Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 916 is my conversation with Major Thornton, known on social media as majorgator95. Major is a tournament redfish angler with a big footprint online, and what makes this one interesting is that we come at it from two different generations. We get into what gets people started in fishing and what keeps them interested, how a self-described introvert came out of his shell on camera, using fishing to climb out of a hard stretch, and our shared concerns about social media and our kids.
Listen now: Megaphone · YouTube.
Major Thornton, known online as majorgator95, is a tournament redfish angler and fishing content creator. Originally from the Belle Glade area around Lake Okeechobee, he grew up bass fishing the canals and dirt roads near the lake before later moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. He has competed in professional redfish tournaments and built a large social media following sharing his fishing.
Major describes himself as an introvert with social skills, quiet in day-to-day life but able to express himself creatively. He explains that creating content became his way of coming out of his shell, comparing it to how comedians and other creative people open up through their craft rather than in everyday conversation.
After moving from Gainesville to Charlotte and losing his grandfather, Major went through a depressed stretch, struggling in a new area where the fishing was unfamiliar and harder. He explains that pushing through trips without catching anything and slowly learning new water brought the joy back to fishing and helped him through that period.
Coming from different generations, Major and Tom share concerns about where social media is going and how it affects fishing and their children's mental health. The conversation weighs the creative upside of platforms against the real downsides, from an angler's perspective on both sides of the age gap.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 916 with Major Thornton is available on Megaphone, Spotify, YouTube, and the Tom Rowland Podcast feed. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I wanted Major on because his footprint on social media is real, but the person behind it is a quiet, thoughtful guy, and that contrast is exactly what I wanted to dig into. We are from different generations, and that gives this conversation an honest tension about where social media is headed for anglers and for our kids. Major has also used fishing to get through some genuinely hard times, and I thought a lot of people would see themselves in that.
Press play in the player above to hear it.
Major says he is a man of few words day to day, but creating content is how he comes out of his shell. He explains how he discovered that fishing on camera let him show a different side of himself. Hear it in the episode.
After a move and the loss of his grandfather, Major hit a low point, and the unfamiliar fishing up north made it worse before it got better. He talks about how grinding through it brought the joy back. Listen to that section of the conversation.
Major and I come from different ages and different experiences, but we land on a lot of the same concerns about social media, fishing, and our kids' mental health. Press play in the YouTube player above.
Major grew up fishing the dirt roads and canals that feed the lake, chasing bass that had never seen a lure. He describes spots most people never travel to reach. Worth hearing in full.
Listen to the full conversation: Megaphone · YouTube.
What I appreciate about Major is how openly he talks about the hard parts, the move, the loss, the stretch where fishing stopped being fun. He found his way back to it, and he uses his platform to share that.
The social media conversation across our age gap is one I keep thinking about. Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 916 on Megaphone or Spotify.
Major Thornton · majorgator95 · Lake Okeechobee · Belle Glade, Florida · Charlotte, North Carolina · redfish tournaments · Tom Rowland (host)
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Major Thornton, known on social media as majorgator95, is a tournament redfish angler and fishing content creator. He grew up bass fishing the canals and backwaters around Lake Okeechobee near Belle Glade, Florida, before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. A self-described introvert who found his voice through creating content, he has competed in professional redfish tournaments and built a large following sharing his fishing and his honest perspective on the sport.
Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 917: Major Thornton (MajorGator95)
In this episode: how an introvert with social skills came out of his shell on camera, fishing through a depressed stretch after losing his granddad, dirt-road canals off Lake Okeechobee, redfish tournaments in Louisiana, and where social media is headed for anglers and their kids — in the exact words spoken.
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Major Thornton: My name is Major Gator, and this is the Tom Rowland Podcast.
Tom Rowland: Awesome. You're you're a natural. You should have your own podcast.
Major Thornton: Yeah. You know, it's it is crazy that I I don't I don't think I can do a podcast, man.
Tom Rowland: You don't. Why?
Major Thornton: Because I'm I would say I'm an I'm an introvert with social skills. You know what I mean? Like, I I I could be, you know, I can be talkative, but, like, in my day to day, I'm not a man of many words.
Tom Rowland: But a lot of times, you know, people come out of their shell in a creative way. Like, if you put a camera in front of you, you can do it. Right? Like, you might be an introvert all other time. And a lot I know a lot of comedians are like this and a lot of other people, they're just stick to themselves. They're real quiet, but then they have this thing. Whatever it is, it's your it's your creativity and and something comes out. Right? Is that what happens with you and social media?
Major Thornton: Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. That that that that's like that's like my way of, you know, kinda kinda expressing myself in a way. You know what I mean? It it it it it definitely is like that.
Tom Rowland: Everyone has to have a creative outlet. How did you how did you learn, or get comfortable in front of the camera if you if you say that you're an introvert on in in most of your life and you you're real quiet. But then would you if you watch your social media, that's not the way that you seem at all. So how did you discover that that's that's a place that you could come out of your shell and and and show the world a different major gator?
Major Thornton: Well, for me, when I'm because I lived in Gainesville for ten years, and I moved out of Gainesville and moved to Charlotte. And, you know, Charlotte is not like Florida, man, as far as fishing goes. So when I moved up there, like, when I first got there, I was I was man, I was I was depressed really. Like, I would, you know, my my my granddad passed not too long ago, you know, before I moved up there. So and then, you know, you get to a new area, you know, you're not you're not finding as many fish when you get there. You know, you got to go through so many trips of not catching anything to find fish. And it, man, it was like if I'm not fishing or, you know, I'm I'm a different person. I just love fishing so much. And I had to find a way to really bring that joy back to fishing for me. And and that that's where, you know, it kinda all started. That was my outlet of, like, having still having fun. I still had fun and going fishing, of course. Fishing is fishing. You know what I mean? But you still wanna catch fish. Yeah. So, so that that kinda brought the fun back to it for me as I went through that struggle of trying to find areas up there.
Tom Rowland: I gotcha. So where how did you start fishing? Were you in Tallahassee? Well, you said you were in Gainesville first? Is that where you grew up?
Major Thornton: I'm from South Florida.
Tom Rowland: South Florida. What part?
Major Thornton: Around the Hogepi. So I I was born in Belle Glade, and, I lived in Clueless for a little bit as well, but I'm I'm from around the lake.
Tom Rowland: Okay. Right on. And so when you grew up, was that a major part of your fishing, like the lake?
Major Thornton: Oh, yeah. But honestly, man, like, the the fishing over there, the best fishing you can do as far as bass fishing is you fish those dirt roads, those canals that lead up that, you know, there's so many paths that lead up to the lake. And, man, I can take you to some spots right now down some dirt roads that I'm talking about on a bad day. I was telling you we can catch 20 bass a piece on a bad day. I'm talking about bluebird skies, hot. I'm talking about on a worst day, we'll catch 20 bats a piece.
Tom Rowland: So what's going on in those kind of places? How is that different than the lake?
Major Thornton: It's just not fish as often because, I mean, it's it's it's so back I mean, it's way back in those those areas. It's one of those areas, man, that does not fish. People, you know, people don't really travel off the grid like that. And, and I'm talking to those bass Some of those bass back there had never seen lures a day in their lives.
Tom Rowland: That's awesome. Yeah. Have you ever noticed, like, if you're when you're fishing, you have an area that you can fish like that that gets receives almost no pressure, and you'll have, like, a a lure. I'm wondering if you if you've ever had this experience. You have a lure, like, maybe when the chatterbait came out or or something, and it's taken off and you're catching everybody's catching fish on it everywhere. And then all of a sudden, it just kinda doesn't work as good.
Major Thornton: Yep.
Tom Rowland: And then you go to one of those places where they still haven't seen the chatter bait maybe, like, very, very little pressure, and it also doesn't work as good there. Have you noticed that? I have. What is that?
Major Thornton: I have no I mean, I I try try to figure stuff out like that, but I have no idea.
