Rob Chapman: Catching Giant Sea Trout in Florida's Big Bend
Rob Chapman is an angler with a knack for catching unusually large sea trout in Florida's Big Bend, from Steinhatchee and Horseshoe Beach to the Suwannee and Crystal River. In this episode he explains why hard winter freezes concentrate big trout into holes, what it takes to catch gator trout in the 24-to-32-inch class, the cold-weather behavior that makes the area special, and why topwater is his favorite way to chase them.
Terysa and Nick: Sailing Ruby Rose and Living Full Time on a Sailboat
Terysa and Nick are the couple behind the Sailing Ruby Rose YouTube channel. In this episode they tell me how they walked away from conventional careers, sold everything, saved up, bought a boat, and went sailing, living full time aboard for more than five years before selling the boat to wait on a new catamaran. They share the realistic, stair-step way they made the dream happen and the honest tradeoffs of life on the water.
Aurelia Skipwith: Opening 4 Million Acres for Hunting and Fishing
Aurelia Skipwith served as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where she oversaw the opening of more than four million acres for hunting and fishing access. In this episode she shares her story of being introduced to the outdoors through family in rural Mississippi, her background in molecular biology and law, and how hunters and fishermen are the foundation of conservation funding and partners the agency relies on to protect and expand access and species.
Cole Harrison: Sailing Across the World to Live in Fiji
Cole Harrison is a Key West waterman who fell in love with the South Pacific and built a life in Fiji. In this episode he tells me how he went from guiding spearfishing and whale swims in Tonga to crossing roughly 2,500 miles of open Pacific by sailboat from Tahiti to Fiji, how he applies the spearfishing skills he learned as a kid in Key West to fish like dogtooth tuna and yellowfin, and what it takes to clear a sailboat into Fiji and earn a place in a village.
Arctic Sailing to Svalbard: Inside the Making of the 80 Degrees North Documentary
Brady Trautman and Alex Blue, longtime crew of the SV Delos YouTube channel, join me to talk about their new project: a documentary called 80 Degrees North about an expedition sail to Svalbard in the high Arctic. They describe what it takes to take a small sailboat to one of the most remote places on the planet, the realities of polar bear country, the local culture of Svalbard, and their philosophy of giving back to the places they travel rather than just taking from them.
Alexa Score: From Professional Wakeboarder to Cancer Survivor to TV Host
Alexa Score is a professional wakeboarder from a small town in Minnesota, a leukemia survivor, and a television host. In this episode she tells me how she grew up hunting and ice fishing with her father, how a leukemia diagnosis with ninety-seven percent cancerous blood and a hard road on the drug Gleevec became the catalyst that pushed her to move to Orlando and chase wakeboarding, and how she has used that platform to move into TV broadcasting.
Kevin Pavlidis: How to Avoid Dangerous Snakes in the Wild
Kevin Pavlidis, the Snakeaholic, is a reptile expert who handles snakes and alligators professionally. In this how-to conversation he explains why native snakes see humans as predators rather than prey, how to spot and avoid venomous species through careful foot placement, how to safely check a hunting blind in the dark, what to do if a snake is sharing your space, and why a rattlesnake's rattle is a sign of fear, not aggression.
Kevin Pavlidis: The 18-Foot Record Python and the Real Everglades Population
Kevin Pavlidis, known as the Snakeaholic, is a professional Burmese python hunter contracted by the state of Florida who caught the state-record python at 18 feet, 9.25 inches and 104 pounds. In this episode he explains how he hunts these invasive apex predators day and night, walks through his own calculation that the Everglades population is likely in the millions rather than the commonly cited 100,000 to 300,000, and describes how pythons have hollowed out the mammal population across the Eastern Everglades.
Chris Pascual: Bridge Fishing 101 in the Florida Keys
Chris Pascual is an experienced South Florida bridge fisherman who specializes in the Florida Keys, targeting mutton snapper, mangrove snapper, cubera snapper, and grouper from bridges like Channel 2, Channel 5, and Long Key. In this how-to conversation he walks me through bridge fishing 101: how to read current and structure, the stout conventional tackle he relies on, why he carries eight to ten dozen live shrimp, the drop-net system that lands big fish from a three-mile bridge, and the post-hurricane window that produced limits of near-25-inch mangroves.
Adrian Smith: Iron Maiden's Guitarist on Fishing as Meditation and Life on Tour
Adrian Smith is the guitarist for Iron Maiden, one of the biggest heavy metal bands in history, and a lifelong compulsive angler. In this episode he talks about his book Monsters of River and Rock: My Life as Iron Maiden's Compulsive Angler, fishing with his dad as a kid, rekindling his love of fishing while touring the world, and why he calls fishing meditation with a punchline.
Nick Lavery: Green Beret on Why Motivation Is Overrated
Nick Lavery is a U.S. Army Green Beret warrant officer and the first above-the-knee amputee to return to active duty in Special Forces after losing his leg in combat. In this episode he shares his mindset, why he believes motivation is overrated and discipline wins, the brutal road back to his unit at Fort Bragg, and how he thinks about potential, mentorship, and pushing past limits.
Captain Ryan Nitz: How to Catch Giant Snook in Jupiter, Florida
Captain Ryan Nitz is a Jupiter, Florida guide known for catching giant snook up to 48 inches. In this how-to episode he breaks down snook fishing from A to Z: where to find small snook around docks, the lures and live baits that work, the leader and circle-hook setup for big fish, why moving water and dead low tide matter, and how to revive a snook properly so it survives the release.
