This conversation with Chasten Whitfield — a 17-year-old competitive angler from Bradenton, Florida who donates every dollar she wins in fishing tournaments and spends her weekends taking terminally ill kids fishing — covers everything from the Red Cross commercial she saw in first grade to the wheelchair-accessible Yellowfin boat being built for her right now. I sat down with Chasten after a day of fishing together in the Keys where she caught two permit, two blacktip sharks, and almost hooked a 12-foot hammerhead on a spinning rod.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page, or scroll back up to watch. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio.
Chasten Whitfield is a 17-year-old competitive angler from the Bradenton, Florida area who has dedicated herself to helping others through fishing. She donates her tournament winnings to charities including Children's Burn Camp and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and she takes terminally ill and disabled children fishing every weekend through a partnership with Children's Dream Fund. She began her charitable work in first grade when she donated her piggy bank savings to the Red Cross after seeing a Hurricane Katrina commercial.
Chasten had always fished with her family around Palma Sola Bay, where her mother taught her to fish. In seventh grade, after realizing competitive cheerleading was not for her, her mom suggested she try a fishing tournament. She entered the Fire Charity Tournament, won first place, and has been competing ever since. She bought her first boat — a 13 or 14 foot Carolina Escape — with money she earned babysitting.
Chasten partners with Children's Dream Fund, an organization similar to Make-A-Wish, which connects her with children who have terminal illnesses or disabilities. She tries to take a child fishing every weekend, sometimes fitting two or three trips into a single weekend. She funds these trips through t-shirt sales and donations — each trip costs roughly $100 per child. Yellowfin Boats is building her a custom 21-foot wheelchair-accessible boat with hydraulics in the floor so children in wheelchairs can board more easily.
Chasten won the Fire Charity Tournament as a 14-year-old fishing out of a duct-taped 13-foot boat. She later entered the Crossway Tournament — described as the Super Bowl of local tournaments — with an all-girls team, the first all-female team in the tournament's history. They won both the juniors under-16 division and the ladies division, and gave all the winnings back to charity.
Chasten receives messages from young girls on social media dealing with bullying, body image issues, and even suicidal thoughts. She encourages them to pursue what makes them happy regardless of what others think. She also teaches Girl Scout groups and speaks at fishing tournament captain's meetings. Her core message is that girls should not feel pressured to follow the crowd — her own path from cheerleading to competitive fishing is the example she lives by.
Chasten operates a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and accepts donations through her website, chastenwhitfield.com. You can also purchase a $20 Chastenation t-shirt from the site — the proceeds go directly toward funding fishing trips for terminally ill children. She can also be reached through Instagram and Facebook under the name Chastenation.
Paul Fizzicaro, the guy who builds our websites, lives right here in Marathon. He sent me a link to a Salt Strong piece about a teenage girl from Bradenton who was winning fishing tournaments and giving all the money back. I watched it and immediately thought she would be a great guest. I have a 13-year-old daughter, and the work Chasten is doing with young girls — helping them with confidence, encouraging them to step outside of what feels safe — that part hit home for me personally.
The other thing that got my attention is that Chasten is 17 years old and already doing more for other people than most adults I know. She is taking terminally ill kids fishing every single weekend. She is not keeping any of the money. She bought her first boat with babysitting money and held it together with duct tape. I have been around fishing my entire life and I have not met many people at any age with this kind of drive.
Press play. Hearing Chasten tell her own story is a completely different experience than reading about it.
Chasten's path to where she is now started in first grade. There was a commercial on television. There was a piggy bank with a dollar fifty in it. There was a trip to the Red Cross that made the local news. The chain of events that followed — from that moment to raising $8,000 for St. Jude through garage sales by age twelve — is the kind of origin story that does not sound real until you hear her tell it. She tells it matter-of-factly, the way a kid would, and that is exactly what makes it land. Listen to that section.
Chasten showed up to the biggest local tournament in her area with a team of 15-year-old girls. Nobody took them seriously. She describes the captain's meeting, the stares, the comments. I have been in enough weigh-in lines to know exactly what that room felt like. What happened at the scales the next day — and the reflection she could see in the computer screen behind the judges — is one of those moments that would lose something if I wrote it out here. Watch it in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
There is a moment in this conversation where Chasten describes a four-year-old boy with spina bifida catching his first fish off a pier. I am not going to try to retell what happened next because Chasten's voice when she describes it carries something that text cannot. That moment is the reason she started taking kids fishing every weekend. It is the reason Yellowfin is building her a wheelchair-accessible boat right now. The full story is in the episode.
I asked Chasten where her confidence comes from. Her answer surprised me. She told me she used to cry on the soccer field if anyone called her name. She hated attention. She described what changed and when it changed, and the thing she keeps coming back to is not a single big moment but a series of small ones — walking into rooms full of older guys, standing at a microphone in front of 400 people, hearing girls at school talk behind her back and choosing to go fishing anyway. Worth hearing in her own words.
Chasten drives a 2002 Chevy Silverado with a seven-and-a-half-inch lift and pink rock lights. She wants her own television show. She told me she has no idea how to start one. I happen to know a little bit about that subject, and the conversation we had about how Saltwater Experience got started — and what I think she could actually do — is the part of the episode where this stops being an interview and starts being two fishing people talking about what is possible. Listen to that section.
Chasten Whitfield is 17 years old. She has a 501(c)(3). She has a partnership with Children's Dream Fund. She has a custom wheelchair-accessible boat being built by Yellowfin. She takes terminally ill children fishing every weekend and has never kept a dollar of tournament winnings for herself. I spent the whole day with her on the water and I can tell you she is also a legitimately talented angler — two permit in one day is something most experienced fishermen never pull off.
I told her I would help however I could. I meant it. If you want to know why, listen to the episode. The article gives you the facts. Chasten gives you the feeling.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page, or scroll back up to watch. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio.
Paul Fizzicaro · Captain Nate · Big Ben · Lori Ann Murphy · Christy Ball · Kim Keeley · Shaw Grigsby · Rich Tudor · Hop
Chasten Whitfield is a 17-year-old competitive angler from the Bradenton, Florida area who donates her tournament winnings to charity and takes terminally ill and disabled children fishing every weekend through a partnership with Children's Dream Fund. She raised $8,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through garage sales as a child, led the first all-female team to compete in and win the Crossway Tournament, and was named Bay News 9 Hero of the Month. She is partnered with Yellowfin Boats, which is building her a custom wheelchair-accessible 21-foot boat. She operates out of Palma Sola Bay near Bradenton, Florida.
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