Tom Rowland: I mean, you would think, like, when it first comes out, it's hot, and everybody's catching fish everywhere. But you know that not many people are fishing in this area. Right. And you take you go there, and the first time they see it, they love it. But then I don't know. I've heard it called morphic resonance where it's like there's some sort of communication. Call it I don't know. It sounds weird, man. But I it it's happened to you. It's happened to me. And you would think, you know, you could take a 40 year old lure that that they've never seen back there, and you throw it in there, and they would bite it like like it was amazing. But that's not what happens. Like, you get one of these hot baits, and then all of a sudden you go to areas that don't get fished and it doesn't work as well there either.
Major Thornton: And and, you know, the thing is, I I mean, you you know this too, but, man, fish are smart, man. Like, you you go there one day, you know, you bust them up on the lure, you go back, you know, couple times, and they're like, man, I haven't seen this.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. I know. But but, like, what I'm talking about, though, is the different side of it where you know that they haven't seen it. Like, you know that nobody's and maybe it's a private pond. You know no one's been there. Mhmm. And you're thinking this works so good last time or what you know, and maybe it's a year ago, and then it just doesn't
Major Thornton: Do you think it has to do with something like because, you know, you you I've had experiences where I'll go fish a pond. Right? I I've had ponds like, oh, this pond sucks in the evening and this pond is great in the morning. Do you think that has, like, some because I've had ponds where I go there in the morning, you know, morning bite. You know, that's supposed to be the best bite. But some ponds I go to, I've had experiences where I don't catch many in the morning, but I go to that same pond in the evening, and it's like, it's on fire.
Tom Rowland: Right. You know, that's I think that's one of the things that's so that that keeps people so engaged in fishing and keeps people so, kind of obsessed with it is because you you kinda feel like you've got something wired like this. You know, I'm gonna get get a good morning bite in all these places, then you go to this other one, and it's not like that.
Major Thornton: And you're
Tom Rowland: like, what is it about that that is different than these other things? And then you think you got that figured out. But just about the time you think you got it figured out, you get humbled like you've never been humbled before. You know what I mean? Like, it's like that that that is what I mean, I don't know what it is necessarily about fishing. I ask this to a lot of people that, you know, like ourselves that are really into fishing and love it and can't quite put their finger on what it is about fishing that they love so much. But I think that if you if you really think about fishing, it's mostly failure. Oh, yeah. I mean, like, you're casting say you cast a 100 times, you're not gonna catch a 100 fish. You're not gonna catch 50 fish. You're probably gonna catch 20 fish maybe on a great day.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: If you cast a 100 times, you caught 20 fish, that would be amazing. Well, that's 80 casts that you caught nothing. Right?
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: Like, if you were to shoot basketballs like that or you were to, I don't know, do something else, do the stock market like that, you'd be broke.
Major Thornton: Yeah. I was about to say, you did that basketball. You won't have a career. No. I
Tom Rowland: mean, you gotta do better than that. But in fishing, though, it's it's just kinda funny because there's, like I don't know. It it's mostly failure. And then you have these moments of of success, and then you try to replicate that success with mostly failure. And then once you do replicate that success, man, you're walking around like, I got this thing wired.
Major Thornton: And she can make you feel like the smartest man in the world and the dumbest man in the world. I mean, that that is just like, man, that that that's what I love about it too. And if you explain imagine explaining that ratio to somebody that doesn't fish, like, of you cast and how many fish you catch compared to your cast.
Tom Rowland: Right.
Major Thornton: Imagine explaining that to somebody that that that doesn't fish. Like, they'll be like, why are you doing this?
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's that happens a lot, you know, when you go to go to a party or something and you're hanging around with people that don't fish and they're like, why I don't I don't get it. Why do you do this? Because the the the numbers that I put out there, you cast a 100 times, you catch 20 fish. That would be amazing. Yeah.
Major Thornton: Right? Yeah. Right.
Tom Rowland: You know that would be amazing. Right. But it's more like 600 times for 20 fish.
Major Thornton: Especially when you're slinging artificials all day, man. It it man.
Tom Rowland: I don't know. I I always like to ask about that. Like, what is it what is it that you think got you excited about fishing when you were young that kept you in it to today?
Major Thornton: It was good. I mean, it's just been instilled in my whole family since I was a kid and going with my granddad. Those are my those are my best memories. Going out with my granddad, bunch of my cousins, and, man, we could What
Tom Rowland: was that like? Tell me tell me about going out with them.
Major Thornton: It was just fun. Like, it it made fishing fun. You know, we had I mean, my granddad was was was a hoot, man. He he he he was he was an old he was a grumpy man at times, but he was just he just you know, when you're a kid and your grandpa's grumpy, it's just it's just the funniest thing in the world. Like, we just he he just let us have fun, man. We go out there. My cousin, we we would, you know, have competitions, how many fish we caught and, you know, have make it we competed and have fun. And when we weren't catching fish, we would get, like, these big rocks. Because my granddad was you know, he he he was a good fisherman, so, we would get these when we when we weren't catching fish, we'd get these big rocks. I'm talking about we would throw it over there his direction. A big splash in the I mean, he would get so mad. And it was just memories like that, man, is just like, he one time, we did that a little too much, and he he got his bucket. He got his five gallon bucket he was sitting on, got his car got in the car and and drove off. And, like, left us. Like, I guess, tried to teach us a lesson. You know what I mean? He came back and got us, but, you know, it just it just things like that. Those memories are just, you know, man, that I'll never forget. Like, it it was just fun. I feel like when you make a kid have fun fishing, it it it just it resonates in your brain. It's like fishing equates to fun. Mhmm.
Tom Rowland: And I
Major Thornton: think that was that was the biggest thing for me.
Tom Rowland: One of the things for me too that I remember was was moments of freedom. Like, when I was about 14, I got access to this John boat, which there is no parent in the world today that would give their kid this John boat because I had this old engine on it. I haven't thought about this in so long. I I don't even know why I thought about this, but I had this old engine on it that didn't have a cover on it. Mhmm. And it had a flywheel that looked like something out of saw three. Like, it had it had blades on the top and everything. And you would have to take this this cord, and you'd have to put it in there and wrap it around the motor, and then you had a little piece of wood on the end of it, and and you'd have to give it a pull.
Major Thornton: Well, you have
Tom Rowland: to stand up in the John boat to give it a pull. Right? And it's like a, I don't know, a 10 foot John or something like that with a with a two and a half or a five horsepower, an old thing. Like like this thing, when I go to to visit Mercury, they got some old motors like this, but they have a a cowling on them. This one didn't have a cowling, and that thing was spinning on top of the if I could ever get it started, it was just spinning on top. And if you put your hand in there, it'll probably chop your arm off. But my parents thought it was fine. Just let him go out there. But that moment, you know, where I kinda showed my dad that I could start the thing, I you know, if it if it broke, I knew how to paddle it in. And it was a small area that I was allowed to stay in, but, man, that freedom that freedom was amazing to me. And I still remember that. Like, I still kinda have that same feeling. Like, when when I'm able to go fishing by myself or something and you go, like, out to the Marquesas or you go someplace crazy, and you're just it's like a familiar feeling. You're like, that's the same feeling I had in that little John boat.
Major Thornton: Yep.
Tom Rowland: And, what was the first kind of freedom with fishing? Did was it with a driver's license and you go back on these back roads? Or what was it for you where you where you kinda had that freedom and and fishing was involved?
