Erica Lynn: Fishing Social Media Star and Getting Women on the Water

Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 954: Erica Lynn

In this episode: a $500 Craigslist fishing kayak, earning a captain's license, getting more women anglers on the water, algorithm changes and a possible TikTok ban, descending devices and Return 'Em Right, and a backyard full of chickens — in the exact words spoken.

00:00 · Cold Open

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Erica Lynn: Hey there. My name is Erica Lynn, and this is Tom Roland Podcast.

Tom Rowland: Erica, what's up?

Erica Lynn: What's up? It's after the New Year, and I'm ready for a crazy 2025 already. So I'm ready for

Tom Rowland: talking right before right before we started, we were talking about taking the decorations down either if you were a, a right away person or an after the New Year person. Sounds like a little bit of combination of both.

Erica Lynn: I was gonna say kind of a combo of both. I started on the first, taking down some, but I have sold the Christmas tree up in the living room right now. So that'll probably be what I'll end up doing after the podcast here is getting to work on taking down some things. But it's still nice to kind of have some of the Christmas holiday, you know, feel good when we're going around. Yeah. But, yeah, here here in Florida, it just stays so warm. So it's it's kind of hard to tell, you know, the holidays without, like, the

02:43 · Pennsylvania Roots and Fishing With Pop-Pop

Tom Rowland: Did you grow up in Florida?

Erica Lynn: I actually grew up in Pennsylvania. I've been here in Florida for about ten years now. So I was I grew up with the snow. I grew up with the very cold, gloomy weather for most of the most of the winter here. And, I was so once I got to the point where I wanted I knew I wanted to move down to Florida. I was like, I gotta get away from this cold weather. I just it's just not me. So,

Tom Rowland: That was the reason that you moved to Florida, the cold weather?

Erica Lynn: One of the reasons. So, I had visited Florida. So my grandma at the time lived in Dunedin. We had traveled back and forth to visit her. And it was a time in my life I moved down about 2122. So I just finished college. I got a degree in graphic design. I was kinda in between of, like, I had a couple of different jobs, working, like, two jobs at the time also while I was in school. So it was like, I'm at a good point where I feel like I can move. And, you know, I'm just gonna take that jump because I just know this isn't where I need to be. So my grandma very graciously let me move in with her, for a couple months while I started house hunting. I bought a condo in Clearwater on the water a couple months later. And from there, I it just kinda took off. I bought myself a fishing kayak. I, I found it on Craigslist for, like, $500. I was like, you know, I gotta start out small. And it was cool working in ortho at the time, orthodontics like braces, Invisalign. We only worked four days a week, so I always had three day weekends, which is great because, I mean, the weather down here is most of the time always really nice. So every chance I got, I was just out on the water, out of my kayak, teaching myself a whole new way of fishing from what I grew up fishing up north, actually, the New York Coast, for, like, fluke and flounder with my pop pop at the time. So just totally different fishing. Was

Tom Rowland: it almost all saltwater fishing growing up or did you also in in Pennsylvania fish in freshwater?

Erica Lynn: That's a good question, though. It's actually mostly saltwater. My papa was the fisherman in the family. Although in Pennsylvania there's lakes and streams, he wasn't as familiar with that type of fishing, and my parents weren't really into fishing at all. So I knew of people locally. Like, there's little streams, and I I looking back, I wish I would have gotten into it sooner because there is great trout fishing. And

Tom Rowland: Right.

Erica Lynn: My husband and I recently had went back up to Pennsylvania to visit, and we, did do a little bit of fly fishing. We got some of our first trout, so that was cool. But, no, mostly saltwater fishing real when I was real, real little. And then my pop my pop up actually passed away, when I was, like, 10, 12 years old. So we kind of stopped fishing at that point. But I had, like I started so young that I had that, like, just it was instilled in me of just loving the water and loving being out on the boat and and fishing. So once I moved down to Florida, it it was just like, I have to get back out on the water. I know this is me. So let's just take that jump and teach myself a whole new way of fishing. I had no idea what I was doing.

Tom Rowland: That's that's an interesting thing because because when you come down to a different area, we have so many people moving into Florida now, and they're coming from all different places. Maybe they have freshwater backgrounds or saltwater backgrounds or some sort of different fishing background. When you come to Florida, there's a lot of fishing opportunities, but, honestly, it's not it's not a given. It's not that easy. You can go lots of places and not catch anything. And in fact, you'd just get bit by bugs and and you see 20 snakes, and it's not a great experience at all. What how did you start to learn how to fish in Florida? I mean, you said you got a kayak, but then

Erica Lynn: Yes.

Tom Rowland: Then what was your first fishy that you you had success with?

06:56 · A $500 Craigslist Kayak and a Whole New Way to Fish

Erica Lynn: So just a quick funny story because, again, I didn't know what I was doing at all when I first started. I mean, it it was different up north growing up because, you know, I was so little. Pop pop had all the everything rigged already. Like, he's teaching me some stuff, but it's not the things I remembered at that point. So, I mean, just starting out, I had, like, I was using 60 pound leader. I was out there using a huge hook. Like, I just didn't know what I was doing. So my first fish was actually a catfish, which is a really cool fish on my fur I was so excited. Now looking back, I mean, people consider that a trash fish, even though it's still fish. But down here, it's just not a species we try to go for. But at the time, I was just like, I caught something. I took a picture of it. It was huge. I was texting it to my friends at the time, like, can I eat this? Like, I just had no idea. But that was really exciting at the time. And then I think I upgraded and finally got into some trout. Some friends at the time had kind of pushed me in the right direction of, like, alright. You need to use a little bit smaller leader and and try some paddle tails and things like that on the kayak. So I was able to get around a little bit better and start to catch more fish like that.

Tom Rowland: Like redfish and stuff?

Erica Lynn: You know, there really wasn't too many redfish I found, over where I was in Clearwater. It was mostly trout and, and snook at the time.

Tom Rowland: So the way that I, first came across any of your accounts was probably YouTube, I think. You've been doing YouTube for a long time.

08:36 · Furloughed From Orthodontics: Going Full Time on Content

Erica Lynn: I have. I yeah. I started, really going like gung ho. After COVID or during COVID. I was furloughed. I I I was working in orthodontics at the time, and due to COVID, the whole office shut down. I knew I wanted to get into YouTube, but as you know, it's just a it's a lot of work. It's a lot of editing on the backside of things. So it's just gonna pretend take up a lot more time than I was I had available, still working a full time job. So once I was furloughed, I was, you know, let let's just dive right into this and let me try to bang out some videos while I have time. And I was getting, like, one video out a week. And as you know, the more you put out videos, the better. It's it's all about staying consistent. So I started to get a lot of traction just from having those videos put out regularly. And it kind of just took off from there. And then after I came back to work, it was definitely hard to have them like, wow, this is great. Like, you know, I could kinda do everything on my own, and now I gotta work for someone else again. So I I got to the point where I felt that it was better off to quit my job. You know, I'm gonna jump into this full time, see where it goes, and because that way, I have the time available to take on other sponsors and and really be able to designate enough time to produce content for for other people. So

Tom Rowland: That's super cool. That's actually one of the reasons why I started this podcast was to find that out about so many people, whether you were gonna be a professional charter captain or, open a fly shop or, you know, whatever. There's this moment where you kind of have got this little thing going on the side, and then you've got like, a more sure thing that you're doing. Like, you had the other job and then you're thinking, well, this YouTube seems to be going pretty well. I like it better. Like, that jump is is where I have a lot of people over the years have have messaged me, asked me questions about, like, this is where I am and this is what I want to do. What do you what do you suggest? And you you I don't I'm always hesitant to to say what I think to those people because I don't know what their situation is exactly. But usually the information that I give them is, man, if that's what you want to do, you gotta just, you gotta jump. You gotta go for it. What was that like for you? Like, did you get YouTube to a place where you were making almost as much money? Or like, where were you when you decided I'm not gonna do this anymore, and I'm going full time into into this other

