April 16, 2025 • 62 mins
Captain Bob Cook, star of National Geographic's Wicked Tuna, takes us on an extraordinary journey from his childhood fishing trips to becoming one of the Northeast's premier bluefin tuna experts. With heartfelt authenticity, Bob shares how his passion was sparked at age 11 when he boldly approached a lobster boat captain and asked to come aboard – a moment that would shape his entire future.
The conversation reveals Bob's fascinating path to television stardom, including how he was initially rejected for being "too professional" before eventually joining the cast in Season 9. Bob pulls back the curtain on reality TV, describing how producers initially tried to manufacture drama before embracing the natural tension that emerges when competitive fishermen chase the same prize.
Most powerfully, Bob shares a deeply moving story about taking veterans fishing and how one wounded warrior compared the sound of Bob's boat engine to a Blackhawk helicopter mission. This profound connection demonstrates the therapeutic potential of outdoor experiences for those who've served our country – inspiring Bob's commitment to donate annual trips to veterans.
Whether you're fascinated by maritime adventures, curious about reality television's inner workings, or interested in how outdoor experiences can support veterans' wellbeing, this conversation with Captain Bob Cook delivers authentic insights from someone who's truly mastered his craft. As Bob says about fishing bluefin tuna: "I love it more now than I ever have."
Produced by Phil Ewert Productions
Theme Music: Hero's Journey
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Licensed by: Phil Ewert Productions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement
was born.
Welcome to Hometown HeroOutdoors.
We are dedicated to honoringour military service members,
veterans and first responders byproviding them with
unforgettable outdoorrecreational opportunities.
We believe those who haveserved and sacrificed so much
(00:24):
for our country and communitiesdeserve a chance to reclaim
their spirit and find healing inthe great outdoors.
This is Hometown Hero Outdoors.
Welcome to the Hometown HeroOutdoors.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Podcast.
Here is your host, Chris Tatro.
Hello everyone and welcome backto the Hometown Hero Outdoors
podcast.
Today we have Bob Cook on fromWicked Tuna.
Thank you for being here, Bob.
We appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh man, I'm so appreciative to be a part of
this.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So, yeah, no, I know, let's chat yeah, you're a busy
man.
Let me, uh, just give thelisteners a quick rundown.
I have a bio here for you.
Uh, bob cook's a highly skilledfisherman and a fan favorite
captain from the popular realitytv show wicked tuna, known for
his deep knowledge of fishing,competitive spirit and genuine
passion for the sea.
Bob captain's fat tuna on theshow hailing from I can never
(01:47):
pronounce this correctly.
Help me out.
What's the city called?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
uh, so it's beverly.
I I hail from beverly, I livein essex, but, but gloucester is
probably the word that you'retrying to say gloucester yeah I
did that with dave too.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I was just I can't I my enunciation is horrible.
So he spent.
Bob spent most of his lifemastering the art of tuna
fishing in the North Atlantic.
Bob's expertise and leadershipare evident as he navigates the
challenges of catching prizebluefin tuna, often facing tough
weather conditions and fiercecompetition from other captains.
His dedication, strategicapproach and camaraderie with
(02:24):
his crew make him a respectedfigure of working tuna and
within the broader fishingcommunity outside of the show.
Bob is deeply committed tosustainable fishing practices,
enjoys sharing his love of theocean with his family and fans
alike.
How was that for a bio?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
sound pretty accurate that sounds pretty accurate.
Yeah, absolutely uh thank youfor the fan favorite part, but
we're working on it so how didyou come about, uh, getting
involved with the show?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean that we'll talk about all your history and
everything too, but I'm verycurious how did you get involved
with wicked tuna?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
yeah, so, uh, wicked tuna has been around now for 13
seasons.
It's been a long time and, uh,I grew up fishing.
I grew up working on lobsterboats, working on gillnet boats,
then I started chartering about25 years ago for striped bass
and then, probably about 22years ago, I discovered bluefin
(03:17):
tuna and really, I mean, I wasalways out there amongst all
these a lot of these guys thatare on the show and they started
, like I said, 13 seasons agofilming and I was always out
there and they did kind of acasting call season two of the
(03:38):
show or something like that,season three and I said what the
heck these guys are, you know,making a paycheck doing this and
an added paycheck.
I said I want to be a part ofthis and so I kind of put my
name in and they interviewed usand at that point they were kind
of looking for characters onthe show more than people that
(03:59):
actually I'm just going to saythis actually catch fish.
Actually I'm just going to saythis actually catch fish.
So they had a bunch of peopleand they had some really good
ones and some not so good ones,and so they were looking for
others and they sort of saidlisten, you're a little too
clean cut, you're not really acharacter, you're a little bit
too professional.
We want some gritty guys andthis, that and the other thing.
(04:22):
And so, season three, I reallydidn't make the cut and I just
kind of forgot about it foryears.
And then, uh, you know, theykept saying, hey, we'd like you
to interview, like you tointerview.
And I just said, nah, I'm kindof happy doing what I'm doing.
And then season nine came around, and from boat to boat out
there you've got cameras on oneboat and you're always kind of
(04:43):
watching the boats around youfrom the boats that are filming
and they were just sort ofseeing us do our thing every day
Catch him, catch him, catch him.
And they said, listen, we aresending our production company
to Gloucester Mass and spendingall this money to get footage.
We're lacking footage, we'relacking catches, some of the
(05:03):
captains are not producing.
You know none of the captainsthat are still there, they all
produce.
But they said we need othercaptains, we need to get this
done, we're risking way too muchfinancially.
And so then they said listen,bob, we'd like to have you, you
don't have to interview nothing.
And you know season nine I camein I didn't really like the way
(05:26):
they went about it the usagainst them, the tourists, the
outsiders and all that stuff.
And I didn't realize they weregoing to do that until it aired,
to be quite honest, yeah.
And then, once it aired, I said, well, I did that.
I don't think I want to be apart of that again because, uh,
they tried a little too hard toproduce it and there's enough
drama that happens out therethat you don't have to contrive
(05:48):
it or produce it.
So they kind of went back totheir drawing board and said Bob
, we'd like to have you backseason 10.
I said, guys, I really don'twant to do it that way.
I just can you just show us howwe really are?
And they said we made a mistake.
We had a great show.
We tried too hard season nineto change it.
Would you come back season 10if we promise not to do that
(06:10):
again?
And I said we'll see.
And then I got back to him and Isaid, yeah, you know what?
I trust you, because they keptcalling and saying listen, we
won't do that again.
We'll keep it authentic fromhere on in.
We made a mistake, we didn'thave to do that.
And here we are, five seasonslater.
I'm still with it.
And they were true to theirword.
(06:32):
I mean, they let the organicdrama that happens every day out
there just happen unfold.
And it wasn't.
It's as contentious as it couldpossibly be, because we're in a
competition and we always wantto catch more than the next guy.
And again, like I said, that'sorganic fun, that's organic
(06:52):
competition and there's so muchstuff that happens day in and
day out.
They don't have to force it andI tell you, it took a real
turnaround there and we gained awhole lot of fans by letting it
be.
Just let it be, do its thing.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Show the real, you Show the real everyone.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure they've got to try and
keep everything a littleinteresting, so they try to kind
of make their own storylines inthere in between.
But, like you said, they don'tnecessarily need to do that
because there's enough thingsgoing on.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I totally agree, necessarily need to do that
because there's enough thingsgoing on.
I totally agree, they do haveto sort of to stay relevant.
They have to tweak it here andthere with new ideas and just
don't go overboard, and I kindof feel like that's what they
did yeah even nine, but they area great crew to work with.
I'll tell you, pilgrimproductions they're the ones who
film it and then they sell itto uh, nat geo and uh, they were
(07:45):
just awesome.
I made some of my best friends.
One of my best friends to thisday is my camera guy and I've
had him for five years and wejust, you know, we became good
buddies.
He's out there in San Diego.
My wife and I go out there andvisit him and it's cool man.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Is he too keepership when you go out that way?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, I actually go on the Dave and I go, marciano
and I go out there and we dofishing for Rallo Rallo's kids
out there.
So it's we do the long-rangeboats, so people kind of pay to
fish with us and we also do itas a kind of a competition
setting out there too.
We call it tuna wars and it'skind of, yeah, they, they pay to
be on the liberty, which is theboat I'm on, or the tomahawk,
which is the one that dave's on,and yeah, it's, it's long range
(08:36):
bluefin tuna fishing actuallyit's.
It's cool.
We go from the east coast tothe west coast to fish for the
same thing, but they're a lotsmaller out there, but it's cool
yeah, well, and for thelisteners too, if you're
actually watching the podcastright now on our youtube channel
.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Bob's actually on his boat, yeah talk about your boat
a bit, which is it's a gorgeousboat.
I know when, um, our newengland state director, uh,
david gray, told us that he wentout there and got to fish with
you and dave marciano and got totake a look at your boat and
said it's absolutely gorgeous,both boats.
So I want to talk about yourboat a bit, and how did you come
about acquiring such abeautiful masterpiece of the
(09:12):
water?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
oh, thank you so much for that.
I'll tell you it was a labor oflove and a lot of time, a lot
of money, a lot of stressbuilding it, but it took about
two and a half years to build.
I think I started the processin 2019, bought a hull, brought
the hull to a finisher up inMaine.
The hull's a 46 muscle ridge.
(09:35):
It's a down east boat andthat's the type of boats we run
around here for, mostly forstability and efficiency.
So it's got a single engine,single 900 horse Scania and,
yeah, I mean for years and years, you upgrade, you invest as the
business gets bigger, and bybusiness I mean the charter
(09:57):
business.