Major Thornton: My mom ain't gonna like this, but my my freedom was I tell my mom, hey, you know, I'm going, you know, I'm going to the spot, you know, down down the road, and I'm on my bicycle, man. I'm talking about, I'm on the other side of town, like, fishing, you know, fishing towards saltwater. I'm fishing, like, totally, you know, in a different area. And, she she she would call me. As long as I answered the phone, that was the thing. If I didn't answer the phone, my momma was like she she she's the kind of person, like, hey. Look. Look. I'm paying this phone bill. If I call, you answer this phone. You know what I mean? So if if I answered the phone, I was fine. And, you know, everything was good, but if I didn't answer, she went one time, I didn't answer. She went down to the spot that I told her I was gonna be. I wasn't there. You went there. So that that that that was my freedom. She she she let me go fishing, you know, anytime. She would she's just a worry. You know, you know how mom's worried. You know, my dad would have been you know, if my dad's different, he would have been fine with it. But I grew up I live with my mom. Mhmm. So, you know, all I had to do is just answer the phone, and I was I was fine.
Tom Rowland: So I see on your social media a lot of, red fishing and saltwater fishing. How do you, make the transition from those ponds into, well, I guess you've fished that when you're growing up. Right?
Major Thornton: Mhmm. Yeah. I I still like to I still like to I I still like to do freshwater. You know? I I will catch we call them specs down. That that's another topic I what do you call the crappy?
Tom Rowland: Crappy. Crappy. Crappy in Tennessee. Now crappy is a different region. Right? Like, they have different names all over the place, you know, and some people call them specs like you. What are the other words for
Major Thornton: I've heard crappie exactly. A video and, people in Louisiana called it a saccharlet.
Tom Rowland: Really? Yeah. And it's a French Louisiana have word for oh, different word for everything.
Major Thornton: Yeah. It's a French word. I think it, I think it meant, like, milk because the the, the crop the the crappy fillet is so white.
Tom Rowland: Uh-huh. And
Major Thornton: I think it has something to do with milk that that that that I saw. So it they call it I
Tom Rowland: can promise you this, that if you brought about two dozen of those to somebody in Louisiana, you'd have a great meal.
Major Thornton: Oh, man. I think for for me, that's that's my favorite fish to eat in freshwater. Is it? Is it? Oh, yeah.
Tom Rowland: How do you like to cook it?
Major Thornton: I fry.
Tom Rowland: Fry it? Everything fried? Yeah. You can't you can't mess with with fried fish. It could be freshwater, saltwater, whatever kind of fried fish you're not gonna miss. But, man, I tell you what, I've had some amazing food in Louisiana. And Mhmm. They they know how to fish, and they know how to cook it. It's it's amazing. Not that Florida and other places don't, but Louisiana has a special
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: Special mix there. It is a it is a culture. Have you spent a lot of time there in Louisiana?
Major Thornton: My first time going to Louisiana, I fisted tournament, the National Redfish Tour. That was
Tom Rowland: my first
Major Thornton: time I went to Delacroix. Nice. And I'm talking about, man, there was nothing over there. At Delacroix, you had to drive, like, you had to drive to go get some food, but it it I loved it over there. I wanna go back very, very soon.
Tom Rowland: Now was that a partner tournament that you fished Yeah.
Major Thornton: Mhmm. At the
Tom Rowland: Redfish tournaments? We did the Redfish tournaments for a while and, kinda got out of them. And I, honestly, I haven't followed them that much, but I'm assuming that it would have to still be a partner tournament because of the two fish limit. Who'd you fish that tournament with?
Major Thornton: Tiger Hoffman.
Tom Rowland: Alright.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And, did you guys do well?
Major Thornton: We we we we did there in Louisiana, we didn't do too well because we found some fish in practice. And then and then it was a a front came through, and the fish that that were there in the areas that we fish, gone. Yeah. And, you know, we we we try some new areas, but we're like, well, you know, that that's the thing I love about tournament fishing. I'll explain that in in a minute. But we, we we we didn't do as well as we like. We brought in our limit, I believe. But in Louisiana, it's something like I've never seen, like the slot fish over there. People catch nine, ten pounders. I'm like
Tom Rowland: Yes.
Major Thornton: It it it it it it's it's
Tom Rowland: wild. I know. Those fish are on a different level.
Major Thornton: I mean,
Tom Rowland: they come in I think you can catch some elevens, a slot 11 over there. I've seen it happen. But those fish are that's a different that's a different deal. That Mississippi River just pumps out those nutrients, I guess, and Yeah. It's a fish factory. But a but a 27 inch fish in Louisiana looks a lot different than a 27 inch fish in most most areas of Florida. Yeah. And and they're they're so much heavier. So what what did you say you were gonna you liked about tournament fishing?
Major Thornton: It's just a game of adjustments and and and it that's why I wanted to do a tournament trail, and I was happy that Tiger, invited me to to fish it with him because I've learned so much.
Tom Rowland: Mhmm.
Major Thornton: It makes you such a better fisherman on a day to day basis. Like, regarding your own, you have to make those adjustments, like, on a dime because you only have a tournament. Of course, you only have limited time to do that. Right. And just going through that, it it made me a better fisherman than I. And tournament, I I recommend anyone that wants to fish tournaments to to to get that experience.
Tom Rowland: Man, I do too. Tournament and guiding. I mean, I think both of those things are what propels you to a whole different level. Because no longer in both of those things, no longer are you just fishing when the weather's good or when you want to fish or when you can get off work or when now it's like you you're going tomorrow
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: No matter what, and you're expected to produce in both of those, in the in the in the guiding and the tournaments. But what's different, I think, in my experience between the guiding and the tournaments is that on a guided trip, somebody says, hey. I'd really like to catch a tarpon or a permit or a bonefish or a redfish or snook or whatever, and that's what I'd really like to do. And you get out there and you can kinda go, man, this is I mean, we had a little window for the tide, and now it's kinda over, but it's really good for, like, bonefish over here. We could go over here and do that. And you can make that person very, very happy to can do continue to do that. But a tournament thing is, like, you're after one fish, usually. Or in in The Keys, we have these series of tournaments that have multiple fish, but those are the only ones. And you're after a certain size limit or you're after, you know I don't know. It's but that's it. Like, permit tarpon bonefish. So if you were like, man, there's 500 snook right here that we could catch. Doesn't matter. That nobody nobody you're gonna get any points for that. So you just have to pass them on by, and you have to go for what you want. Or if, like, it's a bonefish tournament. The tarpon are going berserkle over here, of course, on the day that you have a bonefish tournament. You can't find a bonefish, but they're going crazy. It would be the best day of guiding ever because you would just slide right over there and start catching those tarpon. Right. But not in a tournament. Like, you have to focus on that fish. And, you know, if it gets cloudy, for example, that that used to kill me bone fishing or permit fishing where I can't see them in the water anymore. But on a on a tournament day, you gotta figure out how to fish them in the clouds. Mhmm. You can't see them? Well, nobody can see them. And Right. And if you catch one, you're probably gonna win or you might win or you you're gonna do really well. But on a charter day, you're like, oh, well, we could go over here and catch, you know, a whole bunch of mangrove snappers, and and they your your people might be real happy. But that's what I liked about the tournaments was the ability and the speed at which you learned because you had to. You're forced to.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And, man, when you're fishing in that, like, in the tournaments that you're fishing in, man, those guys don't play. They're you you're going to somebody else's backyard that knows it way better than you're ever going to.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And you're com you're expected to compete with those guys. And sometimes, though, I'm sure you saw this plenty either with your own successor or others. It's the guy that comes in from out of town and does whatever he normally does in his backyard, and he does it over here, and nobody does that.
Major Thornton: Right.
Tom Rowland: And they score. Like, that's what Andrew Bostick used to do. This guy do you know who he is? Andrew Bostick? I've heard
Major Thornton: I've heard of his name.
Tom Rowland: He's a fantastic fisherman down, in the Naples area. He's really, really good.