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Role? Good question. Yeah. Good question. It was starting to compensate for what I was making orthodontics. I mean, at the time, I mean, this was a couple years ago now. Now it's been a lot more saturated, but, I felt like the money was pretty good in the beginning of the views I was getting. I was able to, you know, compensate for what I was gonna be losing, not working a full time job. And, I mean, through other social media and then I had me I had cert other contracts with other companies. So they were supplementing, you know, some other fee, payments that way. So I mean, I and I think for anybody, you really should have more than one outlet of income. So I having, like, little things here and there, adding up to, obviously, what you make at the end of the year is is best, and not having, like, all your eggs in one basket. And actually, on that topic, I know you mentioned, the charter captain. You guys are gonna hear it here first. I am getting my captain's license. Very exciting. Yeah. So I'll be captain Erica, like, any day now. I've everything's done. All the paperwork, did all the classes and everything. So

Tom Rowland: That's cool.

Erica Lynn: I will be doing

12:31 · What It Takes to Get a Captain's License

Tom Rowland: That's awesome. That's also a question that I get a ton. I'd like to know about what your experience was. How did you decide how you were gonna do your your captain's license? Because today, you know, you can do a lot of it digitally online. You could go into an in person class. You could probably, like my friend, the one that I got my captain's license from, Flynn Smith in Key West, he actually takes his students out on a boat and you can actually shoot the flares and do all this stuff while you're out on the boat. So there's a lot of different ways to to get a captain's license. How did you do it and and was that the best way? What would you recommend for somebody now after you've gotten you know, you've gone through the process?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Good question. I would love the hands on experience. That would've been really cool because I haven't ever actually shot a flare, so that would be fun. But, no. I did the online course, through the maritime Mariners. There's, like, the whole online, option now these days that it is kinda like you work at your own pace. They They give you once you sign up, they they give you about a year of time to finish. So, while I'm still busy doing YouTube videos and everything, I was doing some of the classes here and there. It is a lot of information. But it is nice because they have everything kind of broken down into videos, like very thorough cartoon videos as they go through each chapter, and they kind of read you everything, like, through those videos. So it's actually pretty, it's easy to engage with what's going on in each section. So it's easier to remain kind of retain all the information because it is a lot, especially once you get to the chart plotting and and all that fun stuff. But, no. It was actually really, I mean, relatively easy. It took me a little while just because I took took my time through it. But at the end, they have the the, tests that are Croctored. So it's just that's a little different for me, that they had, like, for example, the chart plotting. They had sent me a packet in the beginning. They're like, alright. Don't open this until test day. So you have to set up your whole computer so that they can see you. You you can't see them at all, but you just know that it's recording. So you have to, like, follow the directions, like, make sure you have to, like, hold the camera and, like, show the room to make sure you're, like, there's nothing on the wall, like, helping you cheat or something like that. But it was kind of a cool, weird experience. Like, so it was proctored. I did all the exams that way. And it's all again pretty easy. And then, once that was once I passed all of the class part of it, it was the paperwork and, you know, getting a physical and getting, a captain to write off on hours for you and, a couple different other things to put together. It took me a little bit of time, but, that's all submitted. I've been getting some emails of updates, and I should be getting a confirmation any day now. But I'll be especially especially Erica and Cath America. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: It's fantastic. Don't let it expire. That's what that would be my advice. I've renewed mine a whole bunch of times. Thing over again.

Erica Lynn: Oh my gosh. No.

Tom Rowland: If you renew your license while it's still valid, you just renew it. You all you have to do sometimes you have to take a drug test. Sometimes you have to submit some sort of, paperwork or whatever. But take the test again. But if you let it expire, you have to take the test again. So don't do that. That's not

Erica Lynn: I'd rather not take the test again. So I'll definitely try a little bit.

16:03 · The South Dade Skiff and Fishing Super Shallow

Tom Rowland: Something, I think. Yeah. That's that's cool. So, I see this what is that little boat that you have on your on that you're fishing out of?

Erica Lynn: So it's a little 16 foot skiff. It's a South Dade skiff. They're made out of Miami. I've, at this point, known the the builder really closely. Been working with them for a couple years. It's such a fun boat, I will say.

Tom Rowland: It's a cool little boat.

Erica Lynn: Yeah. The one I have now, they've checked it out with everything. I mean, I have to jack plate the trim tabs and GPS, the lights. Like, it's it's got everything. And what but the best part in terms of fishing, it floats so shallow. And, I mean, a couple inches. It's just absolutely crazy when I go out to the flats. I mean, there's areas that my husband and I say all the time, like, there's no way another boat's getting through here. Like, not only that it does float so shallow, but it is is also a little bit narrower. So, I mean, we're we get into places that it just

Tom Rowland: So where is it so shallow?

Erica Lynn: So up north a little, like Hudson area

Tom Rowland: k.

Erica Lynn: There's some some really cool flats and some creek areas that I mean, we've kind of figured out the fishing the area at this point pretty well that we know what tides are gonna be coming in and off on. There's a lot of areas that we ourselves have to look at because we know that, hey. If it's past if it's anything under 1.6, we can't even get up here. Like, it is too shallow at that point. But, I mean, as you know, I mean, there's areas where if you can just get over that little hump, there's a whole hole of fish walking. Yeah. And it's just loaded, you know, just so many cool thing

Tom Rowland: about having a really shallow boat in my experience is that it's also that's that's the boat that you're actually gonna stick. You're gonna get you're gonna get stuck. Have you gotten that boat stuck? No. Because No.

Erica Lynn: I'm sorry.

Tom Rowland: Super shallow. You wanna test it out? Like, how shallow will it go?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. No. For sure. I mean, I've definitely not now been pushed a few times, so there's there's but it is crazy because, I mean, I'll be pushing, but, like, I I mean, I can still float in, like, this much water. It's just crazy.

Tom Rowland: Is that the book that you'll guide out of? Is that gonna be your guide operation going back into shallow water like that?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. So I I'm gonna kinda do things a little different than most splatter guys, but I'm gonna be focusing only on, female anglers and trying to just do the fly fishing thing. So it's not gonna be probably booming business, but, you know, I'm still be doing YouTube stuff, and there'll be something fun to do on the side and to help some lady anglers get on the water more, which I think would be really cool.

Tom Rowland: Well, my whole career, I've I've I've seen that happen. When I first started guiding, was in Jackson, Wyoming, and I started guiding with, Lori Ann Murphy. Do you know who she is? Lori Ann Murphy, she had this thing called Real Women.

Erica Lynn: The name sounds familiar. I don't know what

19:07 · Getting More Women Anglers on the Water

Tom Rowland: 1992 or whatever. She was she was kind of on that road of, like, I wanna I wanna kinda get a a female anglers thing going. And she had this thing called Real Women, and Orvis got behind it, and it was it was very successful. And she she did a great she did a great thing. She got a lot of women into the sport, a lot of them. And I think that it was really good because, you know, in certain, I mean, especially out there, you go out there and just a bunch of old cowboys are are, you know, rowing the boats and they're nice and everything, but, you know, are, you know, rowing the boats and they're nice and everything, but I think that there's a real place. Where do you see that going for, like the where do you think we are right now with women anglers entering the sport? I think COVID, I think a lot of people entered the sport, men, women, children, every type of person entered the sport, kind of around COVID. But it seemed like there was kind of a a surge in women angling, and a lot of companies were getting behind it, making equipment for women specifically. But then it seems to me like that has kinda plateaued a little bit. But I don't know. What's your opinion of that?

