Rick Hoeninghausen: 28 Years Living in Yellowstone National Park
Rick Hoeninghausen has spent over 28 years working in Yellowstone National Park, starting as a seasonal laundry worker in 1980 and rising to head of marketing for Xanterra Travel Collection. He joins Tom Rowland to share what makes America's first national park unique, from Old Faithful to the Lamar Valley.
Josh Thomas: Vibe Kayaks and No Drama, Just Adventure
Josh Thomas founded Vibe Kayaks, which grew from $250,000 in first-year sales to $2.5 million in year two and broke $10 million by year four. His motto, No Drama, Just Adventure, reflects his belief that time on the water should be an escape. He joins Tom Rowland to talk about the strategy and sacrifice behind that rise.
Jeff Maggio: LunkerCon and the Reel Guy Network
Jeff Maggio, also known as the Lunker Dog, is a tarpon guide and YouTube fishing personality who built LunkerCon and the Reel Guy Network. He joins Tom Rowland the morning after LunkerCon to talk about why he created the event, the power of fishing community, and giving back to conservation.
Rufus Wakeman: 30 Years of Billfish, FADs, and Adventure
Rufus Wakeman is a lifelong angler from Palm Beach, Florida, who started fishing at age five and has fished nearly every day for 30 years. He joins Tom Rowland to explain why 80 percent of his sailfish come from one type of structure, the story of getting lost in the Guatemalan jungle, and how he found sailfish in a landlocked country.
Crazy Alberto Knie: A Near-Death Experience and Total Dedication to Fishing
Crazy Alberto Knie is a passionate angler on the Saint Croix Rods pro staff known for pursuing whatever fish turns his crank, at any hour, with great precision. He joins Tom Rowland to share his near-death experience from a Manhattan car accident and how it reshaped his perspective on life and fishing.
Dawson Wheeler: Building Rock Creek and Monetizing Outdoor Passion
Dawson Wheeler is the co-owner of Rock Creek, an outdoor specialty retail shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and an advocate for protecting public lands and getting families outdoors. He joins Tom Rowland to talk about the hard pivot from dreaming to doing and how to monetize a passion without losing the mission.
Kyle Gemas: Seychelles and Florida Fishing Tournaments
Kyle Gemas joins me to talk about fishing the remote flats of the Seychelles and competing in Florida fishing tournaments, two very different worlds that share the same obsession. We get into what it takes to chase fish across the globe and how that travel sharpens you back home.
Brandon Clift | The Path of a Warrior: Rethinking Modern Masculinity | Tom Rowland Podcast Ep. 127
Brandon Clift is the son of Bill Clift, a mentor who shaped a young Tom's sense of adventure. At 26, Brandon brings remarkable maturity to a conversation about the path of a warrior, redefining masculinity around emotional courage and connection rather than aggression, and the conflict young men feel between who they are and who culture tells them to be.
Josh Collins - 2,742 Miles on a Paddleboard for Veteran PTSD
Josh Collins, a Delta Force combat veteran living with TBI and PTSD, joins me to share how a paddleboard at a VA hospital became a path back to health, and why he paddled 2,742 miles from Texas to the Statue of Liberty to raise awareness for fellow veterans.
Hunter Jackson: Making His Dreams a Reality Through Hunting Guide School
Hunter Jackson, a young Tennessee outdoorsman and friend of Tom's son Hayden, joins Tom Rowland to share how he made his dream a reality. Hunter drove 36 hours alone to a month-long hunting guide school in Philipsburg, Montana, where he learned horsemanship, horseshoeing, packing mules, blood trailing, navigation, first aid, and game scoring from scratch. He scored well, earned job placement, and became a hunting guide. A motivating roadmap for anyone trying to build a career in the outdoors.
Dr. Lori Schweikert: The Science of Fish Vision and What It Means for Anglers
Marine biologist and angler Dr. Lori Schweikert joins Tom Rowland to explain the science of fish vision. Lori reveals why tarpon are the superheroes of fish vision, how fish retinas change and heal over a lifetime to match different waters, why a red lure turns black rather than invisible at depth, and how contrast and silhouette matter more than color. A fascinating conversation that connects the lab to the water and helps anglers understand what fish actually see.
Chris Bush | The Speckled Truth, Trophy Trout & Some Gators | Tom Rowland Podcast Ep. 119
Chris Bush is the founder of The Speckled Truth, a trophy speckled trout conservation platform built around the message of take what you need and release the rest. An active-duty Air Force member, Chris talks with Tom about chasing trophy trout, building a conservation movement through storytelling, and why the experience of the pursuit matters as much as the fish.
Matt Budd | Jupiter Fishing Academy, Commercial Fishing & Guiding the Right Way | Tom Rowland Podcast Ep. 116
Captain Matt Budd is a second-generation Jupiter, Florida fishing guide and commercial fisherman who runs the Jupiter Fishing Academy, a hands-on kids fishing camp. In this conversation he and Tom dig into teaching the next generation, the line between following your passion and flooding a fishery with new guides, and how a new captain earns respect on the water.