Major Thornton: So I can look look him up.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Look him up. He's really, really good. But we would go to, these redfish tournaments, and we would make these giant runs. Like, sometimes we would be like, you know, I don't know, Fort Myers or something. It's like, well, how far is it to Flamingo? That's what we would think first. Like, how far is it to a place that we already know? You know? Could we get down there and fish for two hours or one hour in a place that we know instead of trying to learn this new area? Right. And and we're fishing in somebody else's backyard that they know every tree branch that goes in the water. So we would take these long runs. But then this guy, Andrew Bostick, he was he always did this. He would just stick right around the boat ramp. If he didn't know an area, he would just stay right there, and he would do what he does at home. And he would just blind cast these points and places where he knew fish were. And, man, he he always did great. He was really one of the most consistent people. Yeah. He's a Florida guy.
Major Thornton: Okay.
Tom Rowland: But he was able to do well in a lot of those tournaments. He was on team Maverick with us, and, he's he's just a really good fisherman. But he's the one that I think of that, like, just right under right under their nose. Everybody leaves the boat ramp and runs for an hour. Yep. He stays right in there. A lot of times, it's not
Major Thornton: at any time. They're like, I think Florida, when it comes to red fishing, when I know it's in Louisiana, I mean, it takes skill to find the fish over there. But once you find them, you know, you you you can you can you can get on them. And and they're not as finicky as Florida redfish. You spook a redfish in Florida. I mean, you're pretty much done for that fish. And Louisiana, me and me and Tiger, we we we was it was in practice. I've never seen anything like this in my life. I I've seen it on YouTube and stuff like that. We spooked the redfish right under the boat. You know, redfish go crazy when they're spooked. He threw at it, and I'm talking about it stopped on a dime and it turned and it ate. And I was I was I was lost for words. Did that that'll never happen in Florida. You you spook the redfish, it's done for you. You you you blew it.
Tom Rowland: I know. Yeah. And they'll go back and tell all their friends and you and they're gone too.
Major Thornton: Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
Tom Rowland: But but in Louisiana, I've seen that happen too. And I've also seen one, believe it or not. I promise you. I'm telling the truth. But you spook it right here. You throw at it, and and maybe you throw behind it or something. It comes by and takes a bite at the trolling motor as it's going away. Wow. Yes. Like like a shark. Like Yeah.
Major Thornton: That that's my first my first thought was just like it was a shark.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. But I love that fishing in Louisiana. I got a good friend up there, Anthony Randazzo. Anybody that wants to go up there, he's a he's got a good lodge, Paradise Plus. You You ever been to that area in Venice? Did you go to Venice?
Major Thornton: I wanna go so bad. I had a couple of invites to come out there, you know, and and fish. I'm I'm a take I'm a take take an offer up on that for sure.
Tom Rowland: So what about a what about a destination? Do you have, like, a bucket list destination kinda list that you that you want to go to or a specie? What what if you could just kinda wave a magic wand right now, where would you go?
Major Thornton: My first trip would probably be to the Amazon.
Tom Rowland: Amazon. Man. Right on.
Major Thornton: I wanna catch some they they got some fish in there that just that they're just ultimate predators. You know what I mean?
Tom Rowland: Which one do you like the most? Because I got a couple in mind right now that I would love to catch.
Major Thornton: First, I wanna catch it. I wanna catch it, about a 20 pound peacock. I wanna I wanna catch a giant. I grew up in South Florida, so I caught, you know, I've caught some peacock bass down there. But over there, they just I mean, it's just it's a different strand over there. You know, it's different breed. You know, I really wanna catch a 20 pounder.
Tom Rowland: Mhmm.
Major Thornton: And I and I like what it fish from those big poppers. They just it's a workout. It's I
Tom Rowland: know it is. It looks fun, though. The thing that scares me about that trip is that if you go in the rainy season, apparently, if the water is low, you know, fish are concentrated, you can find them pretty easy. But if that gets up, they go everywhere. I don't know. I don't know enough about it. But Yeah. I I like the look of those. Payara
Major Thornton: and the two. The two, they got, like, two
Tom Rowland: big teeth.
Major Thornton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those things
Tom Rowland: look they look amazing. I mean, I would love to catch those. There's another fish. I don't think it's in the Amazon necessarily. You ever heard of a wolf fish?
Major Thornton: Maybe if I is that one of those crazy looking
Tom Rowland: It's kind of drab looking, actually. It's kinda brown. It doesn't have, like, lots of colors on it or anything like that. It doesn't have, like, an incredible bunch of teeth in its mouth. But, man, this fish is supposed to be one of the toughest, meanest fish, and they're in rivers. And I think I think they're kind of Brazil, kind of that area. I get this email from this group, and I've had I've had both of the guys on the podcast before. The Jungle Angler is one of the guys. You can follow him on Instagram. And, he, he's he shows some of these things, but they have a couple of destinations where they catch these wolf fish. And I haven't heard many people talk about the wolf fish, and I haven't you know, it's not like a real popular species, but they say that thing is just
Major Thornton: Is that the fish? It doesn't it doesn't have like a like a like a tail, like a it it kinda it Yeah. Not like a I I think I know exactly what you're talking about.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. A little bit like that. A little bit it kinda comes back like a triple tail almost a little bit. And then I guess they're somewhere in the neighborhood of where they catch the Dorado
Major Thornton: Okay.
Tom Rowland: In the the freshwater Dorado. Now that one also is something that I'd like to do, and I don't know. That's not really Amazon. I don't think that's I don't know. I haven't been down there. So I I I just have a list of fish that I'd like to catch, and but all of those are on it. Yeah. The one the the 20 pound peacock bass, that would be amazing. Man. That payara, the arapaima Yeah. Those fish are
Major Thornton: That's beautiful.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. And but they also are like they're like a 10 foot long snook or a tarpon too. Like and they got this I mean, you've you've probably seen them on like, they have them in those jungle pet things on Instagram. Like, I I don't know, what account it is that I follow, but he's got some big ones in a in a tank. And those things come up, and and they they have a very violent inhale
Major Thornton: Yep.
Tom Rowland: When that they can get a fish. But they catch them on fly, and it looks awesome. But they like, the people that I know that have done that, it's they break fly lines all the time. Like, that's the that's the problem. It was for a while. They might have started making stronger fly lines.
Major Thornton: I need to learn how to fly fish, man. I I've been telling myself, I I wanna learn. I'm I'm a power fisherman, so I'm I'm, you know, I'm I'm casting casting lures and casting big stuff. But I wanna add that to to to my game because Yeah. It looks it looks very peaceful. It looks like it looks like a lot of fun to catch to catch a big fish.
Tom Rowland: Well, it is fun to catch one, but be prepared for a lot of times of not catching anything. I mean, you think you don't catch anything when you're throwing lures some days. But I don't I don't know. I mean, it's not necessarily that way because, like, if you're really into fly fishing and there was a lot of lot of periods of of my fly fishing career where I felt like I could outfish people that were throwing lures and then sometimes even outfish people who are throwing bait. And there is styles of fishing, like, trout fishing in the Rocky Mountains and stuff, where fly fishing is absolutely 100% the most productive way. Because they're eating these little bugs and that's all they're eating. And you can match it perfectly with a fly and you can just cast and cast and cast and you can quickly take it off and cast and catch another one where I mean, you I don't know. I don't know of any other way you're gonna catch those particular fish. Now you can throw lures and you can catch them. They're eating something. They'll they'll, you know, opportunistically eat that.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And you'll probably catch bigger ones like that, but I don't know. There's some styles of fishing where fly fishing is is the most productive. And then there's other styles of fishing where it might just be the most fun or it might be, or even the most difficult on purpose, like permit fishing. You're doing it with a fly because you know it's the most difficult way, and some people really dig it. Like, I don't know. I I just I like catching a few fish.
Major Thornton: If you're fly fishing for a permit. Right? Because I I've never caught a permit. And I I I know I know they have great eyesight. Is it more of like a are are you is it more for, like, a finesse style? Do they see do do they not really see it as much as they would see? Like, you know, what's different about the flight for the permit?
