Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 687 is a conversation with Tyler Kapela, a Tampa Bay fishing guide, owner of Hit and Run Fishing Charters out of St. Petersburg, Florida, and a former fishing-show host who spent four years on NBC Sports and a year on the Discovery Channel. We get into how a guided trip to the Ten Thousand Islands at fifteen set the whole course of his life, how he turned a childhood dream into a guiding and television career, and the world-class fishing it has taken him to from Tampa Bay to Australia.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · or press play in the player above.
Tyler Kapela is a professional fishing guide and owner of Hit and Run Fishing Charters based out of Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida. He became a guide fresh out of college around 2010 and also hosted a fishing television show on NBC Sports for four years and on the Discovery Channel, which allowed him to fish destinations around the world.
Tyler runs Hit and Run Fishing Charters out of Tampa Bay, Florida, based in St. Petersburg. In the episode he describes the tarpon and cobia fishing in the bay after a recent storm, including chumming up tarpon behind the boat and catching a 60-pound cobia.
Tyler traces it back to a guided trip to the Ten Thousand Islands at age 15 with a guide named Scott Hughes, where he caught his first snook. That trip made him decide he wanted to be a professional fishing guide and host his own fishing TV show. He got his captain's license, borrowed a mentor's boat to get started, and became a guide fresh out of college.
Tyler hosted a fishing television show that ran on NBC Sports for four years and on the Discovery Channel for one year. He says the show is what allowed him to travel the world and fish destinations like Australia and French Polynesia.
Tyler describes the Tampa Bay fishing as incredible, with the tarpon fishing going off since he returned from a trip to Australia. He explains that a negative storm surge appears to have pulled juvenile tarpon out of rivers like the Manatee River toward the mouth of the bay, leading to outstanding tarpon and cobia action.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 687 with Tyler Kapela is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Tyler and I came up through the same world, and that is exactly why I wanted to talk to him. He grew up watching the same fishing TV shows I did, decided as a teenager that he wanted to be a guide and a host, and then actually went and did both. There are not many people who can speak to running a real charter operation and building a television career at the same time. I wanted to hear how he pulled it off, and where the fishing has taken him since.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole story.
Tyler tells the story of going on a guided trip to the Ten Thousand Islands when he was fifteen, with a guide named Scott Hughes, and catching his first snook. He was a bass fisherman before that day. He describes the exact moment he decided this was going to be his life, including a tarpon blowing up on a mullet right when he asked the question that set everything in motion. It is the kind of origin story every angler will relate to. Listen to the opening of the episode.
Getting started as a guide is harder than it looks, and Tyler is honest about it. He talks about getting his captain's license, finding a mentor who let him borrow a boat and helped him market himself, hustling magazine articles, and becoming a guide fresh out of college. For anyone thinking about turning a fishing passion into a profession, this stretch is full of real, practical reality. Hear how he did it in the player above.
Tyler did the thing most guides only dream about. He hosted a fishing show on NBC Sports for four years and on the Discovery Channel, and he explains how that opened the door to fishing all over the world. We talk about what it is actually like to make television around fishing, and how it changed the trajectory of his career. Listen to that section of the episode.
Fresh off a trip to Australia, Tyler came home to some of the best tarpon fishing he has seen. He breaks down why, pointing to a negative storm surge that pulled juvenile tarpon out of the rivers toward the mouth of the bay, and describes chumming tarpon up behind the boat and then catching a 60-pound cobia out of nowhere. If you fish Tampa Bay, this is the part to pay attention to. Press play in the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the player at the top of this page.
What I love about Tyler's story is that he is proof the teenage dream is not crazy. He saw it, he named it, and he built it, one captain's license, one borrowed boat, and one magazine article at a time.
The travel is the glamorous part, but the foundation is the same grind every working guide knows. Tyler kept showing up, and it took him from the Ten Thousand Islands to television to Australia and back to a Tampa Bay tarpon blitz.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 687 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Tyler Kapela · Hit and Run Fishing Charters · Tampa Bay · St. Petersburg, Florida · Ten Thousand Islands · Scott Hughes · NBC Sports · Discovery Channel · Manatee River
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.
Tyler Kapela is a professional fishing guide and the owner of Hit and Run Fishing Charters, based out of Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida. Inspired by a guided trip to the Ten Thousand Islands as a teenager, he got his captain's license and became a guide fresh out of college around 2010. He went on to host a fishing television show on NBC Sports for four years and on the Discovery Channel, a platform that let him fish destinations around the world, from Florida's flats to Australia and French Polynesia, while continuing to guide anglers in his home waters of Tampa Bay.
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