Erica Lynn: I think social media played a factor that also of having, the women, more women jumping into this into the sport. Because, I mean, you see well, I kinda back when it was mostly just photos on Instagram, for example. Like, I mean, I feel like maybe that's my algorithms, but I'm seeing so many women anglers out there catching these amazing fish, you know, swordfish and just all corn all kinds of crazy species that is one of those, like, black. If they can do that, I can do that. Or, I wanna try to catch that next because that is bigger than the last one I caught. Or, but yeah. So I think social media, good or bad, I think got a lot of women on into the sport, and I feel like a lot of dropped out. They feel like social media, especially with the reels nowadays, it's kinda harder to make fishing content, that's attractive in a way, for women. So, I don't know if as many women are still sticking to it, if they are mostly just doing it for the social media aspect. But in terms of fly fishing, I've seen a lot more girls getting into it. I have a a couple girls here local that are always my go tos. Like, if I if I have a free day, and I just wanna get out with one of the girls, I don't text them. But I recently actually went up to South Carolina for a women's fly fishing tournament. And that was actually the first time, I had been around so many women that were into the fly fishing sport. So that was really empowering and seeing a couple of the other women there who were actually guides as well. So it was just it was just really cool to actually be around a lot of women, that were into the sport because there's really not that many of us. I mean, even here in Tampa where you think of it as a it's a big area. It's a lot a huge demographic of people. There's not that many women that are into the flag fishing team. And I think there that's, like, a market that can potentially be grow and and we can see more anglers coming out of this area. I think a lot of it is just learning how to fly fish because it can be definitely a little intimidating. There's I mean, I I just started a couple years ago, to be honest, and I was awful in the beginning. So, you know, it's it's just all a learning curve. But it's so fun. Like, honestly, once you get the hang of it and you start catching fish, it's just you become addicted. And I used to love my spinning rod and throw in the top water, you know, plugs around docks was my go to. And now my go to is getting out on the skiff, getting on the plots, and just holding around looking for reds. You

Tom Rowland: know, I started guiding in Wyoming for trout.

Erica Lynn: And there

Tom Rowland: we would take, I mean, like Laurie Ann brought in lots of women, that that would, you know, groups of women, but you would also take, you know, like a husband and wife, lot of lot of groups like that. And, I don't know why it's intimidating for women, honestly, because the truth is that when I would have a husband and wife, the wife would always catch more fish. Always. Every time. And bigger fish and better fish, mostly because the dude was like, I've already done that. I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. Like, I was 21 when I started, right? So, like, I've been doing this for a long time. You just just take care of her or whatever, and I'll just go over here. And he'd go off and do his thing. And then, you know, she would listen and do exactly what we were I mean, what I was telling her to do was what worked yesterday, right? This guy last year or two years ago or Right. He was it. I don't know. And the wife would always catch more fish, always. And even in saltwater, it's it's almost always that way. And I don't know what it is, but women tend to be, tend to be certainly better at at at listening and, you know, doing what the guide is saying for whatever reason. And then also not, like, trying to to muscle the the fly rod, like, trying to do it real real hard. Right? Like, they they tend to be, like, you know, easier to teach, and they don't have any bad habits for the most part. But I don't know. What do you think is intimidating about what do you what could be done in fishing to make it less intimidating for for women? Because there's, like, it would be great if more women were fishing. That would be good for the sport.

Erica Lynn: Oh, absolutely. And it's funny that you're mentioning about women, kind of picking up on things a little faster because it's not the first time I've heard heard about you there. I've heard from plenty of other people as, you know, women, they're just better listeners. You know, like, we foremost have some or some that, yeah, we just are able to listen. Alright. You're the expert. You're the guide. You know what you're doing, and I'm gonna do exactly what you tell me to do. And as long as, I mean, the guides, it kind of explains things really well. I mean, usually, the the women will pick up on that. That's funny. It's not the first time I've heard that. I would love to see more women in the sport. I I don't know if it's just that and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to kinda get into the the guide guiding, aspect of things because I think it's also just being able to get on the water that not a lot of women I mean, think think of it as a lot of men are the ones that own the boats. Mostly, it's the men that, you know, they'll they go out because it's their boat. You know? Not not as many women have boats, especially if they don't know what they're doing at all and they're they're just starting out. And so it's like they either need an invite or I don't know if they're quite comfortable enough to just reach out to a guide at that point who's in mail. So I think just giving them an option, like, an outlet of, hey. This is a girl that fishes. Like, she can teach me. I wanna go out on the boat. You know? But it'll just be an option that I mean, I'll be happy to take them fishing. Show them how to do things. Show them the water. Get them in love with the sport. But even kinda taking it back from that, I think if you have a passion for the outdoors and and the water, I mean, just you can start small just like I did. Start get a kayak. I mean, I put up on the roof of my car. It didn't have anything crazy, and now I just made it happen. But you just you start small and you kinda learn from there. It does need you don't need to jump right into the swordfish and the the crazy big trophy fish. But, you know, just getting out on the water is is just a blessing. And just, again, as long as you fall in love with the sport from there, I mean, there's always opportunities to get out.

27:05 · The Reality of Guiding and Where She'll Run Trips

Tom Rowland: K. So, will you plan on doing most of your advertising, like, through through the channels that you're already using? Like or or will you do anything different to recruit more women anglers and let people know that you're actually, licensed and ready to go now?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Good question. I'm gonna just focus on social media. At this point, I have a pretty big following that I mean, just social media and then word-of-mouth. I I at this point, I don't foresee it being a full time operation just because it is gonna be so specialized, although that would be awesome. Because I do still wanna be able to dip into the YouTube game and social media. So that'll take a wait time of, you know, me getting out on the water and being able to fish and not just, you know, pulling somebody else to fish. And

Tom Rowland: that's kind of the thing about guiding. Like, some people get into guiding because they think that they're gonna fish all the time. But the fact is, is that a fishing guide rarely fishes. You're gonna fish less as a fishing guide. You're gonna be on the boat a lot, you're gonna be on the water a lot, but you're not actually the one fishing. And some people get some people that's that's not an expected thing for them. And then they decide this isn't really what I wanna do. Like, I wanna be the one on the other end of the boat. But then there's lots of people that, you know, like myself included, I found that being on the back of the boat, I actually liked it even more. Like, getting, you know, teaching and putting this person in a position to catch a fish and then, you know, realizing that in a lot of cases, there's no way that that person would have ever been able to catch that particular fish if I hadn't have done what I what I did. And there's an art to that. There's a real art to that. Not only getting the boat in the right position, but also communicating to them in a way that it doesn't make them too nervous and that they can actually get the job done. And that's a tricky thing. And it takes a lot of time to do it. And you, you know, some people are really great at it. Some people are really terrible at it. But but, that's that is something that you you never know how you're gonna react to that until you start getting into that on a regular basis. Like, yeah, one trip's cool, but, you know, when you get out there and it is absolutely the perfect day and it's literally the best you've ever seen, Like, how does that feel when somebody else is on the bow and it's not here? Like, that's that's that's when you know, like, okay, I'm I'm cut out for this. Like, I was more excited than if I were on the bow Or you're kinda like, dang. I can't believe I'm back here.