Hank Patterson: If The Bar Ain't High, I'm Your Guy
Hank Patterson is a comedic fishing personality who burst onto the scene by doing something different and grabbing attention. His motto, If the bar ain't high, I'm your guy, captures how he brings humor and entertainment to fly fishing. He joins Tom Rowland to talk about creating content that breaks the mold.
Lawrence Gunther: How North America's Only Blind Competitive Angler Fishes by Feel
Lawrence Gunther is North America's only totally blind competitive angler, an outdoor writer, filmmaker, and founder of the conservation charity Blue Fish Canada. He joins Tom Rowland to explain how he fishes entirely by feel, how he turned small sponsor donations into full contracts, and how he has fished more than 100 tournaments with over 20 top-10 finishes.
Ashley Saunders - The Dolphin House of Bimini, Bahamas
Sitting inside the Dolphin House in Bimini, I talk with Bahamian historian, poet, and self-taught artist Ashley Saunders about the 26-year monument he built by hand from recycled materials, his family's deep roots across the Bahamas and Key West, and growing up around Ernest Hemingway.
EagleEye Fred: Fishing and Life in Bimini, Bahamas
EagleEye Fred joins Tom Rowland to talk about fishing and life in Bimini, the Bahamian island closest to the Florida coast and a legendary jumping-off point for big-game and flats anglers. The two trade stories about the water, the culture, and what makes Bimini such a special place to fish.
Captain Bouncer Smith: The Art of Giving Back
Captain Bouncer Smith has committed his life to sharing fishing with others through articles, radio shows, seminars, and decades of trips aboard his boat, Dusky 33. He joins Tom Rowland to share stories of introducing kids and adults to the excitement of fishing, from catching bait to landing monster tarpon and marlin.
Bouncer Smith | The Art of Giving Back | Tom Rowland Podcast Ep. 101
Capt. Bouncer Smith is a legendary South Florida sport fishing captain with more than fifty years guiding out of Miami Beach. A returning guest and master storyteller, Bouncer joins Tom dockside at dawn to talk about a lifetime on the water and the art of giving back, taking kids fishing, buying a young angler her first rod and reel, and passing the sport forward.
David Mangum - The Mad Scientist of Tarpon Fishing
David Mangum, the Florida Panhandle guide many call the mad scientist of tarpon fishing, joins me to talk about the analytical obsession behind chasing tarpon, leaving art school to chase the guide life, and what the Mexico Beach area looked like after Hurricane Michael.
Jeff Maggio, the Lunkerdog: Miami Tarpon, Early YouTube, and a Life on the Water
Captain Jeff Maggio, the Lunkerdog, joins Tom Rowland to talk about a life on the water. Jeff guides for tarpon on the Miami River and was one of the earliest adopters of online fishing media. He shares why the Miami to Fort Lauderdale stretch holds tarpon year-round, why no one has tarpon figured out after four decades, how he grew up inside South Florida's tight fishing community, and how he became an early YouTube pioneer uploading clips over dial-up long before social media existed.
Hunt Jennings: Keeping Cool While Plummeting Over 100-Foot Waterfalls in a Kayak
Professional kayaker Hunt Jennings joins Tom Rowland to talk about running extreme waterfalls over 100 feet. Hunt shares what goes through his mind before dropping over a 70 to 80 foot waterfall that lands against a rock shelf, the extensive safety planning these runs require, and the mental framework he uses to stay calm and decide whether he is doing something for the right reason. Recorded the week Tom took his son to college, it is a conversation about composure and high-stakes decisions.
Miles Burghoff: Making the FLW Tour, the MLF Shake-Up, and the California Fires
FLW Tour pro and Sweetwater host Miles Burghoff joins Tom Rowland during a breakout year. Miles explains how he performed at Sam Rayburn with no local knowledge, breaks down the differences between FLW, B.A.S.S., and the rising Major League Fishing, and shares how he doubled his sponsorship by learning what companies need. He also talks about his deep connection to Paradise, California, the town hit hardest by the devastating 2018 Camp Fire.
Jessica "Dixie" Mills: Triple Crown Thru-Hiking the AT, PCT, and CDT
Jessica "Dixie" Mills of Homemade Wanderlust joins Tom to tell how a biosystems engineer who had never spent a single night backpacking quit her job, cashed in her retirement, and walked nearly 8,000 miles to complete the Triple Crown of long-distance hiking: the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. She walks Tom through finishing a snowy, icy Katahdin after six and a half months on the AT, swimming raging snowmelt rivers in a 200% snow year in the Sierra Nevada, hiking alone as a woman, where the trail name Dixie came from, and why she believes it is never too soon to quit making excuses and chase the thing you actually want to do.