill completely through him, except he had the camera out like this and it hit the camera housing. And this camera housing is as hard as any plastic — find whatever the hardest plastic you can find. And this bill went in about six inches into the camera housing and broke off.

Adria Gutierrez: No way. Oh my goodness. Whoa.

Tom Rowland: Those swordfish are no joke. Now sailfish, I think you could swim with those, and lots of people do and have, and it doesn't have the aggression like the swordfish. When we were sword fishing in Louisiana, we dropped down and they brought the weight back up and the captain's like, check this out. And he got the big weight and it looks like you took a file as hard as you could and just whacked that metal lead weight with a long file, just a long piece of metal just crashing it. Deep — not gouges, but it's so hard to imagine how strong those fish are because they're in the water. They have that big bill. If you were to take a big stick and try to move it through the water like that, you can't do it. But that swordfish is able to hit it so hard that it puts big gouges in the lead weight. It's just a tough fish and don't swim with it. That's my advice, but you should definitely catch one. They're incredible.

Adria Gutierrez: Yes, I love swordfish. It's fun. People say it's boring, but to me it's pretty fun.

The Skill Behind a Swordfish Drop

Tom Rowland: Well, it's boring if you have no idea what's going on and you're just out there for the ride because you're waiting to catch one and you'd be lucky to catch one or maybe you catch two in a day. But one drop takes so long to get to the bottom and then if it's tangled, you're not going to catch anything. So you got to have a rig that doesn't tangle. But for the captain or for anybody that understands what's going on and looking at the depth finder and looking at the bottom and you're trying to keep that bait just where it needs to be, there's a tremendous amount of skill to it.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah. The second time I went down to the Keys to do it, everything spiraled up, then I got it all clear, and then I dropped again, and it spiraled again. So I was like, I'm done. That current was ripping. And so that was my second time doing it. And I was like, all right, it's going to be the same thing like the first time. I'm going to hook up, all that good stuff. No. It takes a lot of technique. There's this other guy that I was seeing on YouTube and he explains to you how the technique goes and all that stuff. I'm like, that's pretty cool on how to do that because I was doing it a little differently. I was like, okay, I'll have to try that next time.

Tom Rowland: Man, it's just like anything that, even if you're fishing for tailing redfish or something, it's just so much simpler. But there are ways that you can do it where you're going to be far more successful if you can watch a video or talk to someone or go with someone, even better, and they explain it to you, then you get that technique down, you're going to be very, very effective with it. But like sword fishing, it's like shooting an arrow where if you shoot it from five feet away you can hit the bullseye, but if you're this far off at fifty yards, now you don't even hit the target, right? And that's how I think sword fishing is, is that there's so much line out and there's so many ways that it can get tangled or you can do it wrong. There's just that amplification of the error over that distance is a massive difference. And so the guys that are good at it — it seems like that person is telling you these little nuances of it, but that's really the thing. That's how you do it, is that one little tip. There's a lot of good videos out there on sword fishing.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, there is. I'm just waiting to get down to the Keys so I can try it, honestly. I need a personal date.

Tarpon and Quitting the Boca Grande Pass

Tom Rowland: I think you're going to get down there. What size boat do you take when you go down there?

Adria Gutierrez: I take the 30. I think that's the Grady-White. I was mostly going for deep drop. We have taken the Boston Whaler, the 22, but we're also focused on deep dropping honestly. Now it would be a little different because we have the skiff and we've been going for tailing redfish now and then I got a little bit into fly fishing. So going for tarpon on that. Now it'd be more inshore if I go down to the Keys and figure that out.

Tom Rowland: So with that boat you can go a lot of places in a 30 foot boat. Well, you have some really amazing tarpon fishing where you are. Do you fish the pass or do you fish the beach? How do you like to tarpon fish?

Adria Gutierrez: I stopped fishing the pass after I hooked up to my first one. It's just crazy.

Tom Rowland: Well, it's crazy. And I am by no means a Boca Grande Pass expert. I've never even fished in the pass. I have gone there and seen the number of boats and just said, that is not what I like to do. But if I went with someone that did it all the time and they knew how to stay out of everybody's way, I would like to experience it, but I would only need to experience it once. And it's just not my cup of tea. I don't really like fishing close to other people.

Adria Gutierrez: It's crazy. Once, that's all you need. I hear you on that one. And the only reason why I did it is because you are gonna hook up. Whether you land it or not, you're still gonna get a hookup.

Drifting the Pass Like Sword Fishing in Reverse

Adria Gutierrez: We're talking about the tarpon in the pass, that you would want to do it with somebody. And then I was about to say tarpon fishing in the pass is exactly like sword fishing, but in reverse. Because you are drifting the pass, but you are drifting not bow into the current or the tide. You're drifting from the stern.

Tom Rowland: Okay. So the opposite. Do they still have the conflict in the pass there that was going on at one point where you have the people that like to fish with the jigs and then the people that fish the old way?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, you can't do the jigs anymore. That's illegal. You can't do it. But people still do it. I mean, FWC is not that — you know how it is.

Tom Rowland: I'm sure they do. I don't know, that just seems — it's too much conflict for me. I'd rather just catch fewer fish and be by myself.