Erica Lynn: Yeah. I could see both ways. I mean, honestly, just being out on the water on a nice day is golden. I have done actually just different levels of of the fishing sport. I've I've been a first mate before on charters for, you know, local captains who do the live bait game, and we get a bunch of greenies. We have four or five people on the boat, and I'm hooking all the fish up for them. Half the time, I'm having to cast for them too because they don't know how to cast at all or they'd rather me do it. So it's I've been through that side of things where it's it's fun, but, you know, just being on this GIF is just such a different experience because you're seeing the fish before you catch it. You're visually hunting that fish down. So even if I'm on the back now, I pull my husband all the time. So there's a lot of times that I'm just pulling and he's fishing. That's just how it works. But just being a part of the hunt is such a fun experience because you're like you said, you're able to Alright. 03:00. It's, you know, he's he's facing left, you know, just getting a couple feet out in front of him, like, tick, tick, tick, tick. And it just it's cool just being a part of the catch even if you're not the one, holding the fishing rod in your hands. The whole fly fishing game is is really fun. It's very addicting. And that's why I kinda wanted to get into it because I don't mind being up on the platform. I really do enjoy being a part of the catch even, like I said, if I'm not holding a rod, it's it's still fun for me. So, I'm excited. We'll see we'll see where it goes.

Tom Rowland: Your main species will be, like, that you that you'll be guiding for?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Good question. I'm gonna be focusing on redfish. It's it's mostly what, what else to be out there.

Tom Rowland: In Tampa in Tampa Bay. Is that where you're thinking about?

Erica Lynn: Like Yeah. Yeah. The general area, maybe up north a little bit. Depends on I have such a bright very wide range of of spots. So it'll be also kind of where where are you coming up from? Like, a nation with the spot versus the spot or whatever is closer.

31:47 · Social Media: Comments, Negativity, and a TikTok Ban

Tom Rowland: That's cool. You're gonna you're gonna do great with it, I'm sure. And, so I I wanna talk to you also about social media. Like, you've been on social media long enough. Like, what do you, what are the biggest challenges that you've seen in social media for yourself personally? I mean, you're, you're, coming at it from a totally different angle than, than I am. Your experience is gonna be completely different on social media than my, my experience on social media, like negativity, things like that. How do you deal with any of that?

Erica Lynn: You know, I'm really blessed. I don't get that many negative comments or that much much pushback on my content, which is a blessing, which I I can see from other people that they get a lot more, crap from from people on one of the things they post. And I'm just like, I'm still on what's on me. But,

Tom Rowland: that when you see that from other accounts that maybe it's the way that they're posting it or the post that they choose to make that is drawing the negativity, like, don't you think that you can kinda control that by the content a little bit?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. I think so. I think it's also just guys, you know, giving other guys hard times, you know, whereas just me being a woman, that same guy may not make that same comment. You know, because I I think I They

Tom Rowland: might make another comment.

Erica Lynn: Or they make another comment. Yeah. So I got a lot of, like, those type of comments also. And I just, you know, I just read them or don't obviously, I don't usually them.

Tom Rowland: Do you read them? Do you read the comments?

Erica Lynn: I'll read the comments for a little while. I just I get so many that it's hard to keep up with. But I the nice thing with Instagram now, it will if I'm following people, like, specifically and they comment on something, I'll see those and then I can respond to those. But, no. For the for the most part, I do read through everything. But if it's like a old post and, people are commenting more on it, I just I'm I'm up I'm up higher on the on the little bigger bar, and I'm just up staying up to date with the more current stuff that I've been posting. But What are you doing

Tom Rowland: the most positive platform is?

Erica Lynn: Well, I'll tell you, I'm really only on Instagram and YouTube. I I tried getting on TikTok. I just I just couldn't do it. But I I just like

Tom Rowland: about TikTok?

Erica Lynn: I, you know, I still love Instagram for the picture, like, where it's just only pictures. It was just, like, easier to without content, you know. Now the reels just take up a lot more time to put together. So I think that's also just goes along with the the TikTok stuff. I really need to get on there, though. But, I don't know.

Tom Rowland: Maybe the wave's over. I don't I don't know. Maybe it's just beginning. You know, there could be a ban. I think that that whether there is a ban or there's not a ban or even just that there that that it's something that's in the news that there could possibly be a ban. I think maybe that has something to do with more people jumping over there or waiting. I don't know which is going on. We're on TikTok, but I don't go on TikTok. I don't ever go there. And I don't I don't have it on my phone. I don't want I don't it's not that I don't even want it. I just don't. My my social media bandwidth is full right now. And so we just have it just gets posted there. And and it does fine, but I don't think that I don't think that any social media account is going to really thrive if you're not nurturing it and you're not answering the comments and you're not I mean, what do you think? Like, how do you how do you grow a social media platform today?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. I mean, definitely keeping up the engagement, keeping up with your posting schedule. I mean, back when things were really cranking, like, in the middle of the summer, you know, winter is a little slower. But, I mean, getting a getting a post out once a day is ideal. And like you said, commenting on, on responding to comments and and just being more engaged with other people's posts, I feel like does help a lot. Just kind of getting your your content at the front of someone's, scrolling page. But it's it's changed a lot, you know, since I mean, even the last couple of years. What changes

Tom Rowland: have you seen? What do you what do you what comes to mind? Right?

Erica Lynn: Aside from the reels, which was has been a learning curve because I'm not really a fan of them, but it is what it is. I think the algorithms have changed a lot too. So, you know, with with things I was doing in the beginning where I was, you know, seeing hundreds of people coming in, new new subscribers, it's it's gotten a little slower. But I think it's just the you just have to play the algorithm game. And I've noticed just for example with story posts on Instagram, if you let the ticker expire through the twenty four hours and then you repost

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Erica Lynn: That next post will go not viral, but it'll reach more people than if you just keep posting every, like, four hours, for example.

Tom Rowland: If you look at that, when I look at the story thing, it's like so many people see it and then less people see the next one, less people see the next one, less people see the next one. But I like, what you're saying, I've noticed the same thing about the stories. But I've also noticed that when stories first came out, the swipe ups on stories were a very effective way to get a click or whatever. And now it They

Erica Lynn: took that away. I know.

Tom Rowland: It just doesn't even seem to work at all. I mean, can you you can still click. I mean, you can still do the swipe ups.

Erica Lynn: It doesn't swipe up, though. The only option now is to put a link. Obviously, you're gonna put a link, but it only just puts the icon on the story. Though, so someone has to physically click it instead of swiping up, not like it should make that big of a difference, but I feel like that does affect

Tom Rowland: No. It made a huge difference because you get thousands of clicks or hundreds of clicks or tens of clicks to now you get two clicks, four clicks on on something like that. And and I don't I mean, I guess it's as simple as Instagram doesn't want you doesn't want anyone going away from their platform for any period of time at all. They're fine to put a link there, I guess, as long as it's routing it through. Like, you see those ads that people put on Instagram and you can click it there, but you stay within Instagram.

Erica Lynn: Like, those.

Tom Rowland: I'm sure those are very effective.

Erica Lynn: Oh, yeah. You're like someone with product.

Tom Rowland: Swipe ups on the stories anymore. They they've just tell totally squash that.

Erica Lynn: I know. I miss I miss the swipe ups because it it wasn't easy. You know, you tag a sponsor and it's like, oh, swipe up for more con or more products or, you know, it just was easy. For some reason, clicking a button now is difficult for people. I don't know.

Tom Rowland: I think it's it's

Erica Lynn: a learning curve.

