Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1005 is my conversation with Mike Loughran, the angler behind the Fish Like Mike social media brand. Mike grew up in Buffalo, New York as an all-sports athlete, did not seriously pick up fishing until his senior year of high school, and started filming with a GoPro he taped to a hockey stick. He turned pond hopping and wild on-the-water footage into a fast-growing content brand while teaching elementary phys ed and coaching varsity hockey full time. We dig into how he built it and what he learned about making video that works.
Listen now: press play in the player above to watch the full conversation, or stream Episode 1005 on your favorite podcast app.
Mike Loughran is the angler and content creator behind the Fish Like Mike brand. He grew up in Buffalo, New York as a multi-sport athlete, played college hockey, and worked as an elementary phys ed teacher and varsity hockey coach. He started making fishing videos in 2015 and turned the project into a fast-growing social media brand, known for wild on-the-water footage and a relentless, do-everything-yourself work ethic.
Mike says he really started because he has ADHD and was an athlete his whole life, so when a sports season ended he needed something else to throw himself into. He did not seriously pick up fishing until his senior year of high school, and once he got a car he started pond hopping. His first summer he taped a GoPro to a hockey stick to get angles, and the content grew from there.
For years Mike ran a brutal schedule. He coached varsity hockey practices that started at 5 a.m., taught elementary phys ed all day, worked a part-time job, and pursued a master's degree, then fished on weekends. He explains that because he had so little free time, he became extremely efficient at capturing and repurposing footage, using every spare second to make as much content as possible.
When he started in 2015, Mike shot everything horizontally on a GoPro and posted to YouTube. As the other platforms shifted toward short-form, he began turning the GoPro vertical and posting short clips, which improved how the videos performed. He is candid that stepping back from YouTube was a regret in hindsight, since that is where more of the long-term money is, but vertical short-form is what fueled his fast growth.
Mike was an all-sports kid in Buffalo, with hockey as his biggest sport, and he played two years in college. His brother went on to play professionally at the East Coast level. Mike comes from a teaching family, his dad is a gym teacher and his mom was a principal, and he coached varsity hockey for five years while teaching, which shaped the discipline he brought to building Fish Like Mike.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 1005 with Mike Loughran is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I follow the Fish Like Mike page, and the guy puts out some genuinely wild videos. We do a lot of the same thing on the content side, so I wanted to sit down and understand how he built this while working a full-time job. The story of how he got here is better than the highlight reel makes it look.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole conversation.
Mike's origin story is exactly the kind of scrappy I respect. He did not get serious about fishing until his senior year of high school, and once he had a car he was pond hopping with a GoPro taped to a hockey stick to get the angles he wanted. He explains how that first summer of figuring it out turned into something much bigger. Worth hearing in his own words.
This is the part that floored me. Mike coached varsity hockey practices starting at 5 a.m., taught all day, worked a part-time job, did a master's degree, and fished on weekends. Because he had almost no free time, he got ruthless about efficiency, capturing and repurposing every clip. He breaks down what that schedule actually looked like. Listen to that section of the episode.
Mike started in 2015 shooting horizontal on YouTube, then pivoted to turning the GoPro vertical for short-form as the platforms changed. He is honest that pulling back from YouTube is a regret, because that is where more of the money lives long term. We get into what he would do differently and what actually drives reach now. Press play in the player above.
Mike and I compared notes on something I have learned the hard way: for social, a clip shot on a phone often outperforms the footage from expensive cameras. He talks through his current setup, an iPhone on a little tripod in selfie mode, and how he captures a crazy animal moment in the wild. Scroll up and watch the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What I take away from Mike is the work ethic. He built Fish Like Mike in the cracks of a brutal schedule, using every spare second, and refused to wait for the perfect setup before he started.
The videos are fun, but the real lesson is how he turned constraints into a system. That is the part anyone trying to build something should hear.
Press play in the player above to hear how it all fits together.
Mike Loughran · Fish Like Mike · Buffalo, New York · GoPro · YouTube · ECHL
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.
Mike Loughran is the angler and content creator behind Fish Like Mike. A Buffalo, New York native and former college hockey player, he worked as an elementary phys ed teacher and varsity hockey coach while building his fishing content brand from a GoPro taped to a hockey stick into a fast-growing social media following known for wild, on-the-water footage.
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