Adria Gutierrez: Right. The only thrill about it, honestly, is that they fight hard from the bottom. They're taking line and they are just hunkered down. Think about like you are bringing up this massive grouper. Almost like that, but a better fight. But then you have to weave in and out of the people and the thing with that is how the bottom is structured. It's a big reef down there. So you're going to get a lot if you don't know how much you've got to crank up off the bottom.

Harbor Tarpon Eat Flies Better Than Crabs

Adria Gutierrez: But I agree with you. I'm one and done. I stay in the harbor now and I chase these things. And getting into fly fishing, it's kind of like figuring out that they like flies a lot more than crabs for some reason. You hook up a lot more on the fly honestly. At least here. I don't know about in the Keys but at least here. That's what I've witnessed.

Tom Rowland: Well, you should stick to it, double down, just like your TikTok. Because if you're catching more on fly than you are on crabs, then you're doing something right. And you found a group of fish that are eaters. And you should stay on those fish.

Adria Gutierrez: I just think they're so different, because they're coming from the rivers, they're not really coming from the beach. I feel like the beach fish are a lot different than the ones in the harbor. They have a different mood, they're more chill, they're not like, I gotta eat something now. They're more chill, they're just coasting.

Tom Rowland: We have kind of a similar thing with our Oceanside fish and then the backcountry fish or the Everglades fish. Harder to see them back there and the water's not clear like it is on the Oceanside, and then they eat much better in the back. And there's nothing like just classic tarpon fishing where you're seeing a lot of fish coming down the beach and that's something that everybody should experience. It's really cool, but they don't tend to eat that well.

Adria Gutierrez: Right, I just watching them daisy chain, they're so pretty. I'm like, oh my God, I just want to dive in with them. But I'm like, no, there's sharks. Yeah, no, I'm good.

The Shark Situation Offshore

Tom Rowland: What about the shark situation in your offshore fishing? Are you encountering a lot of sharks?

Adria Gutierrez: Summertime is brutal. At least here it's just brutal in the summertime. You can't get a nice red snapper up without having it half gone.

Tom Rowland: It is everywhere. It seems like it. And what's the conversation in your area about that? Just the shark issues, among the guides and among others.

Adria Gutierrez: As far as NOAA goes and whatnot, or just people in general? Well, we all think the same thing. Just kind of kill them off, but you can't. There's a lot of rules and stuff like that. And depending on the species, I love sharks. I like fighting sharks and all that stuff, but I don't know what is what. Everything's a bull shark to me unless I see a hammerhead. Because I'm not going to be like, hey, stop wiggling so I could see your fin and see what you are.

Tom Rowland: Well, there's certainly a lot of them right now and I love sharks too. I even like to fish for them. But there seem to be a lot.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, they're fun. There is a lot and when you're going for dinner or lunch or whatever and you're trying to catch your own, that's the problem. Maybe they should go back to being able to keep some sharks and whatnot.

Tom Rowland: You can keep sharks. I don't know what the limit is personally, but there are sharks that you can keep. And most people just don't. It's a lot to — you can bring in a cobia and put it in a cooler; bring in a big shark, and now you have a big live shark on the deck, which is dangerous.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh yeah, no, people can — we keep it like we're not bringing that thing in here. Like no way. Maybe if it was a personal day, which we have — we've kept like a three-foot black tip. Got it real quick, throw it in the cooler or whatever. But now with clients, because then they want to be up close and personal and it's, well, there goes your foot.

Tom Rowland: Right, there's no such thing as a dead shark. That's some old wisdom from the old time fishermen and they're correct about that. They can bite even after they look like they're not alive anymore.

Adria Gutierrez: Oh totally. I've seen it. Definitely.

Where to Find Angling With Adria

Tom Rowland: So this has been great. You have really opened my eyes to live streaming. I think it's really cool. And the coolest part about it is that you're not just live streaming just for the sake of live streaming and to get views and things like that. You're actually using it as a tool for your business, which is really smart. And I think that you're going to have great success with it. I think that it's an excellent way to be promoting your business. So I wish you all the best with that. And I'm sure that one of these days I'll see you in the Keys in Marathon. Come by Hawks Cay. We'll be right there. I should have gotten this from you earlier. But if people want to watch your live stream and they want to check out your TikTok, what is it? What's the handle?

Adria Gutierrez: Hopefully we'll fish together one day. I am down. I'll be there. It's Angling with Adria.

Tom Rowland: Okay, Angling with Adria. And do they have a website?

Adria Gutierrez: You can find all the social media under that name. Yes, it's anglingwithadriacharters.com.

Tom Rowland: All right, great. And the best way for people to book you would be to call or text?

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, or text, either way. I'm always on my phone, obviously. The other reason why I got Starlink is so I don't miss business calls, too. So I'll stop my live stream and pick up the phone call. While I'm with clients, too, I'll have the phone and be baiting somebody's hook and whatnot and just booking a trip. So they can call or text.

Tom Rowland: There you go. You are motivated. I like it. Well, Angling with Adria, check her out. And if you're in that area, check her out. You might end up on TikTok, right? Adria, thank you for coming by. I appreciate that. We'll have another great guest next week. So check that out, and you can check out all the podcasts we've ever done at TomRowlandPodcast.com. We'll see you there.

Adria Gutierrez: Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Tom. I appreciate it.