That's mostly how we that's ourincome really is chartering.
The Bluefin tuna sale iscertainly that's a big part of
it as well, but mostly it's ourchartering.
So I took all the ideas fromthe vessels I had and said, okay
, my dream is to have this, mydream is to have this here.
Lay it out this way.
(10:18):
I need this to be here to kindof, you know, lay it all out
perfectly.
What's up, david?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
How are you?
We had a late addition to ourpodcast yeah, david gray, our
new england, uh, our statedirector up there.
He's actually helping on theboard right now and he's just
getting home from work what's up?
Buddy.
He just jumped on, say hi,buddy how's it going?
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Good to see you again .
Speaker 2 (10:44):
You too.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Thanks for coming, man.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I was just talking about the building of the new
Fat Tuna.
So, yeah, you take ideas froman old build or an old boat and
again you sort of dream up aplan, you put it on paper and to
actually see it the end of theprocess and just know that
you've done everything exactlythe way you wanted and have no
(11:09):
regrets like, oh, I should havedone this, should have done that
, and the finished product isexactly what I wanted.
And every single day we do acharter.
Now, nobody's ever in my way.
That was a big part ofdesigning it the way we designed
it.
You know, people have placesthat they can sit out on the
back deck.
We have the live wells way backso people aren't close to
(11:30):
falling into them and they'vegot a little bit of a seating
area there back there.
So it's just all these things Iwished I had, I now have, and
it's just every single personthat comes for a charter now
wants to return the next year,whether we catch or not.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And that's, you know, hopefully because of our
professionalism, but mostly it'sbecause of this boat and, uh,
I'm glad, I really am so happywe did it no, a good, a good,
comfortable boat makes theexperience everything you know
oh god yeah you know I used touh, well, I still do I'll go up
to lake michigan and we'll,we'll hop on some boats to go
chase some salmon and if thatboat's tight and you got a lot
(12:09):
of people on there, it can bereally uncomfortable, real quick
, especially when you get alittle bit of weather.
And it definitely makes a hugedifference when you have some
space to spread out and can atleast respect each other's
distance a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
For sure, for sure.
Yeah, on the old boats I wouldplay tetris around bodies, you
know.
Oh, excuse me, pardon me, sorry, sorry, you know, put a piece
in here, take a piece out here,and it was just, it was too much
, I was so tired with our fishhouses.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Out here we do a lot of custom ice houses where we go
ice fishing and, uh, one thingI've noticed is, over time you
get a few of these differentfish houses and you're like I
wish it was like this, I wish itwas like this, and then you
keep buying new ones andupgrading and changing.
That eventually is build yourown, and then absolutely.
Absolutely.
You know what works and whatdoesn't.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I'm not going to lie to the reason I did it when I
did.
It was because we had someleverage from the show.
I could have never afforded tobuild a new boat without help
from sponsors.
You know companies want to puta sticker on the window in the
view of the camera.
It's great marketing for them.
Every charter we do, we talkabout all the products we have
(13:18):
on board.
You know Raymarine, gemlux, youknow Seahawk paints, fleur
cameras, things like that, stidhelm chairs, stuff like this.
I mean, whenever we bringcharters out, a lot of times
it's actual boat owners andpeople just want to learn the
way we do it and they want tokind of mimic sort of the way we
(13:38):
do it so they buy all the sameproducts.
So these companies aren't dumb.
They're going to say, well, hey, you're going to help us sell
this product, why don't we putit on your boat?
So I begged borrowed and stolewhen I was building this boat
and I'm happy I did because,again, I could never have
afforded it otherwise.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Nothing wrong with that, though.
I mean, if people want to helpget their name out there, you
might as well use it, if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, absolutely man name out there.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You might as well use it if you can.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
Going back to your, your youth,growing up, you said that you
did a lot of stuff with lobsterboats and getting out in the
water and doing differentdiverse types of angling.
Can you explain a little bitabout how you got into that?
Is it a family passion that yougot into with everyone else got
to share that with?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
it's funny, I just, I just went over this, uh, this
morning there's a guy doing awicked tuna book, uh, about the
captains.
His name is andrew joyce.
He's, he's a, uh, an authorfrom around here and, and I just
said this this morning, my andit's the first time I've talked
about it in years but my, um, mygrandfather, his name was
(14:42):
Sylvester White and, uh, when wewere younger, my God, five, six
, seven years old, I'm one ofseven, I'm the youngest of seven
kids, nice, and, uh, I, there'sfive girls, two boys, my
brother has down syndrome and,uh, my brother and I would go
and, uh, fish was still Gampy,we call them Gampy is was, he
(15:05):
was my granddad, and we wouldtake a row boat, we call them a
Dory You'd have to kind of lookup what a Dory is, d O R Y and
we take it out of Salem mass androw out, throw an anchor and
just ground fish when I was five, six, seven years old.
Well, and, we used to do that,my God, three, four days a week
(15:25):
and just forget about time, andit was all hand lines on this
little spool and it was justawesome.
And my mother, his Syl'sdaughter, gampy's daughter, was
the best fisherman on the boat.
She was incredible and I prettymuch learned a lot of skills
from my mom and really it wasthe tenacity more than anything.
(15:47):
Ma, we're not catching Twohours, three hours, just wait.
There's a tide coming, thebait's stacking up.
I can tell, I can see the watersurface, I can do this, and I
just know they're coming.
Just patience, that's whatfishing is all about.
I'll always remember that.
Uh, she was right man and shewas a badass.
(16:07):
And um, yeah, from there I usedto go down to the dock in
Beverly, right by where thelobster boats would depart every
morning, and I'd fish off thebridge right there really wasn't
that high of a bridge um,probably, I don't know 27 feet
off the water.
It never really opened.
It was a stationary bridge andI used to fish for mackerel
(16:32):
right there and watch them comeand go, the lobster boats.
And one day and I always said,I want to be on one of those
boats, I want to work on one ofthose boats Well, when I was 11,
my mother dropped me off to gomacro fishing off that bridge
and I walked, I she watched metoo.
When she was leaving she stopped.
I didn't realize.
I walked right down the dockwhere the lobster boats were
(16:55):
departing and there was one guythat was late to leave.
It was probably eight in themorning, they leave at five, six
.
Well, his back man was late.
His back man's, his helper, hisfirst mate, I guess.
His name was Jay Fenniff andhis name was the captain's name,
was Lyle Smith.
He's still to this day, is likea second father to me.
(17:15):
But I said, hey, can I come outwith you?
He kind of looks at me like no,I can't, you can't come out.
What are you talking about?
And he said I'd really have toask your parents.
I said, well, I just saw my momstop the car right up here.
You could go ask her.
He's like all right.
So he goes up and he asks mymom and she goes yes, all right,
(17:36):
if you're okay with spendingthe day with this kid, go ahead,
take him.
And from there and from there,it's just that's where that
passion just all started, rightthere, because I used to band
lobsters.
You know lobsters here in theNorth Atlantic.
They've got a crusher and ashredder claw and you've got to.
As soon as they come on theboat, you put bands on them and
(17:59):
then you put them in the tankand that was my job is banding
the lobsters all day long.
And geez, from there it's just.
I started to around 13, 14, 15,be the first mate, and then
inshore lobstering becameoffshore lobstering where we go
out for 11 days at a time.
That was insane.
(18:19):
It was the hardest work I everdid.
The only thing I could evercompare that to is kind of
deadliest catch type stuffwithout the weather, right,
nothing like that.
But the work, the work waspretty much the same.
It was incredibly hard 18, 19,20 hours on deck, like I said,
180 miles out, 11 days.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So some long days that was crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That was crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
But anyways, like I'm sorry I'm over talking, but
that's kind of the history ofyeah this is what we're here for
, right?
Everyone's learning who you are.
Yep, no, that's fantastic,that's crazy.
So lobster I know Dave and Iwere just talking about this on
the last show was theavailability of up there.
You know, and I think last timewe're talking about that at
(19:05):
sometimes the uh, the price ofbeef is more expensive here than
it is for lobster, enough whereyou're at, which is pretty cool
.
So now that you're on thelobster boats and you're engaged
in all of this activity andharvesting, were you able to
bring some of those back andhelp feed that large family a
little bit every now and then?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I gotta be honest, yes, I was, and I never liked
lobster and it was like maybehalf of the kids in the family.
Mostly that was the groundfishing that we did in the
harbor that fed the family.
That was, yeah, that washaddock.
That was, um, actually mymother used to take skate wings,
which is really it's a trashfish, and flounder and pollock.
(19:47):
And there was there was a fewof the kids in the family two of
my sisters, as a matter of factwho did not like fish, so she
breaded up, put it in the ovenand say it was chicken to them.
Oh wow, and they were fooled byit completely.
Wow, this is the best chicken Iever had.
Ma meanwhile it was flounder,you know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
so it's just yeah, sounds like what I do to my wife
with venison meat.
She hates venison, so that's myfavorite.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I know we'll put it in every now and then.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I know it's so good.
I don't know.
There's something in her youthwhen she was young where I get
it probably had some bad venisonthat was made by a family
member that just didn't go right, but who knows.
But you know that's.
That's pretty hilarious, thoughI mean.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, I mean it worked right it worked, it
worked, yeah, yeah so when youguys got to go fishing with some
hho members.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, one of the things that we talked about was,
you know, our members and theirservice and the appreciation
that you guys have had for thosewho have served, what got you
into taking some of our ourmilitary service members and
first responders on the water.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, for me it really began sort of the passion
for doing this.
