Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 937 is my conversation with fishing content creator, writer, and TV host Jim Root, a guy I had somehow never crossed paths with before. We get into how he turned fishing into a full-time career — from bass tournaments on the ABA and BFL trails, to writing for The Weather Channel, to hosting the Outdoor Channel show Bragging Rights, to launching his new show Just Landed. It is a real, unvarnished look at what it takes to make a living in the fishing world.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Listen in the player · Press play in the audio player on this page.
Jim Root is a fishing content creator, writer, and television host who built a career around fishing from the ground up. He came up through bass tournaments on trails like the ABA and BFL, qualified for an ABA national championship at Santee Cooper, wrote for outlets including Weather Underground and The Weather Channel, hosted the Outdoor Channel show Bragging Rights, and is now launching a new show called Just Landed.
Jim started by fishing a tournament for fun, then discovered the bass trails like the ABA and BFL and competed his way to a national championship. He turned writing and sponsorships into income, eventually deciding to make a living as a full-time creator rather than take a regular job. He explains in the episode that the path was not linear — he lost a major sponsorship and had to choose between fishing the tour and going to work.
Just Landed is the new show Jim is launching after stepping away from his Outdoor Channel show Bragging Rights. It is built around traveling to different fisheries and people — the St. Lawrence River, Oneida Lake, the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, and beyond — and using those trips to tell bigger stories about places, communities, and why conservation matters.
Jim shares a hard lesson about reading the fine print. He signed a royalty deal with a publishing company and learned that once your royalty kicks in, the publisher often stops pushing and selling the book because the profit margin is gone for them. He frames it as one of the most valuable lessons he learned about the business side of being a creator.
Jim wants his new show to explain why issues like tuna quotas and the striped bass migration matter, and why states need to coordinate. He points out that what happens in the Chesapeake Bay or off the coast of New Jersey directly impacts the striper fishery all the way up in Maine. His goal is to make the case for conservation in a way regular anglers can understand.
Jim is candid that chasing a fishing career means tradeoffs. He notes that only about 25,000 people in the United States recreationally fish more than 200 days a year, and says in a perfect world he would fish only about 30 percent of the time so he could tell stories and be present for the rest of his life. We get into how time with family moves fast and why being present matters.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 937 with Jim Root is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. Press play in the audio player on this page to hear how Jim turned fishing into a career.
I do not know how I had never run into Jim before. He has built the exact kind of career a lot of people listening to this podcast dream about — making a living in fishing — and he has done it the hard way, through tournaments, writing, television, and a few painful lessons in between. I came into this one curious, wanting him to walk me through how it actually happened. The honesty in his answers is what made me want to put this conversation out.
Press play in the audio player on this page to hear the whole story.
Jim's path started with a single tournament that was just supposed to be fun. From there he found the bass trails — the ABA, the BFLs — and fished his way to a national championship at Santee Cooper. That was his first taste of what it would be like to work in the industry full time. He breaks down every step, including the moment he had to decide between a steady job and going all in as a creator. Listen to that part of the episode.
The turning point in Jim's career came when he lost his Weather Underground and Weather Channel sponsorship after a series of corporate mergers gutted the marketing departments he wrote for. It happened right after his dad passed away. He had to choose: scramble to make it as a content creator or step back. The way he describes that fork in the road is one of the most honest things I have heard a guest say about this business. Press play to hear it.
After stepping away from Bragging Rights, Jim is launching a new show called Just Landed, and his vision for it is bigger than fish. He wants to travel — the St. Lawrence, Oneida Lake, the Susquehanna, the Delaware — and use those trips to tell stories about places and people, and to explain why conservation issues like tuna quotas and the striper migration matter. He says in a perfect world he would only fish about 30 percent of the time. Hear why in the episode.
Jim does not sugarcoat the business side. He tells the story of signing a book royalty deal and learning, too late, that the moment your royalty kicks in, the publisher stops pushing the book because there is no profit left in it for them. It is the kind of fine-print lesson nobody warns you about. He shares it so the next creator does not make the same mistake. Listen to that section.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or press play in the audio player on this page.
What stayed with me the day after talking to Jim is how much of a fishing career is really about everything around the fishing — the writing, the relationships, the contracts, the storytelling, and the willingness to keep going after a setback that would stop most people.
The other thing that landed was his point about being present. Whether you fish 200 days a year or two, the people who get the most out of the outdoors are the ones who are actually there for it, not living in the past or the future. That is a good reminder no matter what you do for a living.
Press play in the audio player on this page, or grab Episode 937 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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.
Jim Root is a fishing content creator, writer, and television host who built his career through competitive bass fishing, outdoor writing, and broadcast. He came up through tournament trails like the ABA and BFL, qualified for an ABA national championship at Santee Cooper, and wrote for outlets including Weather Underground and The Weather Channel before hosting the Outdoor Channel series Bragging Rights. He is now launching a new travel-and-conservation-focused show, Just Landed, aimed at telling bigger stories about the places, people, and issues behind the sport.
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