Episode 116 of the Tom Rowland Podcast is my conversation with Captain Matt Budd, a second-generation Jupiter, Florida fishing guide and commercial fisherman who runs the Jupiter Fishing Academy. Matt fishes both commercially and as a charter captain, and he has built a kids fishing camp that takes young anglers offshore and inshore to catch real fish. We talk about teaching the next generation, the flood of new guides on the water, and the right way and the wrong way to earn respect in a crowded fishery.
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Matt Budd is a second-generation fishing guide and commercial fisherman based in Jupiter, Florida. He grew up on his father's boat, fishes both commercially and as a charter captain, and has a commanding understanding of his local fishery, the bait, and how the whole system works. He also founded and runs the Jupiter Fishing Academy, a hands-on fishing camp for kids.
The Jupiter Fishing Academy is a kids fishing camp Matt Budd created and runs out of Jupiter, Florida. He takes up to six kids at a time on half-day charters, splitting the week between inshore and offshore trips so the kids actually catch real fish. He teaches everything from rigging and reading the water to navigation, weather, and safety, not just the surface-level tips most charters cover.
Matt started the academy because, growing up as the son of a busy charter captain, he rarely got to fish on his dad's boat and wished a real kids camp had existed. He wanted to build the camp he never had, one where kids catch real fish from a boat instead of walking seawalls or public docks, and come away genuinely educated about fishing.
Matt believes it has become too simple to get a captain's license and start guiding, and that more time on the water and more qualification should be required first. He worries that when an area gets saturated with guides, the business spreads so thin that it becomes difficult for everyone. He acknowledges the other side of the argument, but he thinks new guides should put in the time before hanging out a shingle.
Matt and Tom agree that respect is earned by being mindful, keeping your distance, not crowding other captains' fish, and consistently putting clients on fish. The guides who come in respectful and let their reputation build are welcomed. The ones who bully their way onto established spots and ignore the unwritten boundaries are the ones who create resistance.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 116 with Matt Budd is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I fished with Matt one time in the Jupiter Inlet and was very impressed. He made time for me and my son in a busy schedule, and on the way in he pulled up with a boatload of kids who had just caught huge fish and were on top of the world. That was the Jupiter Fishing Academy, and seeing it firsthand told me everything about the kind of captain Matt is. He has a deep understanding of his fishery, and he brought a few points of view to this conversation that pushed back on things I say all the time. I wanted that on tape.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole conversation.
Most kids fishing camps walk children along a seawall or stick them on a public dock. Matt built something else. He takes up to six kids out on real half-day charters, inshore and offshore, and teaches them the full picture, from rigging and good areas to navigation and reading the afternoon thunderstorms. He fills those kids with the kind of information you would never bother sharing on a normal charter. Listen to how he runs it.
This is where Matt and I see things a little differently, and that is exactly why I wanted him on. He thinks it has gotten too simple to get a ticket and start guiding, and that a fishery can get saturated to the point where it hurts everyone. I tend to tell people to follow their passion and find a way. He makes a real case for the other side. Hear him lay it out in the episode.
When I started in Key West there were only a handful of guides, and anyone new was looked at with great scrutiny. There was almost a ritual of earning respect, introducing yourself, letting people know who you were. Matt and I talk about whether that ritual still exists now that there are a hundred and fifty guides where there used to be eighteen, and what separates the new captains who get welcomed from the ones who get frozen out. Press play in the YouTube player above.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What stuck with me after talking to Matt is that he is doing the quiet work of building the next generation of anglers while also thinking hard about the health of the profession itself. Those two things are connected. The kids he is training today are the captains and conservation-minded fishermen of tomorrow.
Matt and I do not agree on everything about guide qualifications, and that is fine. The conversation is better for it. Listen to the whole thing and decide where you land.
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.
Matt Budd is a second-generation fishing guide and commercial fisherman based in Jupiter, Florida. He fishes both commercially and as a charter captain, and he is known for a deep, hands-on command of his local fishery. He founded the Jupiter Fishing Academy, a kids fishing camp that takes young anglers on real inshore and offshore charters and teaches them the full craft of fishing, from rigging and navigation to weather and on-the-water ethics.
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