Um, I think it was season 10.
We did it, uh, the woundedwarriors project with, uh, with
Nat Geo, with Pilgrim, we did anepisode and, um, I just really
enjoyed it.
I was, um man, we were steamingout at night um being filmed,
(21:16):
uh, the whole time, and you knowthe old boat had a couch behind
me and that's the boat that itwas filmed on on and, uh, this
was kind of I we were, I washeaded from point a to point b,
right, so gloucester to.
At that point I think we weregoing to stellwagen bank, um,
and we were headed out there toharvest, right, we're out there
(21:38):
filming.
And the the warrior, his namewas tim aponte.
He was sitting right behind mehere and they put a warrior with
everybody to, with actuallyfive out of the eight captains.
I was lucky to be one of thefive that they filmed that day,
or actually it was three daysand he was sitting there and he
kind of I could see sweatpouring down his face.
(22:00):
You know, I kind of look back.
It's Timmy, all right, yougetting seasick.
He said Bob, you know he was,he was shaken and he says, bob,
uh, this is so much like amission you don't even know,
because my screens were all redhere so that I had night sort of
vision on.
We were going out in the dark.
He said, bob, it's like I'm ona Blackhawk right now.
(22:23):
It's exactly the hum, it's theengine.
And to this day, right now, myhair is standing up on end
because when he explained thatall to me and I sort of got a
feel of it all and he said, bob,we're going out on a mission
now.
The mission is to harvest thebluefin tuna.
We've got the hum of the engine, it's a blackhawk, it's this,
(22:44):
it's that.
And I was just, I was glued towhat he was saying.
I said you know what I'm doing,this and I want to be a part of
this in any way, shape or form.
I can be every single year.
We donate two trips a year andthey have to be veterans, it has
to be, and we all always getapproached to donate trips.
(23:08):
You know, for certain raffleshere and there, but really they
don't have the same impact and Idon't really feel like I'm
giving back to.
I mean, you guys.
You guys are all selfless,you're incredible human beings
and for us to just give backthat little bit.
It's the very least we could do, and I'm so happy to be a part
(23:29):
of it.
I'm honored really.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know.
That's very interesting thatyou bring that up, because I
wouldn't have thought about thatuntil you mentioned that you
know just the feel or the vibeof you guys getting up early,
being out there or going outlate, whatever it may be early
being out there or going outlate, whatever it may be, but
really all of the dynamicsrevolving around you guys
getting out preparing to do thatharvest man.
That's an interestingcorrelation.
(23:52):
I never thought about that itwas unbelievable, really.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And, um, I don't quite know how to say this, but,
um, I'm just going to come outand say it.
I mean, I know that there's somany things involved, right,
there's PTSD, there's mental,there's lot of times because I
knew, you know, certain thingswould affect him.
(24:26):
And finally he just grabbed meand said, bob, can you please
just do things the way younormally do them?
I may be affected.
I may, you know, I may run outof the way sometimes, here and
there, but allow me to do this.
And this was all just alearning process for me how to,
how to handle it all.
And by the end of it again,we've, we've just become real
(24:49):
good buddies.
I haven't talked to him in awhile, but I I gotta reach out
to him.
But uh, it was.
It was a learning experience,and one that was that I'm so
grateful for.
I really am.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
No, and thank you for doing that.
That's fantastic.
You know, I think people have alot of valuable resources that
you are individually good at andthe things that you do and
enjoy, and you can share thatwith others and definitely is a
part of the impact on thehealing process for people who
have served.
You know, one of the things theorganization I tell everyone
(25:23):
you don't have to be an expertat anything you do, you just got
to be able to share thatinformation with others, be able
to help them have the resourcesthat are available to them and
share maybe some knowledge withthem, because a lot of it's
creating new healthy habits andthat's what we need.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
So well put.
Thank you for putting that thatway, because that's that's
perfect yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It's the new healthy habits.
You know, david, you know youmade the connection with uh,
jake and uh got to take somepeople out and whatnot.
So do you want to talk a littlebit about what that looked like
and the trip did?
And I know we're on half anhour here, dave, and I don't
know how much time.
I'm sorry, bob, how much timedo we have left for it with you?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Oh God, no problem, man, you have half hour hour.
However long it takes, man.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Sure, sure.
I just want to make sure thatwe're respectful of your time
and being here.
So, David, want to talk aboutthe connection that you made and
being able to go out on thistrip with them.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I want to actually touch back on something
that Bob was saying about whenthey were steaming out and stuff
.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople don't realize they think
of PTSD.
You know, watch out forfireworks during 4th of July and
all these other things.
But, bob, you got to experiencethe fact that PTSD has many
(26:38):
different faces and differenttriggers and you probably would
have never thought, and a lot ofpeople wouldn't think, just
going out on a fishing trip, thesound and the lights and of the
of the, of your like dashboardtype situation, could cause that
, and that's what a lot ofpeople don't understand.
You think that it has to be ina situation that you know loud
(27:01):
noises or whatnot, and itdoesn't always have to be that
way.
It can be very subtle things incertain situations that can
cause memories to come up insomeone and if you haven't
experienced it, you kind of stepback and go.
Well, I'm not making aconnection and I'm glad that
happened because I'm assumingthat you know it made you more
aware of how the little thingsin life can affect certain
(27:22):
people that have been in certainsituations.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
No doubt about it.
Yep, again, as I explained, itwas such a learning process and,
man, it puts a lump in mythroat, but it just the way you
guys explain it is just so muchmore precise than the way I
(27:45):
could put it into words.
Precise, and the way I couldput it into words Um, yeah, uh,
so, in order, you know to, to beable to do that with you guys,
uh, I, I am all in every singleyear, until the day I die.
So I love it.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
So it was a great trip that we had.
The weather could have been alittle, a little bit better.
Um insane if you've ever gotout fishing, you know, out in
the salt water, um, you've gotto be prepared for just about
everything um and once you get agood thing, it wasn't cold out,
that's right.
So the guys that get to get wet,at least you weren't cold.
(28:23):
Um, waves are a little bit um,but again you just had to anchor
yourself in the corner of theboat and hold on.
But no, it was a very, verygood time.
And a lot of people don't, Ithink, don't realize how far in
New England you think aboutgoing out fishing with a charter
.
You're thinking we're going todo.
(28:44):
You know, a half an hour driveout You're going out.
We go to jeffrey's ledge.
Is that where we were?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
uh, we're actually.
Uh, before style wagon, we wereat tilly's.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Uh, we were right right in in and around tilly's
so people don't realize how faryou've got to go out to get some
of these fish and you know thetime period that you have to sit
there and you know talk topeople and relax before you get
into the action and stuff likethat.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But yeah, it's, it's a ride out there voted best
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They provide commercial,industrial and residential
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(29:33):
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(29:56):
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Licensed police officers withthe MPPOA membership have access
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(30:18):
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Speaker 3 (30:56):
It's a program.
Yeah, I'll tell you, you reallygot to kind of sharpen your
communication skills and we tryreally hard to make sure that
it's all about safety and youknow, we tell all the guests
just where all the equipment is,and then there's the normal
sort of questions about the showand questions about this, that
(31:17):
and the other things.
So you know, I had a reallygood charter captain, probably
about 25 years ago, say to me.
He said, bob, being a chartercaptain is about two things.
That is about being a chartercaptain is about two things.
Um, that is about being a goodhuman being and catching fish.
And he said the good humanbeing is about 90% of it, 10% is
(31:40):
catching fish.
And so, yeah, and and that'salways stuck with me and um,
yeah, it it's.
There's so much more to it.
As far as personality, you'vegot to.
You've got to be right on andgive them a good experience and
make them feel at home all daylong.
So when you have weather likethat, like you guys had, the
(32:00):
weather kind of takes over andyou just got to, you just got to
make sure that people are ascomfortable as they can possibly
be and you got to try to getthe job done and get the heck
home safely, and that's what wedid that day, yeah I remember
seeing videos of you out there,though.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You were laughing, smiling, having a good time.
Everyone was chatting relaxingyeah, I know people weren't
feeling the best when it came towanting to throw up over the
edge a little bit, but you'remaking the best out of it and
having a good time.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
They were, uh, they were troopers.
Man, they were yeah, they, theydidn't mind one bit.
I don't even remember if we hadany pukers on our boat.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Oh, that's good then.
Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It only happens every trip.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Well, people don't realize how much you know.
If you're a flatlander in themiddle of nowhere, like me, you
know how much that water motioncan affect them.
And one of the things that I'vebeen telling a lot of people
who go plan to do big waterstuff is now you're taking that
drama mean prepare for the daysbefore, just not the day of
start taking that days before,because it doesn't absolutely
right.
(33:06):
Yeah, yeah no, it's very cool.
I do have a couple questionsfor you.
So you remember going back toyour very first bluefin tuna,
what that felt like.
Was that like just a completeincredible rush or like what?
Was it intentional, was itunintentional?
Just curious with that memoryyeah.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
So the memory is this I I was on a striped bass
charter.
I had clients on board and thisis probably let me see 2024,
probably 99.
All growing up I saw peoplecome into the marinas with
bluefin tuna.
I had no idea where the heckthey were getting those bluefin
(33:48):
tuna and I always wanted to know.
But I was always working onlobster boats and we really
weren't doing all that much rodand reel stuff.
But when I started guidingwhich was, like I said, in and
around 99 for striped bass,there's an area of islands
outside of Beverly, there'sInner Harbor, beverly, salem,
(34:09):
marblehead, then there's an areaof islands outside of Beverly,
there's Inner Harbor, beverly,Salem, marblehead, and then
there's islands.