Tom Rowland: Well, one of the things about the permit, I think that they and believe me, I've thought about this. I've stayed up looking at the ceiling in my bed for millions of hours just thinking about what is it about a permit that makes it hard to catch on fly. Right? And I think if I were to just simplify it to the to the to my basic understanding of why they're hard to catch is because they want something that's alive. So I also do a lot of I'll I do a lot of, bait fishing for permit where we use live blue crabs.
Major Thornton: Mhmm.
Tom Rowland: And if you're if you have a lot of shots and you throw five or six, ten times and you kill your blue crab and you don't notice that it's dead and here comes a school of permit. And you pick it up and the things, you know, you've done this lots of times with shrimp or whatever, and your shrimp's just dead as a doornail. Your crab can be dead. And you throw a perfect cast into this school permit with a dead crab, and they act like it's a fly. They look at it and go, nah. I mean, it doesn't spook them, but they're just not that interested in it. Now, if you have another crab where the legs are kicking and it's clicking and popping and you throw that in there, man, they pounce on that and they eat it so well and so fast and so aggressively in some cases that I think I think it's just that the flies that we use aren't very good. And I don't mean that as disrespect to the fly tires. We have some amazing fly tires that can tie a fly. Literally, if you had a crab and a fly sitting on a table, you would have a hard time telling the difference between them. But it's not about the way they look. It's about the way they act in the water. Like, you've probably seen tons of lures where you look at it and you're like, oh my god. That looks exactly like a fish. But you throw it, you tie it onto your rod, you put it in there, you're like, it doesn't swim like a fish. Like, it looks like a fish. It's perfect photo realistic, but it doesn't act like one. And then you have another lure that has basically no paint left on it and the fish have chewed all the paint off and and it looks like nothing. And you throw it over there and man, that's what they want because somehow, it's it's it's like eliciting a response of feeding. Right. Where this other thing is kinda like, I don't want it. I mean, you can catch them on a dead crab occasionally. Like, if you twitch it a little bit and make it move, they'll eat it occasionally. They'll eat a fly occasionally. And, I don't know. I I just I think it's about and then at that point, it becomes about the sport of, can you trick them to eat this thing that they know isn't real?
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And I think that, you know, that's kind of where fly fishing for permit is in my opinion today. And I'm sure that people have strong opinions the other way that that the flies have gotten better. They have gotten quite a bit better, and they're doing all kinds of different things, with them even on the surface and underneath and and different weights to where the crab floats on top of the grass and the weight's down like a like a Carolina rig.
Major Thornton: Mhmm.
Tom Rowland: And all of those are are great things, but you go out there and you fly fish for them and you go out there and you throw live crabs for them and it's a completely different experience.
Major Thornton: Yeah. I
Tom Rowland: mean, on one day, you can catch five on live crabs. And if you caught five on fly, that would be a pretty amazing day. It's not impossible. You could do it, and people have. And, I don't know.
Major Thornton: I just Gotta have that patience.
Tom Rowland: I think it's yeah. But I think it's like you're choosing to do something difficult for the sake of doing something difficult. You know that you could catch them. And a lot of people either have already caught a lot of permit on on live crabs and they wanna move over and try it in a more difficult way. But there's a whole group of anglers that have never thrown a crab to a permit and they just enter the sport fly fishing for permit. Mhmm. I think that that was me. Right? I caught my first permit ever on fly and I was a 100% determined that that's the way I was gonna do it. I was almost I was like, insulted if if someone said, well, you should catch one on a crab. No, man. I'm gonna do it this way.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: But, looking back on it now, had I caught, you know, 10 on crabs, I would have caught one on fly much faster much faster. Because looking back on it, I didn't understand the fish. I didn't understand the way that the fish ate. I didn't understand what the fish wanted to see. I'm just just throwing the fly as close as I can to them. Right? And sooner or later, one's gonna eat it. But I could have been successful on fly much faster had I been had I been open minded enough to try it on, you know, spin crabs and catch a few. And then I wouldn't have been so nervous too, man. For the first few years, my knees are knocking. My heart rate's, like, one ninety seven.
Major Thornton: You know what
Tom Rowland: I'm saying? But I don't know. That was that was kind of a mistake, for me. But you should definitely learn how to fly fish. I think you would, you would enjoy the the red fishing on fly. You know, there's several fish that are much more, conducive to fly fishing than others. And redfish are one that it can be as productive as throwing lures for them in certain situations, like, especially, like, in around Flamingo or some place where they're just tailing up and, you know, their head's buried in the grass. A lot of times, you can you can get a fly to them, you know, over and over and over again faster than you could. Like, if you make a bad cast and it kinda comes across and they don't see it, you gotta reel it all the way back in. With a fly, you just pick it up and put it right back down there again. And in some cases, you can catch more like that. But fly fishing is I look at it, you know, where I once looked at it as the only thing and the only way to do it. Now I look at it like a like a club in your golf bag, like a tool in your in your tool belt. Like, it's a you know, same thing with with conventional reels and spinning reels and longer rods and shorter rods and fly rods, and it's just all a tool. Like Yeah. I I wanna try to be good at all of them. And, but I think that when you learn about fly fishing and you learn about the flies and how to choose the flies and even how to tie the flies, I think that without even knowing it or realizing it, you'll see this, like, you'll be doing something else and you're like, oh, that's like fly fishing. Right? I learned this in fly fishing, so maybe I'm gonna use a smaller lure because I see what they're eating and and I don't know. I it's mat matching the hatch, you know, like, what they call it. But I think that you can, I think that fly fishing can help you to be a better angler in other types of fishing that don't necessarily core correlate, like in bass fishing for deep fish? And you're like, how is fly fishing gonna help me with that? But it can, just like that, can help you with your fly fishing.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: Like, you can learn all these different things and all these different styles of fishing, and I think the best anglers take little bits of knowledge from all these different places and put it together in their own way that makes them kind of more successful. Like, oh, those redfish tournaments you did, it's definitely gonna help you to catch more largemouth bass or trout. Like, it just will. You know what I'm saying?
Major Thornton: I kinda like what going back to the question earlier, like, that transition from freshwater to saltwater. And, you know, I grew up with my granddad and we we would throw grass shrimp and, you know, I start I start the old school way. Like, we we we all going to we all going to the spot. You know, we got these long cane poles hanging out the car. You know, we go dip our net and catch our grass shrimp and and little crawdad and stuff like that. And my dad was, he introduced me to artificial. And bass fishing, like, I I I still love to bass fish. I still love to do freshwater and saltwater. I just love to fish. Like, I'll go catch I'll go catch crappy. I'll go catch bluegills. You know, I'll catch what whatever that's biting. And, I went fishing with my buddy, Josh. I I was in Gainesville. We we worked together. And he introduced me to the inshore game because my dad and I, we would, you know, we would go offshore or we would go hit the bridges in Stuart or, you know, something like that or go to the keys off of the, you know, off of the the the, trip boats. Mhmm. And, so my buddy Josh Martin introduced me to Inshore, and I picked it up pretty fast. It's back if you can catch bass, you can catch redfish, nook. I mean, it's the same thing. They hang around the same structure. I mean, they eat some of the, you know, to say, oh, eat some of the same lures.
Tom Rowland: Yeah.
Major Thornton: And that made that transition easy for me. And I I just you just catching I mean, you just catching bigger bass pretty much. I mean, it's it's the same it's not too much different.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's that's cool. I I think the same way, and I think that, I enjoy fishing saltwater, freshwater, whatever, fly fishing, any of it. I just like to bend the I like to bend the rod. Right. I really do. So how old are you?
Major Thornton: I'm 29.