Mike Kimmel, the Python Cowboy: Hunting Invasive Species in the Everglades
Mike Kimmel, known as the Python Cowboy, is a state-contracted python hunter in the Everglades who also removes iguanas, Nile monitors, Egyptian geese, and other invasive species across South Florida. In this episode he explains why invasive species are such a threat, the damage pythons and iguanas do to native wildlife and infrastructure, and what it takes to manage the problem before it gets even worse.
George Poveromo: 20 Years of TV, National Seminars, and the Swordfish That Pulled Him Overboard
George Poveromo is a saltwater fishing television legend, host of George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing, which has aired on ESPN, NBC Sports, and the Discovery Channel for 20 years, and founder of the Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series. In this episode he shares how his TV career and seminars came together, his deep ties to Salt Water Sportsman magazine, and the wild story of a swordfish that nearly pulled him out of the boat.
Three Generations of Rowlands: Family, Fishing, and Wisdom in Montana
On a three-generation trip to Montana, I sat down with my father, Tom Rowland Sr., and my two sons, Turner and Hayden, for one of the most personal episodes of the Tom Rowland Podcast. We fished together, visited as a family, and recorded a wide-ranging conversation about fatherhood, fishing, hard-won wisdom, parenting across generations, and the funny stories that only come out when three generations of the same family are in one room. It is a rare look at where the values behind everything I do actually came from.
Ryan Nitz: How to Start Public Land Hunting in Florida
Ryan Nitz is an experienced Florida public land hunter who breaks down how to get started hunting public land in the state from A to Z. In this episode he covers the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules, the state's four hunting zones, wildlife management areas, quota hunts, the no-baiting rule, and the realities of hunting public ground so new hunters know exactly where to begin.
Meko Glinton: Guiding Lefty Kreh and Surviving Hurricane Dorian
Meko Glinton is a legendary Bahamian bonefish guide from Abaco who has guided icons like Lefty Kreh, Liam Neeson, and Michael Keaton. In this episode he shares memories of his close friendship with Lefty, his deep bonefish knowledge passed down through the Glinton family, and what it was like to survive Hurricane Dorian and rebuild a guiding life through the storm and the COVID-19 shutdown.
Bob Bagby: How Sponsorships Are Changing in the Fishing Industry
Bob Bagby spent more than 30 years at Zebco managing sponsorship relationships with legends like Bill Dance, Kevin VanDam, Gerald Swindle, and Shaw Grigsby, and now runs Lone Arrow Marketing, a hunt and fish consulting business. In this episode he breaks down how sponsorships actually work, what has changed in the fishing industry, and how anglers and brands can find the right fit so nobody wastes time.
Capt. Rick Moore: Building a 130K Sailing YouTube Channel
Capt. Rick Moore is the sailor and content creator behind Sailing with Captain Rick, a YouTube channel with roughly 130,000 subscribers. In this episode he explains how he started posting videos when YouTube first launched during the recession, why he was invited into YouTube's early partner program, how he studied analytics to grow, and what it is like sustaining a life of sailing, chartering, and content creation on the water.
Ben Friedman: How He Launched Barstool Outdoors
Ben Friedman is the angler and content creator who launched Barstool Outdoors, the outdoor vertical of Barstool Sports. In this episode he explains how he pitched and built the channel, why he wanted it to show the realistic experience of fishing rather than a polished network version, how Barstool's audience and personalities accelerated its growth, and what it takes to turn a fishing passion into a real media brand.
Monte Burke: Lords of the Fly and the World-Record Tarpon Obsession
Monte Burke is the author of Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon, a Forbes staff writer, and the writer behind the New York Times bestseller Saban. In this episode he traces the golden Homosassa years when the world's best fly anglers chased the same giant tarpon, the tangled lineage connecting legends like Stu Apte, Billy Pate, Tom McGuane, and Steve Huff, and why he keeps writing about obsessed people.
Emily & Amanda Gale: D1 Pole Vaulters to Florida Keys Charter Captains
Emily and Amanda Gale, the identical twin Gale Force Twins, went from Division 1 pole vaulting at the University of Miami to running fishing charters in the Florida Keys and building a fast-growing YouTube and Facebook video following. In this episode they walk through the summer captain job that changed everything, why they chose filming over medical school, how COVID pushed them full-time into video, and what being twin female captains is really like.
Jennifer Rehage & Carissa Gervasi: FIU Fisheries, Pharmaceuticals in Fish & Biscayne Bay
Dr. Jennifer Rehage directs the Fisheries Lab at Florida International University, and Carissa Gervasi is a PhD student studying jack crevalle, bonefish, permit, tarpon, and the effects of pharmaceuticals on aquatic life. In this conversation they reveal how medications are changing fish behavior in South Florida, what acoustic telemetry shows about bonefish and tarpon, and the biggest threats to Biscayne Bay and the Everglades.
Jako Lucas: GTs, Jack Crevalle & World-Class Guiding
Jako Lucas is a South African fly fishing guide, filmmaker, and founder of Capt. Jack Productions who has guided 300-plus days a year across the Seychelles, Mongolia, Russia, Bolivia, Australia, and more. Now based in Austin, Texas, he guides the Texas coast for redfish and jacks. This conversation covers the Alflexo fly revolution, filming in Siberia, GTs versus jack crevalle, and conservation.