So there's Misery Island,there's Baker's Island and we
were fishing the 180 line, whichis 180 feet of water, deep
water, which we didn't normallydo for striped bass.
We always fished inside amongstthe rocks.
We were outside of the islandsand I kept seeing these vertical
(34:30):
splashes off in the distance,probably three miles away.
We had tons of visibility thatday and I kept looking.
I kept saying that looks legitLike somebody is dropping stuff
out of a plane and these bigvertical splashes.
And I said guys, I asked myclients.
I said do you want to go outthere and see what that is?
We got to see what that is.
And I said, guys, I asked myclients.
I said do you want to go outthere and see what that is?
(34:50):
We got to see what that is.
They said, yeah, yeah, yeah,let's do that.
Now.
I had mackerel in the live.
Well, we were catching stripedbass with that and I was only
using 30, 40, 50 pound test line.
I go out there and I start tosee it, and I start to see these
things, their whole body, comeout of the water and I said, oh
(35:11):
my god, what is that?
I've only ever heard about?
This is could this possibly bebluefin tuna?
And it was.
I throw out a bait.
I said, guys, this will be aboutthree seconds of fun if we I
couldn't even get the words outof my mouth just just takes it
out of my hands.
And this is on, I don't know a4,500 bait runner, shimano, uh,
(35:36):
which, again, like I said, 30pound test.
So, and so I, I loosened up thedrag, cause I knew it would
just pop if I didn't.
And uh, so we fought that thingfor about 10 or 12 minutes
Right, and ever since that day Ihad to go.
Of course we didn't land itRight.
So then we hooked up about fivemore times, didn't land them,
(35:58):
and then it was my goal to landone of these fish out there, and
I didn't see him again for therest of the freaking year.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Oh yeah, so we're going out there.
I'm like my charter is, yeah,that the striped bass are in the
deep waters outside here,outside here, whether they were
or not.
So I was going out there andtrying to find these things and,
uh, it wasn't until 2000, thenext year, where I I took the
boat out to the northwest cornerof Stellwagen and I ended up
(36:31):
landing like a 60, 65 inchbluefin tuna, which I don't know
.
130 pounds, 140 pounds, and butreally the funny thing is, with
bluefin tuna you only everremember like you only ever
remember the losses.
It's like a gambler's mentalityyou celebrate when you get one
(36:57):
on deck, but then all you canthink about is that next one,
that next one, that next one man, and then, 60-incher is you
want 100-incher, 100-incher, youwant 120-incher.
But the most memorable part ofbluefin tuna fishing for me is
the chase, and it was that chasethat every day I got to get one
of these things.
I got to get one of thesethings and I just had a charter.
I had one last week when wewere supposed to be on here, but
(37:19):
my last one was Sunday and theguys asked me.
They said do you still lovethis?
And I said, guys, it's thistime of year when you really
realize just how much you loveit and how much you love the
chase, because you're not doinga whole lot of fishing this time
of year.
This is the end of our season.
So and I looked at him, I said,guys, I love it more now than I
(37:41):
ever have, and it is.
It's that chase, and I, just I,I couldn't love it more.
So once I discovered bluefintuna, that was the only fish in
the ocean that really existed.
For me, that was it, that wasit, that's all I ever want to
catch it's nuts.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
So what's the biggest that you have taken in?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
920 pounds.
I can't even believe it.
I've probably caught a thousandof these things and sold a
thousand.
I've never caught a granderever.
I've never caught one over athousand pounds.
Every other person I know thatis in this game has caught a
thousand pounder.
I haven't.
It just pisses me off, but 920.
You said though 920, 920 thatwas 126 inches, and he was
(38:27):
skinny, skinny, skinny reallyand everybody says well, how
long did that take to land?
That thing was 40 minutes, itwas nothing, it was easy.
Sometimes when they're big, big, big like that, they get real
lazy and he's come right to theboat.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It wasn't hard at all you know you said 40 minutes.
You know that's crazy becauseyou know us from the midwest.
That is not something that youhear about.
How long would take you to landthat fish?
40 minutes, well, what was itnot here?
That does not happen here.
So what is a normal like lengthto reel one of those intake?
Usually I said 40 minutes isnot that bad.
So what's a?
(39:01):
What is the average?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
that's the average, if you're with a crew that knows
what they're doing, it's 30minutes to an hour.
So we bring charters out thereand our coaching kind of, and
the fact that we use the boatquite a bit, um, to kind of
chase after that fish in reverseand gain line back, and then
our coaching kind of what to do,assist the line onto the reel
(39:24):
and things like that.
But without kind of coachingand without I guess you would
call us the experts kind ofwatching a fight I've heard a
ton of them this year it couldbe three to five hours If you
don't run that drag at the rightsetting, if you're not using
the boat, if you're not doingall the things kind of required
(39:45):
to, I guess, lessen the timethat it takes to get that fish
in our.
Our longest fight we ever hadwas five and a half hours.
We lost that fish oh no that's.
That was terrible.
Again it's it's only ever theones that you lose that, like I
can't remember the ones that welanded this year, but I can
(40:06):
remember the ones we lostabsolutely yeah so go ahead
david.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
So so a fish like that you know 120 inch fish how
old does it take to get a fishthat big?
How did you say how old?
Yeah, how old is a fish likethat?
Speaker 3 (40:21):
you know, I had a chart that I always refer to.
I'm gonna I'm gonna guess thatthat one's about 23 years old
and I could be four or fiveyears off, but it's in and
around there.
It's in and around there.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Your size is what?
60, 65?
Is that what it is forcommercial?
Speaker 3 (40:40):
73.
73 and above Yep, yep.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
A fish like that is 10, 15 plus years old.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Around that?
Yep, I'd say eight to 12 yearsold, I think so.
Yeah, I'm going to have torefer to my chart.
I'm terrible at this type ofstuff but I've got a chart.
When clients ask that I pull upand I'm like, well, here it is.
I'm just terrible at kind ofknowing, but I can give you a
sort of ballpark.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
So you see on a show a lot of times you guys are out
there looking for whales becauseyou know with whales there's
more food and everything elseyou ever accidentally whale,
ever hook on hook up only ever.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yes, um, and that happens probably once every
couple of years, and that's onlywhen they're meandering through
the same bait that the tuna arefishing on.
In.
Uh, we've got two floaters outthere lines and they'll just
meander through and kind of goon their side and a peck, you
know, on on the humpback whale,let's say, or a minke or
something like that may catchthe line and that's it, but they
(41:41):
never actually eat a bait.
They never do that.
They'll never, ever do that.
It's very, very seldom thatwe'll even get like they're too
smart.
Um, whales are too smart, andum, and, and so are dolphins as
well.
I've I've I've hooked onedolphin in my whole entire
fishing career and, um, for somereason he bit the bait, but it
(42:04):
was dusk, uh, it was low light.
He just made a bad mistake andI brought, I brought that
dolphin all the way to the boat.
You should have seen it.
All of his family, I guess youwould call it came in.
The whole school came in andtried to save him.
There was sort of came all theway to the boat and there was
(42:24):
sort of jumping inside the linetrying to unhook him and they
couldn't do it and they wereright there by the side of the
boat.
It's just amazing how they sticktogether and sort of protect
each other.
That's the only time I reallysaw just how they get and I
loved seeing it.
That's a true family rightthere.
But I was able to get the hookright out of him real quick.
(42:45):
But no, with whales.
If it happens it's by mistakeand it's it's on their tail or
their peck or something likethat wow, that's incredible
chris, you have a question, yeah, keep go keep going when the
show started and as it wentalong.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Um, how did that affect?
You know the gloucester areaand you know all that.
Did it bring a lot more peopleinto the area?
Um, have a positive impact, ormaybe it could have been
opposite.
Maybe it was a negative impactto the community.
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (43:16):
well, I'm gonna say, by and large, for business, it
was extremely good and itcontinues to be really good to
this day.
We have there's probably fanshanging right over right there
right now, kind of waiting forme to be done, but a ton of
tourists come into town andtheir sole mission is to look
(43:37):
and see where the Andrea Galewas, perfect Storm and Wicatuna,
and it has had a very positiveimpact on the area.
We were able to kind ofshowcase Gloucester in all its
glory.
Gloucester is incredibleAmerica's oldest seaport and I
(43:58):
will say the negative impact isthat we've created a lot of
fishermen.
We've created a lot of bluefintuna fishermen.
They think they can come hereand get rich.
And I'm going to let you in on alittle secret here that $18,
$20 a pound that you see on TV,by the time it gets to us it's a
lot less.
There's a lot that comes out ofthat $18, $20 a pound.
(44:22):
So by the time it gets to usit's more like $8, $10.
You're talking about a brokerfee, a box fee, an ice fee, a
broker fee in Japan, a flightfee that we have to pay for the
11% commission that a brokerhere would take.
We're not making a ton of money.
But I guess that the show kindof glorifies it a little bit.
(44:45):
But we're just trying to kindof entertain people with this.
So the negative effect has beenour fellow fishermen.
A lot of times they say geez,you know, you guys are putting
the spotlight on this, you'recreating a lot of fishermen,
you're bringing a lot offishermen into the fleet.
And it's actually only somewhattrue the fact that bluefin tuna
(45:08):
fishing has become sosustainable and that's because
of all the restrictions andregulations.
I've never seen more bluefintuna in my 25 years of chasing
these things.
The stock is so healthy andpretty much anyone can go out
there and hook up to one ofthese things.