Tom Rowland: 29. Yeah. Right on. And, so I I made me wonder when you said that you were out on your bicycle and you had to answer the phone. I knew we had an age gap. I knew there was a little age gap there because I didn't have a phone when I was riding around on my bicycle, and my parents were wondering where we were. They would just say be back by dark. And if you weren't, they might go looking for you, but I don't know. They I
Major Thornton: wish that was the case on I wish that was the case for me, man. Like, man, I tell you, my if I didn't answer that phone, oh, it was trouble.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes they would tell you, you know, stay stay close enough to the house to where you can hear the dinner bell or where you can hear, you know, my dad whistle. Yeah. Well, if you missed that whistle, it was it was bad news.
Major Thornton: We had
Tom Rowland: it we had one place. I do remember my dad coming coming looking for us, and we had gone a little further further than the whistle, further than you could hear the whistle. And we were just having a great time until he showed up, and it was not not good.
Major Thornton: You know? How many siblings you have?
Tom Rowland: I have, two sisters, two older sisters, and then I have three children of my own. So I have two boys, the old that are older and a girl. So 26, 24, and 20 almost 21
Major Thornton: Okay.
Tom Rowland: For my kids now. So they're, you know, it was a different it was a different world growing up, and then I think about, like, them having kids now and even just starting right now. Totally different world than even when they grew up. And even between the three of them, like, on on like, my older one, he wanted a Facebook page. Right? Like, I remember him coming home and saying he wanted a Facebook page. And that he's the 26 year old. Right? Because that was that was it. Like, Myspace was over. Facebook is the cool thing. And then, you know, I'm just like, I don't know, how I feel about that. And then my younger son, he had a whole different thing. That was like Instagram was around, like and then my daughter, like, it's like TikTok and and I don't know. It's just different. And each one of those periods of time is like a different experience for the parents and the kids. Like, I don't know. What what we used to do on Facebook when that was first getting started
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: Is so far different and so far removed from what what kids do on TikTok today. Yeah. Yeah. It's just amazingly different. Like, I don't know. You're posting, like, one picture on Facebook, and now you're you're doing whole movies and dance recitals and stuff.
Major Thornton: These these kids now, they'll post, like, six, seven times a day on TikTok. Is that like you said, as opposed to to one picture. You know what I mean? It it it I'm just happy I grew up in the era. Like, I so I grew up I I I love the area I grew up in because I grew up before that technology got really advanced. So I lived before, you know, we had the old Nokia phones and the snake game. You know, I lived, like, before the technology got great, and then I I saw the, you know, the transition. I'm just happy I was able to live in an era where I knew what it was not to have, you know, all these electronics. We're we're outside all day.
Tom Rowland: Mhmm.
Major Thornton: I mean, there was no video game. I mean, we were outside. And I I just I just love that I grew up in that area to where
Tom Rowland: I So it's it's interesting with you at 29 and just just you saying saying that right there. What do you see? Like, where are we going with this? Where is social media going? Whether you can talk about it with fishing or you can just talk about just kids and social media. You're gonna have a different perspective on it than than me. Where where is this going? Where do you think it's going?
Major Thornton: I don't think it it's definitely not going away. It is gonna keep evolving. And as far as as you see it now, businesses are getting on the trend to where now, social media is one of the best forms of marketing.
Tom Rowland: I mean,
Major Thornton: you know what I mean? And and a lot of businesses are I feel like the businesses that don't pick up on that social side that social media side of marketing are not gonna get to get left behind per se, but they're gonna be behind the the curve a little bit. And I think with social media, it it it it's a powerful tool, man. It is it is a powerful tool. I I never thought I'd be talking to Tom Roland on on on the podcast. You know what I mean? And that I just do, you know, social media. Like, it it it's a great tool for you to connect with people and to really show people, I see Instagram and say, oh, you know, he's living a great life. Could you people post the highlights of their lives. They're not posting, like, you know, they're not posting their downfalls on social media for the most part. And I I just really feel like social media is just a place where it's gonna constantly evolve. I just don't know how though. Because it's like back in the day, you know, you play the video games and, you know, you're like, man, these graphics are great. You know? Back playing playing I remember playing, like, the old NBA game, like, the old
Tom Rowland: Yeah.
Major Thornton: You know, 2003 NBA Live or something like that. And when it first came out, I was like, oh, these graphics are great. And now you look back on those graphics the graphics you have now, you're like, I really thought these graphics were you know what I'm saying? So I just feel like you you just never know. Like, it just gonna go to a place where you just it's hard to predict. Because we think It
Tom Rowland: is hard to predict.
Major Thornton: Right now. You know, we think how social media gonna get better? Just like with a bunch of other things and it's just gonna it'll get better.
Tom Rowland: It's Sometimes. Yeah. It's definitely gonna get better. And the technology is going to definitely improve and we're gonna get closer and closer to wearing things, like wearing glasses or having some sort of implant or something where social media is now and well, it's not just social media. The Internet, AI, it's all there with you at all times. I think we're getting closer and closer and closer to a wearable technology where that becomes, like I don't know. You have the opportunity to get that, like, a lens put in your eye that stays there all the time.
Major Thornton: You know?
Tom Rowland: I mean, it's it's it sounds I mean, ten years ago, that would have sounded like like science fiction. But today, you're like, they probably already have that. Like, I I mean I I
Major Thornton: would imagine.
Tom Rowland: There's probably somebody out there that has it. But I wonder sometimes about and we talk about it a lot of times on the podcast. It's like, how does it get worse? Like, there's a lot of things about social media that are are are great, and and you can celebrate them. And you can communicate and and connect with people that you never would have otherwise, and that's amazing. And you can learn things that you wouldn't have just like we were talking about tournaments. You can get on social media, and you can learn things about fishing or about being a car mechanic or cooking or whatever, you can learn so much off of that. But then there's another side of it too that is, like, not not a great side Yeah. About social media and especially, you know, for our purposes as it comes to fishing. Like, what are your thoughts on on where we are, like, with social media and fishing? And, you know, what are the things that, like, young creators should watch out for?
Major Thornton: I think a lot of people judge themselves off of what other people do on social media. And it it can create, like, some secret jealousy or something like that that, like, you're comparing yourself to someone you barely even know. Some people just don't have that that mindset to yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're doing great things, and and you may be catching bigger fish than them. You may be catching you know what I mean? Some people look at their, oh, he has this many likes, and I catch bigger fish than him or something. I think people just it it it it's just, man, the comparison to to other people that you barely even know just through social media. I just think the the new generation just have to not compare yourself to people just because what you see on on social media. And I think that's the biggest thing. I I I hear it all the time because my we we I have my, my little sister, my fiancee's little sister. She lives with us. And these kids, yeah, get so wrapped in on social media and what they see and and compare their lives to it. They grew up with the technology, like the younger. You know? Even younger kids for me now, like, in their twenties, like, I feel like I'm getting old calling, you know, kids that are 20 years old, but a nine year gap difference is a is a pretty big pretty big gap.
Tom Rowland: Well, it certainly is when we're talking about this. I mean, there's a the difference between a 29 year old and a 20 year old is that the 20 year old grew up with a smartphone
Major Thornton: Exactly.
Tom Rowland: And everyone they knew had one. At 29, you knew that this was I mean, like, you can probably do you remember when the Apple iPhone dropped? Like
Major Thornton: I do.
Tom Rowland: I remember it too. My friend wanted one. And then I got one, and the battery was so bad on the thing that I took it back. And I got my BlackBerry back, believe it or not. That makes me sound super old, but, like, I couldn't go more than an hour without I mean, this is a brand new phone. And I was like, I just can't can't do this.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And the email was not good. But, anyway, I remember that.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And and like you will, but but a 20 year old does not remember that. A 20 year old has has had there's never been a before the Internet or there's never been a before smartphones or there's never been, you know, I don't know, before. Like, you have that. Mhmm. But you're one of the last ones to have that at towards your age. Right? Maybe 26, like, before smartphones. Like, maybe my son can remember, like, when we all had flip phones and stuff like that.
Major Thornton: Mhmm.
Tom Rowland: But that's a major difference. So there's not it's not the age group. It's this this experience that's so different. Right? Like Yeah. Between you and a 20 year old.