Tom Rowland: Difficult for I think that Instagram as a platform made it not as effective for whatever reason. Like, it's just not this they I just don't think they want you going there. Just like when you try to promote a YouTube video on Instagram or Facebook. No. Thanks. They're not gonna they don't push that. Like, if there's a YouTube link in there, I think it immediately gets suppressed.

Erica Lynn: Yeah. That's interesting. Well, and even with, what was I gonna say? Yeah. Just other even, like, the bio click links, I feel like I've gone down. But, yeah, just the algorithms in general, like, I feel like things are always like, even still, like, they're just always changing something with the algorithms and just making it more difficult. Because if you're not paying for the ads, like, as a a user, if you want your post to, like, reach more people, now they want you to pay for things than you want. You need the blue blue little eye call next to your name so you get more exposure. It's like, well, jeez, and I'm paying for all this stuff. Whereas I was just getting it all organically before, you know, just it's all about money, unfortunately. I think so.

Tom Rowland: And and attention. It's all about attention. They, like, they don't like, I think with the with the swipe ups is one of the things where it took people off of the platform. So they're like, no. That's let's don't do that. Let's keep them right here. And, I don't know. I don't I, I kind of understand Instagram better than I understand more of the the other one. TikTok and YouTube, Facebook. I don't even really go there that much anymore, even though the Facebook pages do really well. But you

Erica Lynn: guys have a ton of followers.

Tom Rowland: I don't particularly go there, though, but I think it's because of, you know, probably the demographic. A lot of people my age are on Facebook even though I prefer Instagram, myself, but I think I think that's probably probably the the way. What what's your been your biggest video? Do you have one that's really gone crazy?

41:01 · Which Videos Actually Hit

Erica Lynn: My biggest video, I've had some good ones on the skiff. You know, just throw shrimp around docks. It's just, you know, it's just weird how certain videos where in my mind, I'm like, oh, you know, I caught a swordfish. Like, we went to Louisiana, and we caught swordfish. Like, it was such an epic day, and I just think, like, that's the type of video that people wanna watch. But then it's the snapper video, throwing shrimp around dogs. I think what it is is people wanna be able to, like, associate and have a connection with the video. Like, oh, I've done that before, or I could easily do that. You know? And like I said, my my easy snapper video is throwing out dead bait or, like I said, shrimp around docs are the ones that end up getting the most views. And it's like, come on, people. What about fly fishing? Like, there's so much other cool stuff I post. But,

Tom Rowland: I think I think you're on to something right there that that is exactly what's going on because it used to be, like, when we first started television, it's like the crazier, the more exotic, the further away, the more lifetime kind of bucket list trip that you could put on your TV show, the better the viewership was. But now I think things have changed completely to more what you're saying that that if if it's, like, in somebody's backyard, if it's, even a local pond, more people are going to watch it, but more people have it accessible to them through YouTube or Instagram or TikTok. And it's something that they're more interested in than some, you know, The Seychelles or or Hawaii or some kind of crazy trip that they might probably not gonna go.

Erica Lynn: Right. I mean, you see the you see the videos down in, like, South Florida where they're fishing out of the the canals and stuff. It's like and I mean, there's tons of fish in there. It's crazy, the species you can catch out of these tiny little canals, but some of those videos are just go so viral because it's also, like, anybody can drive down to one of those and throw a piece of hot dog or something, like, random, like, in there, and then chances are you're probably gonna catch something. So, yeah, I think it's if if the if people can associate, like, I can do that myself, then they're also looking at the video of I'm learning some sort of extra, tip that I'm gonna get when I go to do this myself. Especially in out here in the bay, whether it's just easy shrimp or or dead bait, you know, the frozen thread fins, so you get a whole box of them so easy. But that's the stuff a lot of people just the easier fishing type of

Tom Rowland: I feel like I feel like sometimes the best videos that we've done are the are the instructional ones, like a knot video. Knot videos will do really well or something like that to where somebody can use that. But, you know, how to skip a lure under a bush, that doesn't do so good. Or, like, how to fly fish, how to throw a long cast, that just doesn't seem to do that well. And so I don't know. Maybe it's the way it's filmed or or whatever. But, the bucket list trips, now whether or not it makes a great video, it makes a great trip and a great, experience. And I've got one coming up this year. I'm going to The Seychelles this year. I'm super excited about it. And, but I wonder I was gonna ask you if you had a bucket list trip.

44:33 · Bucket List Trips: Australia GTs and the Florida Keys

Erica Lynn: Bucket list trip. I've always wanted I mean, we're talking big. I've always wanted to go to Australia. Obviously, there's amazing the GTs and just like those just is so crazy. Just another world over there fishing. So that would be definitely a bucket list area to go to. I've actually never been to Costa Rica either. So, that's a lot, obviously, a lot more local, and the bill fishing out there is amazing, from what I've seen and what I've heard. So that's also, to do at some point, hopefully, soon. But I know I I it's funny. I didn't mention this earlier, but my we watch you on TV all the time. So it's like we we've followed along a lot of your trips. And you definitely notice some really cool places and catch a lot of cool dulch. So it's kinda cool. Mostly on on

Tom Rowland: you know, it's been lucky lucky enough to, do do most of it out of Hawkes Cay, you know. And and in the Florida Keys, we have so many, species that we can fish for. I remember when we were first getting this show started, we were thinking, man, there's only so many things we could do. And then we started thinking about it. It's like, no. We could catch we started naming off all the different species. And it's like, we could catch jacks and then we could catch jacks on the surface. We could catch jacks on fly. We could catch we could catch snook. We catch, you know, I don't know. We counted up, like, 50 some odd species. And then we thought about it. We're like, you know, Bill Dance has been catching the same species, same pond for fifty years. I think we're gonna be good. I think we've got tons of opportunity to to change things up and do things differently, which which is great. But the Florida Keys is an incredible backdrop for a lot of variety and you've got a lot of variety in in Tampa Bay too. I mean, from both the in shore and the offshore, I mean, you've got almost all the same fish available to you up there, and clear water. Like, I like the clear water. But we also have the dirty water Everglades kinda stuff, which is which is nice, but so do you. I mean, you could go from from where you are, and we've done this before, you know, go all the way up there to to fish or from from there. I remember on our first redfish tournament that we ever did, the first one, professional redfish tournament was in, Mosquito Lagoon. We did really well there because that was very similar to the type of fishing that we do in the Florida Keys. It was like site fishing. You got you had to be in really shallow water. You pull, you cast to them. It was almost exactly the same as what we were doing in Flamingo. But then we went to, Punta Gorda and, fished out of Burnt Storm Arena. I think there were 65 teams in the tournament. I think we came in sixty fifth place. Second place finish to a sixty fifth place finish in Voya. Very, very, humbling. Very humbling. So then the next time we went to that same area, we said, we're going straight to Flamingo. Like, I don't care. So we just got out and went as far down to to where a place that we knew we could catch fish as possible, but, you know, you're not that far away from the ever from the Everglades where you are.

47:40 · Back-to-Back Hurricanes: Cedar Key and Tampa Bay

Erica Lynn: No. Not at all. Yeah. It's it's great. I mean, I feel like Tampa is pretty centrally located. I mean, we'll we finish up with a a guide in Cedar Key area, which is, like, two hours. So, I mean, from there, we're catching, like, our tarpon on fly up there. I I mean, it's also in Tampa also, but, I mean, all the way down the coast.

Tom Rowland: Who do you fish with up there?

