One of the top questions I get asked is “Don’t you ever get tired of fishing?” My answer is always the same: “Nope. I wake up every morning mad as heck at the fish.”
Like a dog going after its tail, I never get tired of the chase and love every minute of it. When I was an executive in the corporate world and unhappy being an inside cat wearing a suit, I would dream of being a full-time fishing guide. The Fortune 500 company I worked at for almost 20 years gave me a large expense account to entertain important clients and my management team. While other executives around the country spent their entertainment budget on golf outings, dinners and parties, I spent every penny of my entertainment budget on fishing trips, hiring the best guides in Florida to take my people and me fishing.
To me, fishing was not only the best way to get to know people – since you are stuck on a boat with them for eight or 10 hours – it was also a chance for me to learn different skills and techniques from each guide. I would always ask the guides, “What does it take to be a full-time fishing guide?” I’d normally get discouraging answers, such as, “The best way to make a small fortune guiding is to start out with a large fortune,” or “get used to living in a trailer” or “you’d get tired quickly of doing it every day.”
My grandpa, captain John Scudder, was a charter captain in Flamingo and the Florida Keys for over 40 years and ran the same boat, the Flamingo Belle, for all those years. Yes, he lived in a trailer and had a simple life, yet I realized from a young age he seemed to be the happiest person in our family. From the time I was a kid, I dreamed of being a full-time guide like Grandpa John.
After being burned out in the corporate world from decreasing pay and increasing responsibility, one day I decided to “play hooky” from work and go out fishing. After that day, I never went back to the office, stayed out fishing and haven’t looked back.
Now I’ve been a full-time guide fishing professionally for more than 20 years and have loved every minute of it. It hasn’t always been cherries and cream – I’ve had to overcome many obstacles to stay in business. I had to overcome red tide, toxic spills, oil spills, bad economies, record cold snaps, hurricanes, sunken boats, engine failures, personal injuries, a global pandemic, fish closures and restrictions, family tragedy and many others. As in any business, you have to adapt and overcome your obstacles.
When people ask me what it takes to be a full time guide, my answer is usually pretty long and complicated. For the purpose of this article, I’ll shorten and simplify: Being a successful full-time charter captain is like a four-legged stool. If one of the legs breaks, the stool falls down. Each leg on the stool is as important as the others, and all legs must be equally strong.
Leg #1: You must deeply love to fish and be able to catch fish every day, no matter what obstacles face you.
Leg #2: You must have good equipment – rods and reels, tackle, your boat and engine, safety equipment and more. It doesn’t have to be the absolute best, but it has to be good.
Leg #3: You must have an outgoing, patient personality and be able to entertain your clientele.
Leg #4: You must be able to market. In today’s environment, you can’t build a business by just shaking hands and holding babies. You must be savvy on the internet and market your business in many different ways. I subscribe to the strategic method known as SWOT: constantly identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Being a full-time fishing guide is a very rewarding profession, but if you don’t have the four-legged stool, choose another profession.
To book a charter with Ana Banana, call or text Capt. Joel at 813-267-4401 or Capt. Jojo at 305-879-0564, or visit anabananafishing.com.