Major Thornton: Yeah. Absolutely.
Tom Rowland: I just think they're
Major Thornton: like, they they they just grew up with this technology, man, and they they I think these they they can they just don't know, like, reality. It's just it's just all it's just all phone, and they compare themselves to I mean, I think that I think that's the biggest thing in fishing, man. It's just people comparing themselves, like, comparing what they do to other people. And it's I I I don't know. I'm just not a fan of that.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think your social media like, when you think about do you have a theme for for what you're trying to do on social media, in your videos and your Instagram?
Major Thornton: My theme is I just wanna I just wanna, you know, bring show fishing in a different light, you know, and and and a light to where fishing is enjoyable. Fishing is fun. It's funny. It's a lot of funny moments in fishing and people that things that people can relate to. And it was my outlet, and I just hope that it's an outlet for other people. And I try to not only post those kind of, fishing, you know, funny reels, but I post I try to post, you know, much fishing content as I can. I try to do some educational things because things that that's the base side about social media is, you know, you can put out what you want your identity to be and what you want the world to see. And I just hope that when someone click on my page, they see, hey, man. This guy loves to fish. He can fish. You know? He and I just want my content to be relatable and be an outlet for someone, hopefully, that, you know, went through the things that I went through when I was, you know, and not not in a good space.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, where do you see it in maybe five years? What do you wanna do with this?
Major Thornton: So five years, I so this is my vision in my mind. I I had I was planning a event here in Tallahassee where I wanna get the kids involved, more involved in fishing than than doing anything else. Like because not like we talked about, a lot of kids are on their phones now. A lot of kids not outside. I wanna get the kids involved in fishing early, and I had an event in my mind where I wanted to, you know, have tackle giveaway rods, giveaway for the kids. And I wanted to bring the homeless, like, the less fortunate. I want to be like a big cookout and do things like that. But I'm still working on that side of it. But my ultimate goal, I wanna go like on a tour. Like, go to different cities and maybe have like a maybe I think it'd be more of like a nonprofit where, you know, I'm going to different cities. You know, we're talking to kids. I wanna get the local, game wardens involved. That's why I'm talking with FWC now trying to get the local get introduce the kids to the wildlife officers early and show them, like, how the great of a job they do and and all of the conservation that goes into fishing, not just about fishing. Mhmm. You know, there's the conservation involved. You know, there there is so much to learn, and I want to get that started with the kids early. That that's one thing I wanna do within the next year or two is, you know, really put that together.
Tom Rowland: Nice. Well, when you get that put together, let me know how I can help. I like the message. I like the, I like the direction a lot because that I don't know. I think about it all the time. Like, how do you get kids off the phones and Yeah. Into the outdoors? It it can be fishing. It could be hiking. It could be sailing. It could be whatever, man. But just back to where you're kinda connected to nature and even just if it's temporary for three hours one day Yeah. To be totally disconnected for from from their phones, from a screen, from anything. And it's funny just to think of that, like, Maybe that how how hard is it to get someone disconnected from a screen for three hours?
Major Thornton: This is sad. It it is sad. Like, I I I go outside, and you don't see many kids outside, like, playing basketball or riding bikes. Because that that that's how we knew when I when I grew up, you looking for your friends, you look for the bikes who you look for the bikes in the yard. That's where everybody at. You know? And and it's just it's just not like that anymore. And I try to understand because it I try to understand it, but I just wanna be a part of the I wanna be a part of the the the solution of introducing kids to really just know how to have fun without a phone.
Tom Rowland: Mhmm.
Major Thornton: Because there there there there is so much to do without because, for example, yesterday literally yesterday, I have a house full of kids right now for the summer. They came up, some family came up, so I got a house full of kids right now. And I told them to go outside. You know? You know? Y'all go outside and play. Right? They come back in thirty minutes later. Like, well, you know what? You know? What's going on? Nah. It ain't nothing to do. So last night, we went to the front of the neighborhood, and, I took a soccer ball down there. We just had and it was I'm talking about, like, man, we was out there, like, eleven at night. And, the tropical storm's still coming in, so it's the wind's blowing all crazy, but it's not raining. You know? It's just like that cool weather. You know? That wind blowing pretty hard. And we just had a old school kickball game, man. Like, everybody for themselves, you kick the ball. You you had to run around all four bases, you know, to get back home without getting hit with the ball. And, man, it it was and since they've been here, we've taken them to the trampoline parks. We've taken them to to the beach. We've taken them to the springs. You know, we spent money taking them to, you know, different things for them to have fun. And I think that's the most fun they've had since they've been here. And they was Wow. And they was free.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. I mean, they some some kids these days don't even know that you can just invent a game. You know? Like, we used to do that all the time. We got we got a soccer ball and a baseball bat, and what else we got? We'll make that a base. Like, we'll play baseball with a soccer ball, and we'll call it, you know, soccer baseball.
Major Thornton: Exactly. You
Tom Rowland: know, we'd play out we'd do that for four hours. Yeah. And then it would be some, you know, oh, okay. Well, we can also score a touchdown in this game. You catch it, then you run it all the way back, and it's a touchdown.
Major Thornton: And then,
Tom Rowland: you know, these crazy rules, but, yeah, it would be fun. And I don't know. Even with my own kids and as much encouragement as I gave them to go and just go out in the woods, man, and just invent a game.
Major Thornton: Yep.
Tom Rowland: They didn't really do it. Not like we did. But there that's because there was an option. Right? We didn't have an option. Like Right. That was it. Yep. You can go out there. You're gonna come in come back inside when there was nothing to do in here. There were three channels on TV and soap operas on all of them. Right? They're it's like, ugh. I'd rather be outside.
Major Thornton: And and I don't know if you grew up, like, in this household, but they want no running in and out the house. I mean, if you out, you out.
Tom Rowland: Yeah.
Major Thornton: Yeah. Wasn't no running in and out. No.
Tom Rowland: Uh-huh. My mom didn't Let's go.
Major Thornton: My my mom and grandma didn't play that. Like, you ain't gonna be running in and out the in and out of the house. If you if you're gonna be outside, you're gonna be outside.
Tom Rowland: It's a different day today. It's a different day. I like I like that conversation. One of the things that we do here in the last couple of times that I have, done a podcast recently, I have gotten started with a pretty good conversation like we did here, and I have neglected to do our hot seat. So I have a series of questions that we do on the hot seat. They're kinda funny. But it's, whoops. I'm not gonna well, okay. Maybe I'll leave that in here because I had somebody else on there. Abenz, you know who he is? Okay. So he's like a jujitsu guy. So I'm gonna leave a couple of, of his questions in here because I actually didn't mean to I wrote these out, but I didn't, I I I just left his in here. So let me just change this real quick.
Major Thornton: Shout out to a Benz, man. He he put, man. He he has some great content.
Tom Rowland: He does. He catches some nice fish, man. The the jacks and the the snook are awesome. Okay. Are you ready? Mhmm. So in light of the conversation that we just had, what age would you think it was appropriate to give a kid a cell phone?
Major Thornton: Oh, in today's in today's age?
Tom Rowland: Yeah. If you had a kid right now.
Major Thornton: Shoot. What age is it? About fifth grade fifth or sixth grade, and it's not gonna be a smartphone. It's gonna be a phone where you could just call and text. No smartphone.
Tom Rowland: Okay. Fifth grader. Insure or offshore? Insure. Coffee or energy drink?
Major Thornton: Neither.
Tom Rowland: Neither. What do you have? Nothing?
Major Thornton: Just me.
Tom Rowland: Water? Just you?
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: You just wake up? I woke up like this.
Major Thornton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I drink coffee or energy drinks.
Tom Rowland: Cool. What do you drink? Do you drink alcohol?
Major Thornton: Yeah. I drink I
Tom Rowland: drink alcohol.
