Episode 17 of the Tom Rowland Podcast is my conversation with Joshua Jorgensen, the angler the internet knows as BlacktipH. He started by filming himself catching sharks from the beach and grew that into one of the biggest fishing channels on YouTube — hundreds of thousands of subscribers and videos with tens of millions of views. I sat down with Josh in his office to learn where he came from, how he turned shark fishing into a media empire, and where he thinks BlacktipH is going. His answer to who he makes videos for stuck with me.
▶ Watch on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
BlacktipH is the online handle of Joshua Jorgensen, one of the most popular fishing content creators on YouTube. He started by filming himself catching sharks from the beach in South Florida and has grown the channel to include all types of fishing, both freshwater and saltwater. BlacktipH has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and several of his videos have reached tens of millions of views, making him one of the biggest names in fishing media.
Josh started by videotaping himself catching sharks from the beach and posting the footage to YouTube. The videos took off, and he quickly became a YouTube sensation. From those shark-fishing beginnings the channel expanded to cover everything from sharks to mullet, with a relentless focus on high production quality that helped set BlacktipH apart from other fishing content.
Josh was born in Canada and raised in southern Florida. He wanted to study theoretical physics at a local university but became disappointed in the education system, so he went to work for his father to get real experience. He later worked for labs on projects that included work for the government and NASA. Still not fully content in that work, he turned to filming his fishing — and that became his career.
Josh told me his audience is the person he was before he moved down to Florida — someone who loved fishing but did not have access to it. As he put it, if people want to go fishing by the end of one of his videos, he did a good job. That mission, inspiring people to get out and fish, is the engine behind everything he creates.
While BlacktipH made its name on shark fishing from the beach, Josh now films everything from sharks to mullet, across both saltwater and freshwater. He sees fishing as more than just casting a line — it is a learning process — and he wants to inspire as many people as possible to give it a try.
Beyond the channel, Josh has been building new businesses and is deeply focused on his family. He and I spent a good part of the conversation talking about nutrition and about being present husbands and fathers, agreeing that as time-consuming as our careers can be, nothing beats time with our families.
BlacktipH is one of the great success stories in fishing media, and I wanted to get past the highlight-reel shark catches and understand the person behind them. Josh has built something that millions of people watch, and he has done it with a level of production quality that keeps raising the bar for everyone in this space. I managed to find time to sit down with him in his office and dig into where he came from, what he is doing now, and where he sees BlacktipH heading. What I found was a far more thoughtful and driven guy than a casual viewer would ever guess.
One of the most surprising parts of Josh's story is his background. He set out to study theoretical physics and ended up doing lab work on projects connected to the government and NASA before he ever picked up a camera to film fishing. Hearing how that analytical, problem-solving mind translated into building a media business helped me understand why BlacktipH is so meticulously produced. He approaches video the way a scientist approaches an experiment. Press play to hear his full origin story.
Josh continues to raise the bar with the quality of his videos, and that is no accident. We talked about how production value is the thing that separates content people watch once from content people subscribe to and share. With several videos in the tens of millions of views, he has proven that anglers will reward craftsmanship. His thinking on what makes a video work is valuable for anyone trying to build an audience around something they love. Hear how he approaches it in the episode.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Some of the most relatable moments in this conversation had nothing to do with sharks. Josh and I both run demanding, time-consuming careers, and we spent a real stretch of the episode talking about nutrition, health, and the constant pull between work and being present for our kids. We agreed that nothing beats time with family, and hearing how Josh tries to protect that while running a media business is something a lot of listeners will recognize in their own lives. Listen to that part of the talk.
The day after this conversation, what stuck with me most was Josh saying he makes videos for the person he used to be — the kid who loved fishing but did not have easy access to it. That is the secret behind every great creator I have met: they are not chasing trends, they are serving a specific person, and often that person is a younger version of themselves.
The other thing I keep coming back to is how a guy headed for theoretical physics ended up filming sharks on the beach and built an empire doing it. It is a reminder that the path to the thing you are meant to do is rarely a straight line, and that the skills you pick up along the way show up later in surprising ways.
Listen to the whole thing. Whether you watch BlacktipH or have never seen a single video, Josh's story about building something from passion is worth your time.
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.
Joshua Jorgensen is the creator behind BlacktipH, one of the most popular fishing channels on YouTube. Born in Canada and raised in southern Florida, he originally pursued theoretical physics and worked in labs on projects connected to the government and NASA before turning to filming his fishing. Starting with shark fishing from the beach, he built BlacktipH into a media powerhouse with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and videos reaching tens of millions of views, expanding from sharks to all types of saltwater and freshwater fishing. Known for his exceptional production quality, Josh is driven by a mission to inspire people to go fishing, and outside the channel he is focused on building businesses and being a present husband and father.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.