Whether they can land it or notis another story, but I mean we
(45:31):
get blamed for a lot, butreally it's because the fishing
is so good.
And social media is really thebiggest part of putting the
spotlight on the industry andteaching people how to go out
there and fish.
We're pretty vague on the show.
It's sort of you see the linesgo in the water.
You see us hook up.
You see us there and fish.
We're pretty vague on the show.
It's sort of you see the linesgo in the water.
You see us hook up, you see uscatch a fish.
(45:52):
There's so much more that goesinto that, but social media has
taken that and said A, b, c, d,e, f, g, this is how you catch a
bluefin tuna.
People have been able to dothat go out there and apply it
and actually catch fish.
But they could have never donethat unless we were as good as
we are with protecting thisspecies that we love.
(46:15):
And we're at the point now wherewe can only fish three days a
week.
We can only harvest three daysa week.
Monday, wednesday and Thursdayis the only time we can sell
fish now, and it only one fish aday.
So at the very best we can onlyharvest three fish a week.
So I know I'm going way offsubject, but there is, yeah, but
(46:38):
there's.
There's all these things thatcome into play.
So, by and large, 70 of whatwe've done on film has really
put a positive spotlight on thearea and injected a whole lot of
income to local businesses,which we're very proud of.
The other 30% there's nothingmuch we can do about it.
(46:59):
We'll always be blamed forsomething or other and I guess
we just got to take the abuseyou know from fellow fishermen
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
All of those.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
All of those guys would want to do what we're
doing, though, whether they saythey would or wouldn't, they all
want to be on the show.
I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Well, to your point.
You know the amount of workthat goes in behind the scenes.
It's not just an over the nighttype of success and
understanding of all this stuff.
You look at any major outdoorsperson you knowy titus, melissa
bachman, any of the meat eaterpeople you know they're putting
in the work in the back end tofigure out, yeah, the.
You know how these animals moveum, how to harvest them, you
(47:44):
know and and the countless hoursof pursuing that you'll never
see on tv.
And's just, you can't justfigure it out overnight.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That's right and they can see all that they want on
TV.
But to take it out there andapply it, that's another thing
altogether and one of thenegative impacts.
It's been incredibly positivefor our charter businesses.
Excuse me, but one of thenegatives is people see it on TV
and they think we're going tocatch every day and to your
(48:14):
point, the work that goes in,the hours that we don't get
bites.
They never really show that onTV.
It's like catch fish, catchfish, catch fish.
And when you take a trotter outthere like, well, why haven't
we got bit yet?
It's like, oh, now you're goingto explain that away.
I'm an aquarium.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah, it's like oh man, now you're going to explain
that away.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
I'm not in the aquarium.
Yep yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Well, and to the other part that you're speaking
about too, when you do bring inthe fish and they do get weighed
and there is a payout and youhave all the fees.
But also people also don'tthink about the amount of money
that goes into your maintenanceand everything that you do with
your equipment.
You know your fuel.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
You know, especially with fuel costs being higher,
that stuff really contributes tothe amount of overhead that it
comes to what you're doing.
I have a 46 foot boat and, um,I have to make every single year
51 000 before I make a dime.
It costs me about 51 grand ayear to run this boat.
It's insane, absolutely insane.
Yeah, and as we all know,that's not going down, that's
only going up.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
So yeah right, no, it's.
You think about thatperspective wise, you know.
I mean, obviously you do somecharters and other stuff, but
how many fish, you know, wouldthat really be over time, you
know, especially when youstarted taking off the fees?
I mean, that adds up fast, youcan't you can't.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
You can't do it just harvesting bluefin anymore.
You have to do the charters,you have to do other fisheries.
Yeah, yeah, you have to.
And um, yeah, that's, that'sone thing that we really didn't
showcase on the show.
Uh, too, too much and kind ofwish they did.
You know, uh, this is what theydo as well.
They run charters.
We do this, we run fish markets, we run pizza joints, it's.
(49:57):
We live in the Northeast.
This here is probably thesecond most expensive state to
live in in the country, probablyMassachusetts, new York,
california.
I don't know what order they'rein, but I mean the mean home
price now around here is around$900,000.
I don't know what order they'rein, but I mean the mean home
price now around here is around$900,000.
It's insane.
(50:17):
So we can't.
We have to have so many sidehustles now and it's.
It's a shame, because all wewant to do is go out there and
catch, harvest, sell, you know,make our sole source of income
on bluefin tuna, but we reallycan't anymore.
But we're so happy to bringpeople out, so and and run
(50:38):
charters for bluefin so thatthey can go out there and
experience what we experienced,cause it's pretty damn cool.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
That is cool.
Well, I know just the trip thatyou did with us on three boats,
with you and Dave Marciano'stwo boats, regardless of the
conditions.
The guys coming off the boatwhen we were packing up and
everything, guys were like thatis the best experience they ever
had in their life, regardlessof the weather.
They didn't even really payattention to the fact it was
raining.
Yeah, it might be soaked, butit was just the best experience
(51:07):
they had.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
That's very cool, I tell you.
I love to hear that because youjust never know.
You're so focused on the taskat hand.
And then, it's funny, two orthree days after the charter, a
lot of times, that's when youstart to get pictures and you
start to get the thank yous fromguests and this, that and the
(51:28):
other thing, and this, that andthe other thing, and we're so
busy that we can't really fathomjust how much of a great time
they're having and we take itfor granted.
Maybe that's a good thing,because it makes us work as hard
as any other day, because we'refocused on them having a good
time.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Well, it was the next day and the next couple of days
all we were getting becauseeveryone's in a big group chat
with all those people from thethree boats was everyone showing
them with the prepared food,you know, the fresh paddock and
all of that and everything else.
And, yeah, they were loving it.
They absolutely loved it and wecan't thank you enough for that
.
Speaker 3 (52:04):
Oh, of course.
Again, it's like I said before,and perhaps you know a lot of
times I don't explain it as well, but honestly, what you guys do
for us is a heck of a oh my God.
Anyways, it's the very least wecould do and we're so happy to
do it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Oh, that's cool.
I get asked all the time whatkind of things do you guys get
to go do, or what do you put onfor your members and whatnot.
And we talk about all thevarious trips and outdoor stuff
we have and I'm like, oh yeah,and I said, david gray up in new
england, uh, recently did atrip with the wicked tuna guys
and everyone's like what it's sofunny?
Their mouth just that's verycool, no, they're just.
(52:49):
The amount of appreciation thatwe have for you and helping our
members is off the charts andI'm excited for doing it in the
future.
Again, if we have that abilityand I appreciate everything
you've done for us and it doesmake a difference in people's
lives, like we talked about newhealthy habits and experiences
and showing that people do care,I think that goes a very, very
long way.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Very cool, very cool guys.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Well, we are coming up in an hour here, you know,
and I just wanted to take a fewminutes here to see if there's
anything you want to talk about.
Or, david, do you have anyadditional questions or things
they'd like to say?
Speaker 4 (53:23):
No, I just, I just want to thank you again for the
experience and everything.
Um, it was, you know, for thefor some of our trips has had a
lot of people across the countrythat put in for the trips.
Um, why, a lot of people don'trealize I mean, I'm just up here
in New Hampshire so I'm, youknow, stone's throw away from
you guys.
We see this stuff and we dothis stuff all the time.
But to offer this to otherpeople where it becomes a bucket
(53:45):
list item you know, someoneflying in from someplace just to
get on the boat to go out theremeans the world to these
individuals.
And again, again, can't thankyou guys enough for offering us
and hopefully we can dosomething like this in the
future and being able to havethat connection.
Speaker 3 (54:01):
It goes both ways.
This is also a once in alifetime opportunity for myself
and my mate to spend time withyou guys is really it's it
incredible for us too.
Experience-wise, I don't know,I wouldn't change it for the
world.
It's great, it really is, andso anything we can do is still
not enough and, yeah, anythingyou guys need.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
This one's scary 66% of Americans would struggle to
pay for a $1,000 emergency.
We don't keep any money in thesavings accounts, right?
The scary part about that isthat 8 out of 10 of us watching
this right now are going toexperience a $5,000 whoopsie
(54:46):
every 10 years.
Something's going to happen.
Kid's going to break a leg andthere's going to be
out-of-pocket max medical thatyear.
Right, there's going to be ahell storm or a fire or some
kind of a natural disaster thatcauses us to have to write a big
old check for our deductiblefor the roof replacement or the
car.
Right, Something's going tohappen.
And I want you to think back tothe last time you had a
financial emergency.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Was it the event that caused the stress, or was it
trying to figure out how to payfor the event that caused the
stress?
There's one thing I wanted totouch on too.
For any fans of the show thatare out there Nat Geo I'll just
say it.
They did not pick up season 14.
So Wicked Tuna did not filmseason 14.
But we are on the phone withthe agents every single day, and
Wicked Tuna is still thehighest rated show Nat Geo has
ever had, and even season 13 wasone of the highest ratings it's
(55:40):
ever had in 13 seasons.
So there are people lining upto get this show, and so right
now it's well above my pay grade.
But stay tuned.
There's big things that I thinkare going to happen here, so
your favorite captains will beback.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
Good, that's crazy.
I mean that's a bummer, thoughat the same time, If you guys
have ratings that great, that'skind of a weird move.
But yeah, higher powers, biggerpaychecks, bigger decision
makers, I hear you.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
So what happened there is they're owned by Disney
, nat Geo, the TV world and liveTV especially is non-streaming
networks.
I don't fully understand whatgoes into it.
I know they made plenty ofmoney off the show.