Erica Lynn: Trey Mickel. Okay. He's, really good friends with Harry Spears, like, Flip Pilot, all of them. But he has a little sixteen and eighteen foot skiff, and he kinda does a lot of the similar, like, sight casting stuff. Has tons of great sized redfish up there. And, it's just it's nature's coast. It's just gorgeous. There's there's not I mean, no people up there at all. So

Tom Rowland: But that did have some hurricane damage on the first hurricane this year. Right? That area?

Erica Lynn: They did. Yeah. They got a lot of they're back to back storms. They they got a lot of flooding up there. And we my husband and I had actually stayed in Cedar Key, this past year before the storms, and we're able to see Cedar Key before it got wiped off. I mean, I I know buildings are still there, but a lot of the restaurants and the things on the water, were really affected from the storm. So it was a little disheartening. You know? I had that in some of my YouTube videos when we went up there to get Tarpon on fly is that there's all these amazing restaurants, and it's crazy. All that's gone now. They're they're starting to rebuild. I mean, they're definitely coming back. They're they're still there. Not all the restaurants are coming back as quickly, but, it is such a gorgeous place. And so, like I said, there's not that many people up there, which is for us, fishermen are usually the things that we like about places, to get away from people. So, but, yeah, great fishing up there all the way down the coast from Tampa. I mean, we have the whole Tampa Bay, Clearwater. We get great tarpon migrations through Saint Pete, even down into, like, the Bradenton area. I mean, tons of redfish all over, snuck around docks. There's just, I guess, some of these issues.

Tom Rowland: How did y'all do in the hurricanes this year in Tampa? You were you had some come through there.

Erica Lynn: Yeah. No. Yeah. We had, we ended up having a lot of flooding here. I think of, like, St. Pete as part of Tampa because they're so close. And, we have a lot of friends on the water that unfortunately had a couple feet of storm surge come in their house. So it was like on everyone's stories, you know, they're taking out drywall, like, from it's just crazy. Like, their whole house is just empty. They had to throw all their belongings out on the street. I feel like they're still picking up some stuff out there, and this is now months later. Luckily, we my home was fine. I I'm up on a lake in Carolwood, so it's a little it's like 10 miles north in inland. So luckily, we didn't have to worry about any storm surge. The lake did come up a lot, but, luckily, we're a little higher elevated, so we were okay. Lots of trees down otherwise else about it and some power out. But

Tom Rowland: Yeah. It was a tough year. Hurricanes, man. It was really, really tough year. I mean, all the way, all of Florida and then then what happened in North Carolina too. It's it's been that's that's been tough. I know. Yeah.

Erica Lynn: How how did you guys do through the storm?

Tom Rowland: No problems this year. But, you know, in years past, we've we've, you know, the Florida Keys has been, you know, an area where you have multiple storms hitting in a single season. And then usually just one one of them, you know, you get a lot of near misses and you'll get you'll get some, like, a little bit of, you know, dam wind damage or storm damage or whatever, and then they'll be the one just when you think it's over. The one will kinda get you. And we had one get us in Key West. We had another one get, Duck Key area Mhmm. Pretty bad. And, you know, it's nothing it's nothing that's any fun to deal with. All that cutting as soon as you said, you know, you see people cutting the drywall out. I I immediate flashback to doing that in my own house. It's not it's not it's not it's not fun at all. But, that is part of living in the living in, South Florida, I think, is that we all know that we all know that that's there.

Erica Lynn: Right. It

Tom Rowland: could happen in a year, but let's hope it's let's hope we have a few years off.

Erica Lynn: Yeah. We definitely need it. Do those back to back storms. There's been so many people moving down to Florida too. I feel like it was a little bit of a wake up call. Like, this is what we need to expect if you plan to stay here. You know? This is what our normal is, you know, getting ready to to leave your home potentially. You know? All the places along the water having to get evacuated. You know? It really hits home when it's when it's local.

Tom Rowland: So Right. Pretty crazy. When you're thinking about, like, you're building your your, your guide business here, you're getting ready to as soon as you get your your captain's license, and you're gonna, to start to to, kind of come up with your ultimate client clientele. So if you could fish with anybody, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

53:00 · Flip Pallot and the Legends Who Came Before

Erica Lynn: Oh, my goodness. The first thing that comes to mind is Flip Pallet because he's just a legend when it comes to the fly fishing world. And I've and follow him on social media, you know, and from shows, you know, I've I've followed him a long time at this point. So it's just cool. He just seems very humble, you know, just obviously an amazing fisherman. So, that would be so cool. Oh my gosh. If he came fishing with me, like, that would just I would I would like that would be so cool. He's up there. I mean, Harry Spears, like, I follow some of these other podcasts I mean they have all these fishermen on and it's just cool to see all the stories especially in the fly fishing world and it's it's relatively new down here I mean it's only really started about a generation ago so hearing all the stories of you know, them starting out fly fishing for the first time, like, it's it's very inspiring, you know, because it's they started out from nothing, not knowing anything. You know, it's they learned what they know now, how far they've come. So it's like, well, if they can do it, I can do it. And now I can use what they've learned, you know, to use those same skills here. And it's it's been yeah. I would say, yeah, flip pallet first if I had to pick one. But there's a laundry list of others that would be just amazing. But probably within the fly fishing community, I would I would focus probably there first.

Tom Rowland: That's cool. Yeah. You know, you were saying, you know, if they back in those days where the where people like Flip Pallet, Chico Fernandez, so many of these other guys, Lefty Cray, were coming down to the Florida Keys, and they were basically taking gear that was not designed for catching tarpon and redfish and snook and giant, you know, even offshore fish. It's not designed for that at all. This was basically trout tackle that they were cutting holes in the side of the reel to, like, put their finger in there to palm the reel because, like, the reel didn't even have an exposed rim on it. Right. So they would, like, literally cut a hole in it so they could palm the reel with their finger. And they were using, like, they would sand down, like, heavy monofilament and make their own fly lines because the there were no fly lines that would work around the bridges and stuff like that. It's so fascinating. Like, what you're talking about is, like, it only is, like, a generation old. And if you go back and you read some of these books about, like, how that all started or you listen to Flip Palette or any of these guys from that generation talk about how they got how this whole sport kind of originated and evolved into what we have today, which is very high-tech. And and we have we have incredible tools.

Erica Lynn: Very lucky.

Tom Rowland: Like the fly reels now are they're an exquisite piece of machinery that is as good as a spinning reel today at stopping a fish. But back then, it was not that way at all. The the reels were basically free spool. And I mean, and the rods were like fiberglass. And they then the fly lines were not even fly lines. They were, like, sanded down monofilament. It's just amazing. Like, to see where it's come from and then how how good it's gotten now, it's it's really cool. I mean, that and it it wasn't very long ago.

Erica Lynn: No. It wasn't. I mean, and they were out there catching some of the biggest sports fish you can catch. Carbon, you know, just hundreds of pounds of fish that on these little makeshift rods and reels. It's it's really crazy. It's really cool. So it's definitely be like some of the inspiring stories and people I would definitely want to want to finish with.

Tom Rowland: Well, you can probably make that happen. A lot of those people are are still doing it. Yeah. The regular. We lost Lefty Cray, but, you know, a lot of the others are still still out there going. They're still doing it. So what about, what what what do you see as far as the health of of Tampa area? You know, you hear a lot of people talk about, red snapper there. You hear about, a lot of the shark situations that we're dealing with in the Florida Keys. Lots and lots of big overpopulations of sharks where, I mean, I've never seen it in certain areas. I've never seen the sharks as as aggressive or thick as they are. And I'm just wondering if you're seeing the same kind of thing up there.

