Episode 366 of the Tom Rowland Podcast is a three-generation conversation I recorded on a family trip to Montana with my father, Tom Rowland Sr., and my two sons, Turner and Hayden. Instead of bringing on an outside guest, I turned the microphone on my own family for a wide-ranging talk about fatherhood, fishing, hard-won wisdom, and the funny stories that only surface when three generations sit in one room. It is the most personal episode I have done, and a rare look at where the values behind everything I do came from.
▶ Watch on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
This episode features three generations of the Rowland family: my father, Tom Rowland Sr.; me, Tom Rowland; and my two sons, Turner Rowland and Hayden Rowland. Rather than interviewing an outside guest, I sat down with my own family during a trip to Montana to talk about fishing, fatherhood, and the lessons passed down through our family.
It was recorded during a special three-generation family trip to Montana, where we went to fish and spend time together. The conversation grew out of having three generations of the family in one place at one time, which does not happen often, and I wanted to capture it.
The conversation covers family, fishing, wisdom, and parenting across generations, along with plenty of funny stories. We get into how my father raised me, how I have approached raising Turner and Hayden, and the values around the outdoors and hard work that connect all three generations. It moves between heartfelt reflection and the kind of teasing that only happens between fathers, sons, and grandsons.
I have interviewed hundreds of accomplished people on this show, but the people who shaped me the most are my own family. Having my dad and both of my boys together in Montana was a rare opportunity, and I wanted to document the wisdom, the stories, and the relationships before the moment passed. It is a thank-you to my father and a gift to my sons as much as it is an episode.
Both. Fishing is the thread that runs through the Rowland family, and the Montana trip was built around it, but the heart of the episode is the relationships between father, son, and grandsons. The fishing is the setting; the family is the story.
I have sat across the microphone from special operators, world-record anglers, and athletes at the top of their fields. But the people who actually built me are my dad and the family I am raising. When the chance came to get my father, Tom Rowland Sr., and both my sons, Turner and Hayden, together in Montana, I knew I could not let it pass without recording it. So much of who I am traces directly back to my dad, and so much of what I hope to pass on lives in my boys. This episode is me trying to capture all three generations in one conversation while I had the chance.
One of the threads I wanted to pull on was how lessons move down through a family. My father taught me things about the outdoors, about work, and about how to treat people that I did not fully appreciate until I was raising my own kids. Hearing him talk about how he saw it, and then hearing Turner and Hayden react to stories about their grandfather and their dad, gave me a perspective I do not get in everyday life. The way the same values show up differently in each generation is something you have to hear to understand.
Some of the best moments in this episode are the ones I did not plan. When you put a grandfather, a father, and two sons in the same room, the stories start coming out — the embarrassing ones, the legendary ones, the ones that get exaggerated a little more every year. There is teasing, there is laughter, and there are a few stories I had honestly forgotten until my dad brought them up. Press play to hear the Rowland family tell on each other.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Fishing is the through-line of this family. It is how my dad and I connected, it is how I have connected with my boys, and it is why we were all in Montana together in the first place. In the episode we talk about how fishing became more than a hobby for the Rowlands — how it shaped careers, relationships, and the way we spend our time. If you have ever bonded with your own family on the water, this conversation will feel familiar.
The day after we recorded this, I kept thinking about how rare it is to have three generations together, healthy, and willing to sit down and really talk. Most people never get to interview their own father and their own children in the same sitting.
This is not a typical episode with an expert guest and a set of takeaways. It is a family talking honestly about where they came from and where they are going. If it nudges even one listener to call their dad, take their kid fishing, or record a conversation with someone they love before the chance is gone, it will have done its job.
Listen to the whole thing. This one means more to me than almost any episode I have made.
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.
The Rowland family spans three generations of anglers and outdoorsmen. Tom Rowland Sr. raised his son Tom Rowland with a deep connection to fishing and the outdoors. Tom Rowland went on to become a professional fishing guide in the Florida Keys, the longtime host of the television show Saltwater Experience, and the host of the Tom Rowland Podcast. He has passed that same love of fishing and the outdoors to his two sons, Turner and Hayden Rowland. This episode, recorded on a family trip to Montana, brings all three generations together for a conversation about family, fishing, parenting, and the wisdom handed down along the way.
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