(56:34):
There was a lot of really goodmarketing that went on.
So I'm still not sure to thisday, no matter how many times
people explain it, why theywouldn't pick it up if it was
their highest rated show.
And what it was explaining tome was a production company
which is Pilgrim, sells it toNat Geo.
Nat Geo actually has to fork outthe money to buy it and they no
(56:57):
longer really want to do that.
They want to do their ownoriginal programming, no matter
how successful the show is.
So now we have to pivot awayfrom that, not knowing that that
was the landscape now and thefuture of TV.
And so we have to kind of pickup and say and our agents and
(57:17):
streaming platforms and othernetworks have to say, okay, this
is what we've got now, how dowe move forward with this?
Are you guys out of contract,which right now we are.
And so right now there's a lotof stuff happening and we're
hoping to be filming next season.
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
Good, no, it's pivot.
Speaker 3 (57:40):
That's all, that's it .
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yes, no.
Thank you very much for comingon the podcast today.
If people want to reach out orlearn more about yourself or
your, your charters that youhave, how would people do that
want to?
Speaker 3 (57:53):
reach out or learn more about yourself or your,
your charters that you have, howpeople do that.
Yeah, thanks for asking.
So it's uh, fat tunacharterscom.
It's uh, as simple as that.
And, um, yeah, uh, all all ofwhat we offer is on there.
We do early season ground fishtrips, which is what we did, um,
and so that's haddock and youknow you can keep 15 per person
and so if you have six people onthe trip, that's 90 fish
(58:14):
hopefully going home with you.
Yeah, and the coolers.
So we do that May 1st to June15th and we have a lot of fun
with that.
I mean a lot of fun with theguys and girls that come out to
do it and kids, and it's just socool.
And then from June 15th on, wepivot, which is a word we keep
using here.
We pivot over to bluefin tunaand we do bluefin from about
(58:39):
June 15th until like right now.
So right now we're going to bedone.
We do have a little bit ofquota, like I said for December,
but we stopped doing chartersaround this time of year because
the northeast wind startsblowing and it's pretty messy
and it's too volatile and toocold to bring clients out.
Speaker 2 (59:01):
So, yeah, Family time right.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, exactly, so, yeah, so yeah,
fattunacharterscom Groundfish,and then we go right into
Bluefin Tuna so you can go righton there and book anytime you
want with a small deposit, andthat secures your spot.
Speaker 2 (59:18):
And you're on any major social media platform
Facebook, instagram all thatgood stuff.
Speaker 3 (59:23):
Instagram I'm Captain Bob Cook and Facebook I'm just
Bob Cook on there, and thenthere's Captain Bob Cook as well
.
I might be under Fat Tuna onFacebook, but Instagram's the
one that I pay attention to most, and that's Captain Bob Cook on
there.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
Well and people can reach out to you on there, or,
do you prefer, through yourwebsite?
Speaker 3 (59:43):
Anytime, reach out on there, private message on
Instagram, and I'll get back toyou, probably within that day.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (59:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (59:50):
Well, thanks for coming on.
Do you have any last things youwant to share with the audience
?
Speaker 3 (59:55):
No, just uh, I guess, our love and appreciation for
what you guys do and what you'vedone for us.
Um, thank you so much and uh,again, stay tuned, uh, for the
show, because we'll be back,we'll be back and uh, we're
coming up to holiday season here, so everybody just hug your
loved ones and yeah, family iseverything as we know and yeah,
(01:00:20):
that's the most important thing.
So, have fun through theholidays, guys, and best wishes
to you all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Yes, thank you very much.
I appreciate you coming on.
Mr David Gray, do you have anylast words you'd like?
Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
to share.
Nope, he summed it up rightthere.
Thank you, paul.
Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
All right, no problem , thanks, guys.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Absolutely yeah, and for our listeners too.
I just want to remind you allthat you know, as an
organization, we're here to helpwith your mental health, you
know, through outdoor activities, creating new healthy habits,
but there are times when some ofus can't come back for some of
that stuff.
Just want to remind you allthat our listeners here are to.
Our listeners that are fieldstaff are trained in applied
(01:00:57):
suicide intervention skillstraining, which is also known as
assist.
It's a crisis intervention thatwe do as a tool to help get
people off that ledge and getthem some help.
We are not mental healthprofessionals, but we are here
to help you and be a someone tolean on, and we are always here
to listen.
And you can reach out to us onour Facebook, our Instagram, our
website.
Our phone numbers are out there, so please reach out.
(01:01:19):
If you are in immediate need,911 is always an option, but
also 988 is the crisis line.
You can call or text that, butplease do reach out.
We are here, we want you heretomorrow and we are here to help
.
So, with that, listeners, thankyou for being here and we're
here to help.
So, with that, listeners, thankyou for being here and we will
see you on the next HometownHero.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Outdoors podcast.
Thank you.
The Hometown Hero Outdoorspodcast is made possible by the
following sponsors O'NeillElectric Contractors.
The Minnesota Police and PeaceOfficers Association.
Relentless Defender, appareland Financial Cop Financial
Advisors.
Thank you for listening to theHometown Hero Outdoors podcast.
(01:02:00):
For more information, visit ourwebsite at
hometownherooutdoorsorg.
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement
was born.
Welcome to Hometown HeroOutdoors.
We are dedicated to honoringour military service members,
veterans and first responders byproviding them with
unforgettable outdoorrecreational opportunities.
We believe those who haveserved and sacrificed so much
(00:24):
for our country and communitiesdeserve a chance to reclaim
their spirit and find healing inthe great outdoors.
This is Hometown Hero Outdoors.
Welcome to the Hometown HeroOutdoors.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Podcast.
Here is your host, Chris Tatro.
Hello everyone and welcome backto the Hometown Hero Outdoors
podcast.
Today we have Bob Cook on fromWicked Tuna.
Thank you for being here, Bob.
We appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh man, I'm so appreciative to be a part of
this.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So, yeah, no, I know, let's chat yeah, you're a busy
man.
Let me, uh, just give thelisteners a quick rundown.
I have a bio here for you.
Uh, bob cook's a highly skilledfisherman and a fan favorite
captain from the popular realitytv show wicked tuna, known for
his deep knowledge of fishing,competitive spirit and genuine
passion for the sea.
Bob captain's fat tuna on theshow hailing from I can never
(01:47):
pronounce this correctly.
Help me out.
What's the city called?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
uh, so it's beverly.
I I hail from beverly, I livein essex, but, but gloucester is
probably the word that you'retrying to say gloucester yeah I
did that with dave too.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I was just I can't I my enunciation is horrible.
So he spent.
Bob spent most of his lifemastering the art of tuna
fishing in the North Atlantic.
Bob's expertise and leadershipare evident as he navigates the
challenges of catching prizebluefin tuna, often facing tough
weather conditions and fiercecompetition from other captains.
His dedication, strategicapproach and camaraderie with
(02:24):
his crew make him a respectedfigure of working tuna and
within the broader fishingcommunity outside of the show.
Bob is deeply committed tosustainable fishing practices,
enjoys sharing his love of theocean with his family and fans
alike.
How was that for a bio?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
sound pretty accurate that sounds pretty accurate.
Yeah, absolutely uh thank youfor the fan favorite part, but
we're working on it so how didyou come about, uh, getting
involved with the show?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean that we'll talk about all your history and
everything too, but I'm verycurious how did you get involved
with wicked tuna?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
yeah, so, uh, wicked tuna has been around now for 13
seasons.
It's been a long time and, uh,I grew up fishing.
I grew up working on lobsterboats, working on gillnet boats,
then I started chartering about25 years ago for striped bass
and then, probably about 22years ago, I discovered bluefin
(03:17):
tuna and really, I mean, I wasalways out there amongst all
these a lot of these guys thatare on the show and they started
, like I said, 13 seasons agofilming and I was always out
there and they did kind of acasting call season two of the
(03:38):
show or something like that,season three and I said what the
heck these guys are, you know,making a paycheck doing this and
an added paycheck.
I said I want to be a part ofthis and so I kind of put my
name in and they interviewed usand at that point they were kind
of looking for characters onthe show more than people that
(03:59):
actually I'm just going to saythis actually catch fish.
Actually I'm just going to saythis actually catch fish.
So they had a bunch of peopleand they had some really good
ones and some not so good ones,and so they were looking for
others and they sort of saidlisten, you're a little too
clean cut, you're not really acharacter, you're a little bit
too professional.
We want some gritty guys andthis, that and the other thing.
(04:22):
And so, season three, I reallydidn't make the cut and I just
kind of forgot about it foryears.
And then, uh, you know, theykept saying, hey, we'd like you
to interview, like you tointerview.
And I just said, nah, I'm kindof happy doing what I'm doing.
And then season nine came around, and from boat to boat out
there you've got cameras on oneboat and you're always kind of
(04:43):
watching the boats around youfrom the boats that are filming
and they were just sort ofseeing us do our thing every day
Catch him, catch him, catch him.
And they said, listen, we aresending our production company
to Gloucester Mass and spendingall this money to get footage.
We're lacking footage, we'relacking catches, some of the
(05:03):
captains are not producing.
You know none of the captainsthat are still there, they all
produce.
But they said we need othercaptains, we need to get this
done, we're risking way too muchfinancially.
And so then they said listen,bob, we'd like to have you, you
don't have to interview nothing.
And you know season nine I camein I didn't really like the way
(05:26):
they went about it the usagainst them, the tourists, the
outsiders and all that stuff.
And I didn't realize they weregoing to do that until it aired,
to be quite honest, yeah.
And then, once it aired, I said, well, I did that.