57:35 · Sharks, Descending Devices, and Return 'Em Right

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Good question. I feel like the various place specific. Like, I've been down in the Everglades, for example, and you can't even get a cobia to the boat without multiple sharks coming up and eating trying to eat it. Here, I mean, we have a lot of it's basically a nursery also for sharks because, I mean, we have so many good flats, but it's very often that you see little bonnetheads and and, bull sharks, like, swimming around. I mean, we have sharks. I feel like they come and go with the tarpon also. I mean, they're as they migrate migrate through, you'll see more of those bigger hammerheads moving around with them. I I think some of it has that we're seeing more sharks too in those scenarios is, for example, the Skyway Bridge, which is a very well known, very large bridge down around St. Pete. One of the common ways to catch tarpon is what they call chunking for for them. So you just take your thread fins, your frozen thread fins, or well, a lot of captains will catch a bunch themselves. But they're they're cutting it everything up in real small pieces, and they're they're basically chumming. It's it's just a throwing in a little bit at a time, letting it drift back. And you're you're gonna get sharks with that kind of chumming along with the tarpon. So I feel like that also has something to do with it because we are putting so much chum in the water. You're gonna see more sharks with that. And I think also with people fishing for tarpon, the longer you fight the fish, more of a chance that fish is gonna be very lethargic when it finally gets released, and it's not gonna have as much of a fight to get away from a shark if there happens that you want close. So I think it's it's kind of a a couple different reasons why we may be seeing some more sharks in the area. But, again, I feel like it comes and goes with the with the tarpon migration. And, I mean, we've we've been seeing a lot of red snapper. Even though they'd like to close the season, there's still a ton out there. So I don't know if I I don't know exactly what they go off of when they're deciding deciding for me things. We know

Tom Rowland: See, you have peppers in there, like, boiling on the surface. It's amazing.

Erica Lynn: Yeah.

Tom Rowland: But

Erica Lynn: And it's just and when you're, like, deep dropping, for example, and, you know, bread topper comes up, that's the the swim bladder. You know, it's you can't always really get it vented very well. So you're trying to release the red snapper. Half 50% chance it actually lives because it's so high. It comes up from so far from the bottom that it can't always swim down really very, very well. So but that, recently

Tom Rowland: You use the descending devices out there?

Erica Lynn: We have some. Yeah. Wow.

Tom Rowland: Is really important. We've been working with, Return Right and, also the Nature Conservancy on that because like what you're talking about, like if you have the the fish, you know, if you're releasing these fish because you can't, it's illegal to keep them. You're releasing them and they're dying. That's actually kind of going against, you know, the the fish, you know, that's actually kind of going against our numbers of fish. Like, so if it's it's less likely that it'll ever open up. So that's what I've been they've been teaching me is, like, if we can descend these fish and, you know, release them, have a much higher percentage of fish living, there's gonna be a much higher percentage chance that we're going to be able to open this at a time that we, you know, in our lifetimes, I guess, or next year or in a few years. But sending devices are super important to at least try. Because venting so you're like they sometimes it works.

Erica Lynn: It's yeah. I'm sure not everybody, unfortunately, has this descending devices, though. So Yeah. No.

Tom Rowland: That mean, that's one that's one of the things that people say, and that's what return right does, they will send anyone a device.

Erica Lynn: Oh, that's great.

Tom Rowland: All you have to do is go to the website, the return them right website. You fill out this little form. It's an educational thing and they'll send you everything. They'll send you the weight, the descending device, and and they're not even selling you the sending device. They're just doing they're just sending it. It's like a government, funded organization, and they send you the this device. They send you the weight and the whole device and the the way to use it. So,

Erica Lynn: that's awesome. Everybody should have one of those on their boat.

Tom Rowland: Right. I think they're they they might make you have them. You have to have some sort of tool, you know, a venting tool or something in certain waters. But that's even hard to understand, you know, if you're if you're in the if you're in the water that you're supposed to, you have to have one of those or not because it's like golf or state or federal. All of that is different in my, you know, as far as the the chart goes. But, so this year is gonna be a really big year for you. You've got, your captain's license, more YouTube stuff. What, what are you hoping? Like, here we are just right after the new year. Do you are you a resolutions person or a goal oriented person, or do you do you just kind of go one day at a time?

63:07 · Goals, 5AM Alarms, and a Backyard Homestead

Erica Lynn: I kind of go with the flow, to be honest. I feel like if you set yourself up for goals, eat that like that. You're going to make new goals at the beginning of the year. You should have already been doing those same goals. Like, I just wanna be consistent. You know? But, no, there's a lot of stuff going on this year. I'm very excited. We have some tournament. I have some redfish tournaments planned. I'm gonna be going back up to South Carolina for the women's Redfish tournament. That was that was really fun. So I'm going to go back up there for some other trips, and probably going to be doing some more work with Drive Dry. It's a nonprofit I work with to help create awareness to not drink and drive if you're the captain of the boat. So, so we have some things in the work in the works on the back end that will hopefully be doing another potential boat giveaway and things like that to help raise awareness. So, so, yeah, a lot going on this year. I'm so excited. It's winter right now. So it's kind of our our off season, you know, just in between these cold fronts, just getting out on weekend, trying to do some scouting, have a redfish tournament next weekend. But very excited for the year.

Tom Rowland: Very excited. Well, there's gonna be a lot of great things going on. I can tell, you got so many great things going on. And one of the things that you you said is that you about the goals is that you feel like feel like maybe if you're setting new goals in the beginning of the year, maybe those are the things that you should have done all along. And one of the questions that I've asked a a number of guests, and that's always a interesting answer, are what are your nonnegotiables in a day? Like when you wake up, what are the things that you are definitely going to get done? The things that are are your nonnegotiables health wise, any any way, any in in any aspect of your life, what are your nonnegotiables?

Erica Lynn: Yeah. Good question. So every day, whether I'm waking up to go fishing or the gym, usually my alarms go off at 5AM. Like I said, if I'm not going fishing, I'm at the gym. So that's usually where I'll be around 05:30 for an hour or two, and come home, eat breakfast, take I have a couple dogs. I have a very large garden and chickens, and there's a lot of homestead stuff to kind of keep up with also. So it's usually doing some of those chores in the morning. Then I'll get into some social media stuff, going through messages and trying to plan my content of the day or what's gonna happen. Being being a woman in in the world or, like, what what I do and also, like, my relationship with my husband, I have also, like, my female chores. But then I gotta do the dishes and the laundry and and all that stuff too. I gotta keep up with. So, I just I find a balance for everything. It's it's a lot different now to that I'm working from home, where I was working in an office for ten hours a day. That I would have to just wait to do everything on when I get home or, like, during my hour lunch break. But now I'm home all the time, so I'm usually scattering in chores like couch chores in throughout my day of just my normal work because I'm just if I see something that's out of place, I have to fix it. So that's just a double edged sword there. But, yeah, it seems like

Tom Rowland: it sounds like, exercise is definitely a non negotiable.

Erica Lynn: Yes. Yeah, definitely exercise. My husband's the same way. We get up at the same time. And I think it's it's really great to have a partner that is also very dedicated when it comes to fitness, that you kinda have each other to lean on. Like, I don't really feel like waking up, but he's gonna get up for the gym, so I gotta get up up too, and vice versa. So, it's a good team. Yeah. So yeah. How do you grow

Tom Rowland: in your garden?