Major Thornton: I drink I drink water. You know, I'll have a beverage every now and again.
Tom Rowland: Just no caffeine?
Major Thornton: No. No caffeine.
Tom Rowland: Okay. Would you prefer a chihuahua or a hairless cat? God. Neither.
Major Thornton: Man. Right? Well, if I had to pick if I had to pick, I'd have to do a hairless cat.
Tom Rowland: Oh, wow. Bold.
Major Thornton: They they they they just mad yappy, man. I can't do
Tom Rowland: that. Okay. Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise. Okay. Me too. Desert or Arctic? Desert. Chocolate or vanilla?
Major Thornton: Vanilla.
Tom Rowland: Text or call?
Major Thornton: Call.
Tom Rowland: This one comes from a question I left in for a Benz. Jiu jitsu or fishing?
Major Thornton: Fishing.
Tom Rowland: No no jiu jitsu. Would you rather be in a tournament or go out for a fun day?
Major Thornton: Fun day.
Tom Rowland: 1,000,000 now or 10,000,000 later?
Major Thornton: 10,000,000 later.
Tom Rowland: Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics? Summer. Favorite Olympic sport?
Major Thornton: USA Basketball.
Tom Rowland: Least favorite Olympic sport?
Major Thornton: I don't know if I have a least favorite.
Tom Rowland: How about a sport you didn't even know was an Olympic sport until this year?
Major Thornton: I think I was surprised. I think last day when I saw they had, like, rowing, I didn't know that was, like, an Olympic sport. Yeah. I I saw one I can't remember exactly what it was, but I I would say rowing surprised, man. I knew that was an Olympic thing.
Tom Rowland: Least favorite fish to catch?
Major Thornton: Catfish. Saltwater. Like a hardhead or yeah. Hardhead catfish is my least favorite.
Tom Rowland: That's the number one answer. Yeah. Freshwater or saltwater? Saltwater. Spinnerbait caster?
Major Thornton: Mhmm. Bait caster.
Tom Rowland: Favorite social media platform?
Major Thornton: Instagram.
Tom Rowland: Do you post and ghost or respond to every comment?
Major Thornton: I try to respond to every comment.
Tom Rowland: Alright. Okay. So that's the hot seat. What what do you think of if I ask you what the worst advice you've ever been given? Does anything come to mind?
Major Thornton: Honestly, I don't know.
Tom Rowland: Well, you've been around a lot of good people then.
Major Thornton: I've been I've been told that, you know, as a kid, you know, you do stupid stuff as a kid, but the advice, I I don't know. Yeah. Nothing really comes to mind.
Tom Rowland: How about best advice? Has anybody ever given you any good advice that that has served you well?
Major Thornton: My granddad always told me, learn all you can and can all you learn. So what that means was you you learn all you can and you you can it. Like, you you keep it. You you learn all you can and you can all you learn. That's what he always
Tom Rowland: I like that. Is there a book that you've liked so much that you've given it as a gift? No. Okay.
Major Thornton: I I I I I do like, I'm not more of a I do a lot of my stuff kinda, like, online. I don't I don't have, like, the hardcover books. I kinda just you know, I do my research online pretty much.
Tom Rowland: Do you ever listen to books?
Major Thornton: Yes. I listen to I listen to it it it's all revolved around, like, you know, outdoors.
Tom Rowland: Mhmm. I
Major Thornton: I'm not like a, like a not like a, you know, like a novel reader or like a, you know, storybook reader or something like that. It it just it's more more of, like, information about, like, the outdoors or something like that.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Gotcha. I gotcha. Alright. Well, we're closing in on it. I want to, thank you for coming in and being on the show, man. I've I, I thought it was a great conversation. And, if people wanted to follow you and and see your videos and and subscribe and and support what you're doing, where would they go?
Major Thornton: So, I'm Major Gator ninety five on all platforms. And if you wanna follow me on Facebook, it's Major Thornton. But I'm Major Gator ninety five on all platforms itself.
Tom Rowland: Major Gator ninety five, and that is because you are a Gator. You're a Florida Gator.
Major Thornton: I'm a big Gator.
Tom Rowland: Alright. What's the story behind your your is that where you went to school?
Major Thornton: So So I had a couple of family members that played football there. Nice. I I always hung around my big cousin, and he was a huge Gator fan. So it kinda just it kinda just, you know, it fell it it it it just fell on me.
Tom Rowland: I love it. Are they gonna be good this year?
Major Thornton: Better than last year, hopefully. Yeah. But, I don't think we're gonna be like a like a powerhouse or anything. I'm hoping for if we can win seven to eight games with the schedule we have coming up, I'll be pretty happy.
Tom Rowland: Okay. Well, good luck to you, and good luck to everybody that's in the swamp. It's always an exciting game to watch, and and I think your time's I think you're due. I think you're due. It's, it's been a little while, and you never know with the portal, man.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: K. Anything can happen.
Major Thornton: You can anything can happen. Portal.
Tom Rowland: I know. I'm it's gonna be exciting year. I love to watch, I love to watch college football. It's probably my my favorite.
Major Thornton: Who's your team?
Tom Rowland: Well okay. So I went to Alabama. Mhmm. And so I do like Alabama, but my daughter goes to Auburn. And so I'm going to offend a lot of people here. But if you had a daughter, you would understand that it's real easy to be for Auburn when your daughter goes to Auburn.
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: And we go to a number of Auburn games, and I will have to say there is a different vibe. I was trying to explain it to somebody else. There's a different vibe between the Alabama Stadium and the Auburn Stadium. In Alabama Stadium, they're expecting to win, and they're expecting to be perfect.
Major Thornton: For sure.
Tom Rowland: And so there's a lot of disappointment because nobody's gonna be perfect, and sometimes you don't win. Right?
Major Thornton: Mhmm.
Tom Rowland: But in the Auburn Stadium, they're just very hopeful. Like, it's a great atmosphere because anything good that happens is celebrated like crazy. Right?
Major Thornton: Yeah.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. And and, I don't know. It's just a good atmosphere. I I like the atmosphere, and I like Alabama too. I'm not not an Alabama fan. I mean, I went there, and I'm gonna ride that all the way to as many national championships as as they get. Right? And who knows? They might get another one. I don't know. We'll see what this new coach does. But, you know, I gotta say I'm not that big of a football fan, but I do enjoy going and seeing my daughter at college and going to the games. And and so I like both. I like both. I'd have to say Alabama and Florida. What's that?
Major Thornton: Quick hot seat question for you before
Tom Rowland: you go.
Major Thornton: Alabama, Auburn plays, who you pulling for?
Tom Rowland: Well, am I sitting with my daughter?
Major Thornton: That answers it right there. That answers it. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: I mean, you know, and you always like the underdog story. Right? So, like, if Auburn beats Alabama I mean, even, I don't know. Listen. I'm just getting myself in hot water because the Alabama fans are not gonna like me anymore, and the Auburn fans, they see that I'm wishy washy, and now I'm now I'm neither. Right? So I just made everybody mad. I just they made everybody mad. But I will say this. Alabama is one of the greatest states in the night in the nation for football. Oh, yeah. Can I just say that? That that gets me out of trouble?
Major Thornton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think
Tom Rowland: that's That gets me out of I like both teams. I like both teams. But I like the different atmospheres. You know? I like Nick Saban. I really did. Thought he was a class act, and I don't know what they're gonna do now. But, anyway, alright. Well, good luck to you. Maybe Alabama or Auburn will play for this year. I don't know what the schedule looks like, but I'll send you a text when they do.
Major Thornton: Okay. Alright.
Tom Rowland: I
Major Thornton: appreciate you.
Tom Rowland: Major, thanks, man. I appreciate you coming on, and and it was great to get to know you a little bit. And, we'll do it again.
Major Thornton: It was an honor. Thank you.
Tom Rowland: Hey. Thank you. Alright. We'll see you.
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