I don't think I want to be apart of that again because, uh,
they tried a little too hard toproduce it and there's enough
drama that happens out therethat you don't have to contrive
(05:48):
it or produce it.
So they kind of went back totheir drawing board and said Bob
, we'd like to have you backseason 10.
I said, guys, I really don'twant to do it that way.
I just can you just show us howwe really are?
And they said we made a mistake.
We had a great show.
We tried too hard season nineto change it.
Would you come back season 10if we promise not to do that
(06:10):
again?
And I said we'll see.
And then I got back to him and Isaid, yeah, you know what?
I trust you, because they keptcalling and saying listen, we
won't do that again.
We'll keep it authentic fromhere on in.
We made a mistake, we didn'thave to do that.
And here we are, five seasonslater.
I'm still with it.
And they were true to theirword.
(06:32):
I mean, they let the organicdrama that happens every day out
there just happen unfold.
And it wasn't.
It's as contentious as it couldpossibly be, because we're in a
competition and we always wantto catch more than the next guy.
And again, like I said, that'sorganic fun, that's organic
(06:52):
competition and there's so muchstuff that happens day in and
day out.
They don't have to force it andI tell you, it took a real
turnaround there and we gained awhole lot of fans by letting it
be.
Just let it be, do its thing.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Show the real, you Show the real everyone.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure they've got to try and
keep everything a littleinteresting, so they try to kind
of make their own storylines inthere in between.
But, like you said, they don'tnecessarily need to do that
because there's enough thingsgoing on.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I totally agree, necessarily need to do that
because there's enough thingsgoing on.
I totally agree, they do haveto sort of to stay relevant.
They have to tweak it here andthere with new ideas and just
don't go overboard, and I kindof feel like that's what they
did yeah even nine, but they area great crew to work with.
I'll tell you, pilgrimproductions they're the ones who
film it and then they sell itto uh, nat geo and uh, they were
(07:45):
just awesome.
I made some of my best friends.
One of my best friends to thisday is my camera guy and I've
had him for five years and wejust, you know, we became good
buddies.
He's out there in San Diego.
My wife and I go out there andvisit him and it's cool man.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Is he too keepership when you go out that way?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, I actually go on the Dave and I go, marciano
and I go out there and we dofishing for Rallo Rallo's kids
out there.
So it's we do the long-rangeboats, so people kind of pay to
fish with us and we also do itas a kind of a competition
setting out there too.
We call it tuna wars and it'skind of, yeah, they, they pay to
be on the liberty, which is theboat I'm on, or the tomahawk,
which is the one that dave's on,and yeah, it's, it's long range
(08:36):
bluefin tuna fishing actuallyit's.
It's cool.
We go from the east coast tothe west coast to fish for the
same thing, but they're a lotsmaller out there, but it's cool
yeah, well, and for thelisteners too, if you're
actually watching the podcastright now on our youtube channel
.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Bob's actually on his boat, yeah talk about your boat
a bit, which is it's a gorgeousboat.
I know when, um, our newengland state director, uh,
david gray, told us that he wentout there and got to fish with
you and dave marciano and got totake a look at your boat and
said it's absolutely gorgeous,both boats.
So I want to talk about yourboat a bit, and how did you come
about acquiring such abeautiful masterpiece of the
(09:12):
water?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
oh, thank you so much for that.
I'll tell you it was a labor oflove and a lot of time, a lot
of money, a lot of stressbuilding it, but it took about
two and a half years to build.
I think I started the processin 2019, bought a hull, brought
the hull to a finisher up inMaine.
The hull's a 46 muscle ridge.
(09:35):
It's a down east boat andthat's the type of boats we run
around here for, mostly forstability and efficiency.
So it's got a single engine,single 900 horse Scania and,
yeah, I mean for years and years, you upgrade, you invest as the
business gets bigger, and bybusiness I mean the charter
(09:57):
business.
That's mostly how we that's ourincome really is chartering.
The Bluefin tuna sale iscertainly that's a big part of
it as well, but mostly it's ourchartering.
So I took all the ideas fromthe vessels I had and said, okay
, my dream is to have this, mydream is to have this here.
Lay it out this way.
(10:18):
I need this to be here to kindof, you know, lay it all out
perfectly.
What's up, david?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
How are you?
We had a late addition to ourpodcast yeah, david gray, our
new england, uh, our statedirector up there.
He's actually helping on theboard right now and he's just
getting home from work what's up?
Buddy.
He just jumped on, say hi,buddy how's it going?
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Good to see you again .
Speaker 2 (10:44):
You too.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Thanks for coming, man.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I was just talking about the building of the new
Fat Tuna.
So, yeah, you take ideas froman old build or an old boat and
again you sort of dream up aplan, you put it on paper and to
actually see it the end of theprocess and just know that
you've done everything exactlythe way you wanted and have no
(11:09):
regrets like, oh, I should havedone this, should have done that
, and the finished product isexactly what I wanted.
And every single day we do acharter.
Now, nobody's ever in my way.
That was a big part ofdesigning it the way we designed
it.
You know, people have placesthat they can sit out on the
back deck.
We have the live wells way backso people aren't close to
(11:30):
falling into them and they'vegot a little bit of a seating
area there back there.
So it's just all these things Iwished I had, I now have, and
it's just every single personthat comes for a charter now
wants to return the next year,whether we catch or not.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And that's, you know, hopefully because of our
professionalism, but mostly it'sbecause of this boat and, uh,
I'm glad, I really am so happywe did it no, a good, a good,
comfortable boat makes theexperience everything you know
oh god yeah you know I used touh, well, I still do I'll go up
to lake michigan and we'll,we'll hop on some boats to go
chase some salmon and if thatboat's tight and you got a lot
(12:09):
of people on there, it can bereally uncomfortable, real quick
, especially when you get alittle bit of weather.
And it definitely makes a hugedifference when you have some
space to spread out and can atleast respect each other's
distance a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
For sure, for sure.
Yeah, on the old boats I wouldplay tetris around bodies, you
know.
Oh, excuse me, pardon me, sorry, sorry, you know, put a piece
in here, take a piece out here,and it was just, it was too much
, I was so tired with our fishhouses.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Out here we do a lot of custom ice houses where we go
ice fishing and, uh, one thingI've noticed is, over time you
get a few of these differentfish houses and you're like I
wish it was like this, I wish itwas like this, and then you
keep buying new ones andupgrading and changing.
That eventually is build yourown, and then absolutely.
Absolutely.
You know what works and whatdoesn't.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I'm not going to lie to the reason I did it when I
did.
It was because we had someleverage from the show.
I could have never afforded tobuild a new boat without help
from sponsors.
You know companies want to puta sticker on the window in the
view of the camera.
It's great marketing for them.
Every charter we do, we talkabout all the products we have
(13:18):
on board.
You know Raymarine, gemlux, youknow Seahawk paints, fleur
cameras, things like that, stidhelm chairs, stuff like this.
I mean, whenever we bringcharters out, a lot of times
it's actual boat owners andpeople just want to learn the
way we do it and they want tokind of mimic sort of the way we
(13:38):
do it so they buy all the sameproducts.
So these companies aren't dumb.
They're going to say, well, hey, you're going to help us sell
this product, why don't we putit on your boat?
So I begged borrowed and stolewhen I was building this boat
and I'm happy I did because,again, I could never have
afforded it otherwise.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Nothing wrong with that, though.
I mean, if people want to helpget their name out there, you
might as well use it, if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, absolutely man name out there.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You might as well use it if you can.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
Going back to your, your youth,growing up, you said that you
did a lot of stuff with lobsterboats and getting out in the
water and doing differentdiverse types of angling.
Can you explain a little bitabout how you got into that?
Is it a family passion that yougot into with everyone else got
to share that with?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
it's funny, I just, I just went over this, uh, this
morning there's a guy doing awicked tuna book, uh, about the
captains.
His name is andrew joyce.
He's, he's a, uh, an authorfrom around here and, and I just
said this this morning, my andit's the first time I've talked
about it in years but my, um, mygrandfather, his name was
(14:42):
Sylvester White and, uh, when wewere younger, my God, five, six
, seven years old, I'm one ofseven, I'm the youngest of seven
kids, nice, and, uh, I, there'sfive girls, two boys, my
brother has down syndrome and,uh, my brother and I would go
and, uh, fish was still Gampy,we call them Gampy is was, he
(15:05):
was my granddad, and we wouldtake a row boat, we call them a
Dory You'd have to kind of lookup what a Dory is, d O R Y and
we take it out of Salem mass androw out, throw an anchor and
just ground fish when I was five, six, seven years old.
Well, and, we used to do that,my God, three, four days a week
(15:25):
and just forget about time, andit was all hand lines on this
little spool and it was justawesome.
And my mother, his Syl'sdaughter, gampy's daughter, was
the best fisherman on the boat.
She was incredible and I prettymuch learned a lot of skills
from my mom and really it wasthe tenacity more than anything.
(15:47):
Ma, we're not catching Twohours, three hours, just wait.
There's a tide coming, thebait's stacking up.
I can tell, I can see the watersurface, I can do this, and I
just know they're coming.
Just patience, that's whatfishing is all about.
I'll always remember that.
Uh, she was right man and shewas a badass.
(16:07):
And um, yeah, from there I usedto go down to the dock in
Beverly, right by where thelobster boats would depart every
morning, and I'd fish off thebridge right there really wasn't
that high of a bridge um,probably, I don't know 27 feet
off the water.
It never really opened.
It was a stationary bridge andI used to fish for mackerel
(16:32):
right there and watch them comeand go, the lobster boats.