Erica Lynn: Everything. Oh my gosh. It's crazy. We've we're in our fall garden swing right now. So, I mean, we have everything, cucumbers, string beans, strawberries, carrots, onions, tomatoes, peppers, bananas. So we got a handful of other things to think of right now. But, yeah, it's a lot going on, which is, we we have really gotten into the homesteading thing, partially because a couple years ago, for health purposes, that I was I needed to eat a little cleaner. And, you know, with today's foods, there's just so much stuff in our food that we don't realize is bad for us that they're sneaking in there. And so we're just really wanting to get into more of a whole foods, like, know where where we're getting our food from, type of diet. So we kind of started small. Don't I do not expect someone to jump into this big of a homestead as if you guys know me. I have a very large one that did not happen overnight. Started very small in the beginning, and you just grow. And if, I mean, if you're looking to do any sort of homesteading, I always tell people my first advice is, well, what do you buy at the grocery store regularly? It will start there. Like, you don't want to start growing stuff you're not going to eat because we we trial and errored some things in the beginning that, you know, we're Garrett doesn't eat eggplants, or we grew so much of it. It's like, why did we grow this? So, so anyways, yeah. So definitely, been awesome to do a lot of more homesteading stuff. We have our deep freezers, so we get our our meat chickens, our cow, our fish, obviously. So, we do a lot of When

Tom Rowland: you said chickens, I was thinking egg chickens.

Erica Lynn: Well, those two. Yeah. We have both. So we have I have 10 egg chickens in the backyard. And then we do meat chickens usually twice a year. We'll it's you just buy them online, and they come in the post office in, like, a big box. But they'll they'll call you up right when they come in they're like all right your chicks are here and you literally just go to your normal post office and you just pick up this whole chirping box of little like day old chickens and it's crazy that they grow within, like, six weeks. They're already, like, of size to process. They grow Will

Tom Rowland: you do it all at once, or will you do them, like, as needed?

Erica Lynn: No. We'll just do them all at once. So usually we do 50 at a time. We we split them with another family. We'll kinda go in as a group, to to do everything and take care of them.

Tom Rowland: How much land do you have?

Erica Lynn: Our friends have an acre, so we keep the meat chickens on their on their lot. So.

Tom Rowland: On one acre, you can have this big garden, grow the meat chickens and have the the egg chickens.

Erica Lynn: Oh, yeah. And still have plenty of room for kids, dogs. It's really crazy. You can do a lot on just an acre. So, yeah, the meat chickens are awesome, though. I mean, just have only, like I said, having food that you know exactly where it came from, is is really cool. So, yeah, we'll just.

Tom Rowland: I'm into that, too. I pay a lot of attention to what what I eat and certainly exercise every day, which is super cool. Do you do videos on on your homesteading?

Erica Lynn: Some videos. Yeah. I've done some videos in the garden. I haven't done a video on the meat chickens yet because I don't know. You know how YouTube is they're sometimes weird about, like, killing animals? Or, like, you you just can't show everything type of type of stuff. So, we also wanted to get a couple rounds of it in because this was already a thought to do a YouTube video for the meat chickens. We kinda wanted to get a couple rounds in first. We knew what we were doing because we were brand new at it. You know, we have our, I forget the name of it, but it's the machine that defeathers the chickens. So it's just it's a process. When we're ready to process the chickens themselves, there's the four of us. Our friends of ours have two kids too, like, pretty little, and they come in and help us with gutting the chickens. And and, yeah, it's it's kind of it's not fun, but it's a team building experience, I guess, at that point with friends of ours. And we get it all done in a couple hours. And before you know it, we have chickens in the deep freezer just like you buy them in the store. And so it's it's cool also for the kids to see where their food comes from Sure. And not just think that it comes from the grocery store. So so I think that's also really a good trait to start showing kids, like, where the food comes from type of thing. So,

71:58 · Old-School Bartering and Where YouTube Is Headed

Tom Rowland: I've always thought about, like, if you had something like that, if you could find somebody else that was growing stuff, stuff, and this is how it used to be. Like, you know, you had the chickens, somebody else might be growing a lot of something else, fruit trees or something like that. And then you could go trade chickens for fruit or you could do, you know, you could trade and you would know where they're you would see how they're growing their stuff and you would want that and they would want your chickens because they know how you're growing them. It's great to try to get back to that. I always kind of wanted like a a neighborhood farm where everybody not not necessarily farming wouldn't have to be any bigger than an acre. Mhmm. But just like what you're talking about where the neighbors all kind of kick in and somebody's in charge of growing something, you know, that they like. And there's a ton of it, you know, whether that's, I don't know, tomatoes or or you can grow a lot of tomatoes. Especially on that. But that's really cool. You should make more videos on that. Maybe you should have a whole channel on that. So if it gets if if you get in trouble for killing chickens, then you can all mess up your other channel. Yeah.

Erica Lynn: Well, it's true.

Tom Rowland: That happens. That's the talk I'm hearing right now is how shorts mess up your YouTube channel. What do you think about that? Do you do you have any experience with shorts?

Erica Lynn: I have heard that also, actually, that, for for friends that I know of that have posted a lot of shorts on the YouTube channel on their YouTube channels, it actually ended up hurting their stats on their regular longer form videos. Luckily, I didn't actually I posted some shorts, but not that many. I needed to post more anyways. But, it actually kinda helped me in a way because I I mostly just do my long videos on YouTube and keep my short stuff on Instagram. So I luckily did not see any big shift of losing views on my videos, since they were all mostly the longer form videos that I kept on there. But I did hear that too, which is interesting.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I think it's specifically on YouTube. It definitely I I definitely felt it on YouTube because the shorts do great. I do great. But then the other stuff doesn't do as well as it used to. And then, like, what's going on here? And I've heard a bunch of other people saying that. So I would think that if you're going to do the shorts, then do it on a separate channel.

Erica Lynn: Mhmm. Yeah. And I don't think I don't think YouTube ends up paying out very well for the shorts versus the longer form videos because it's watch no. Because it's all watch time hours. So they want I mean, it's the longer videos that are gonna get you the most hours watched and most views at the end of the day, in my opinion. But

Tom Rowland: Well, I'm pretty Yeah. That's what it is. It's like, as soon as you figure out as soon as you think you got it figured out, then they change it. Like, you're coming. But Yeah. Anyway alright. 2025 is the year of Erica Lynn. If you don't, follow her yet, it's Erica Lynn. Erica underscore Lynn dot two. Right?

Erica Lynn: Correct.

Tom Rowland: Yep. That's me. So that's on Instagram. What's the YouTube?

Erica Lynn: YouTube is Erica Lynn. So you search Erica Lynn and I'll pop up. You'll see me. Well, fishing icon.

Tom Rowland: All right. Sounds great. And then how about the charter service? How are you going to how do people get in touch with you for that?

Erica Lynn: I haven't quite got that far yet. I'll definitely be posting more about it on social media. I've been back and forth with some names of Charter just the Charter business. But if you follow me on Instagram, you guys will definitely be one of the first people to find out more of my plans for the the whole guiding business and my future women anglers that will come fishing with me. You guys can follow along on there. I'll keep you guys posted.

Tom Rowland: Alright. Well, good luck. I'm sure it's gonna go great. We'll be back next week with another great guest just like Erica. And if you have guest suggestions, hit me up, with a text. (305) 930-7346. You can make guest suggestions there or podcast at saltwaterexperience.com, and we'll get them on the show just like we did Erica. Alright. Erica, thank you very much. I enjoyed talking with you, and we'll look forward to doing something this year, maybe. Maybe we can do some sort of collaboration or something this year.

Erica Lynn: That sounds great, Tom. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. It's been awesome.

Tom Rowland: Alright. Thank you. Alright. We'll see you later.

Erica Lynn: Thanks. Bye bye.