And one day and I always said,I want to be on one of those
boats, I want to work on one ofthose boats Well, when I was 11,
my mother dropped me off to gomacro fishing off that bridge
and I walked, I she watched metoo.
When she was leaving she stopped.
I didn't realize.
I walked right down the dockwhere the lobster boats were
(16:55):
departing and there was one guythat was late to leave.
It was probably eight in themorning, they leave at five, six
.
Well, his back man was late.
His back man's, his helper, hisfirst mate, I guess.
His name was Jay Fenniff andhis name was the captain's name,
was Lyle Smith.
He's still to this day, is likea second father to me.
(17:15):
But I said, hey, can I come outwith you?
He kind of looks at me like no,I can't, you can't come out.
What are you talking about?
And he said I'd really have toask your parents.
I said, well, I just saw my momstop the car right up here.
You could go ask her.
He's like all right.
So he goes up and he asks mymom and she goes yes, all right,
(17:36):
if you're okay with spendingthe day with this kid, go ahead,
take him.
And from there and from there,it's just that's where that
passion just all started, rightthere, because I used to band
lobsters.
You know lobsters here in theNorth Atlantic.
They've got a crusher and ashredder claw and you've got to.
As soon as they come on theboat, you put bands on them and
(17:59):
then you put them in the tankand that was my job is banding
the lobsters all day long.
And geez, from there it's just.
I started to around 13, 14, 15,be the first mate, and then
inshore lobstering becameoffshore lobstering where we go
out for 11 days at a time.
That was insane.
(18:19):
It was the hardest work I everdid.
The only thing I could evercompare that to is kind of
deadliest catch type stuffwithout the weather, right,
nothing like that.
But the work, the work waspretty much the same.
It was incredibly hard 18, 19,20 hours on deck, like I said,
180 miles out, 11 days.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
So some long days that was crazy.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That was crazy.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
But anyways, like I'm sorry I'm over talking, but
that's kind of the history ofyeah this is what we're here for
, right?
Everyone's learning who you are.
Yep, no, that's fantastic,that's crazy.
So lobster I know Dave and Iwere just talking about this on
the last show was theavailability of up there.
You know, and I think last timewe're talking about that at
(19:05):
sometimes the uh, the price ofbeef is more expensive here than
it is for lobster, enough whereyou're at, which is pretty cool
.
So now that you're on thelobster boats and you're engaged
in all of this activity andharvesting, were you able to
bring some of those back andhelp feed that large family a
little bit every now and then?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I gotta be honest, yes, I was, and I never liked
lobster and it was like maybehalf of the kids in the family.
Mostly that was the groundfishing that we did in the
harbor that fed the family.
That was, yeah, that washaddock.
That was, um, actually mymother used to take skate wings,
which is really it's a trashfish, and flounder and pollock.
(19:47):
And there was there was a fewof the kids in the family two of
my sisters, as a matter of factwho did not like fish, so she
breaded up, put it in the ovenand say it was chicken to them.
Oh wow, and they were fooled byit completely.
Wow, this is the best chicken Iever had.
Ma meanwhile it was flounder,you know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
so it's just yeah, sounds like what I do to my wife
with venison meat.
She hates venison, so that's myfavorite.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I know we'll put it in every now and then.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I know it's so good.
I don't know.
There's something in her youthwhen she was young where I get
it probably had some bad venisonthat was made by a family
member that just didn't go right, but who knows.
But you know that's.
That's pretty hilarious, thoughI mean.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yeah, I mean it worked right it worked, it
worked, yeah, yeah so when youguys got to go fishing with some
hho members.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, one of the things that we talked about was,
you know, our members and theirservice and the appreciation
that you guys have had for thosewho have served, what got you
into taking some of our ourmilitary service members and
first responders on the water.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, for me it really began sort of the passion
for doing this.
Um, I think it was season 10.
We did it, uh, the woundedwarriors project with, uh, with
Nat Geo, with Pilgrim, we did anepisode and, um, I just really
enjoyed it.
I was, um man, we were steamingout at night um being filmed,
(21:16):
uh, the whole time, and you knowthe old boat had a couch behind
me and that's the boat that itwas filmed on on and, uh, this
was kind of I we were, I washeaded from point a to point b,
right, so gloucester to.
At that point I think we weregoing to stellwagen bank, um,
and we were headed out there toharvest, right, we're out there
(21:38):
filming.
And the the warrior, his namewas tim aponte.
He was sitting right behind mehere and they put a warrior with
everybody to, with actuallyfive out of the eight captains.
I was lucky to be one of thefive that they filmed that day,
or actually it was three daysand he was sitting there and he
kind of I could see sweatpouring down his face.
(22:00):
You know, I kind of look back.
It's Timmy, all right, yougetting seasick.
He said Bob, you know he was,he was shaken and he says, bob,
uh, this is so much like amission you don't even know,
because my screens were all redhere so that I had night sort of
vision on.
We were going out in the dark.
He said, bob, it's like I'm ona Blackhawk right now.
(22:23):
It's exactly the hum, it's theengine.
And to this day, right now, myhair is standing up on end
because when he explained thatall to me and I sort of got a
feel of it all and he said, bob,we're going out on a mission
now.
The mission is to harvest thebluefin tuna.
We've got the hum of the engine, it's a blackhawk, it's this,
(22:44):
it's that.
And I was just, I was glued towhat he was saying.
I said you know what I'm doing,this and I want to be a part of
this in any way, shape or form.
I can be every single year.
We donate two trips a year andthey have to be veterans, it has
to be, and we all always getapproached to donate trips.
(23:08):
You know, for certain raffleshere and there, but really they
don't have the same impact and Idon't really feel like I'm
giving back to.
I mean, you guys.
You guys are all selfless,you're incredible human beings
and for us to just give backthat little bit.
It's the very least we could do, and I'm so happy to be a part
(23:29):
of it.
I'm honored really.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know.
That's very interesting thatyou bring that up, because I
wouldn't have thought about thatuntil you mentioned that you
know just the feel or the vibeof you guys getting up early,
being out there or going outlate, whatever it may be early
being out there or going outlate, whatever it may be, but
really all of the dynamicsrevolving around you guys
getting out preparing to do thatharvest man.
That's an interestingcorrelation.
(23:52):
I never thought about that itwas unbelievable, really.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And, um, I don't quite know how to say this, but,
um, I'm just going to come outand say it.
I mean, I know that there's somany things involved, right,
there's PTSD, there's mental,there's lot of times because I
knew, you know, certain thingswould affect him.
(24:26):
And finally he just grabbed meand said, bob, can you please
just do things the way younormally do them?
I may be affected.
I may, you know, I may run outof the way sometimes, here and
there, but allow me to do this.
And this was all just alearning process for me how to,
how to handle it all.
And by the end of it again,we've, we've just become real
(24:49):
good buddies.
I haven't talked to him in awhile, but I I gotta reach out
to him.
But uh, it was.
It was a learning experience,and one that was that I'm so
grateful for.
I really am.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
No, and thank you for doing that.
That's fantastic.
You know, I think people have alot of valuable resources that
you are individually good at andthe things that you do and
enjoy, and you can share thatwith others and definitely is a
part of the impact on thehealing process for people who
have served.
You know, one of the things theorganization I tell everyone
(25:23):
you don't have to be an expertat anything you do, you just got
to be able to share thatinformation with others, be able
to help them have the resourcesthat are available to them and
share maybe some knowledge withthem, because a lot of it's
creating new healthy habits andthat's what we need.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
So well put.
Thank you for putting that thatway, because that's that's
perfect yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It's the new healthy habits.
You know, david, you know youmade the connection with uh,
jake and uh got to take somepeople out and whatnot.
So do you want to talk a littlebit about what that looked like
and the trip did?
And I know we're on half anhour here, dave, and I don't
know how much time.
I'm sorry, bob, how much timedo we have left for it with you?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Oh God, no problem, man, you have half hour hour.
However long it takes, man.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Sure, sure.
I just want to make sure thatwe're respectful of your time
and being here.
So, David, want to talk aboutthe connection that you made and
being able to go out on thistrip with them.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Yeah, I want to actually touch back on something
that Bob was saying about whenthey were steaming out and stuff
.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople don't realize they think
of PTSD.
You know, watch out forfireworks during 4th of July and
all these other things.
But, bob, you got to experiencethe fact that PTSD has many
(26:38):
different faces and differenttriggers and you probably would
have never thought, and a lot ofpeople wouldn't think, just
going out on a fishing trip, thesound and the lights and of the
of the, of your like dashboardtype situation, could cause that
, and that's what a lot ofpeople don't understand.
You think that it has to be ina situation that you know loud
(27:01):
noises or whatnot, and itdoesn't always have to be that
way.
It can be very subtle things incertain situations that can
cause memories to come up insomeone and if you haven't
experienced it, you kind of stepback and go.
Well, I'm not making aconnection and I'm glad that
happened because I'm assumingthat you know it made you more
aware of how the little thingsin life can affect certain
(27:22):
people that have been in certainsituations.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
No doubt about it.
Yep, again, as I explained, itwas such a learning process and,
man, it puts a lump in mythroat, but it just the way you
guys explain it is just so muchmore precise than the way I
(27:45):
could put it into words.
Precise, and the way I couldput it into words Um, yeah, uh,
so, in order, you know to, to beable to do that with you guys,
uh, I, I am all in every singleyear, until the day I die.
So I love it.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
So it was a great trip that we had.
The weather could have been alittle, a little bit better.
Um insane if you've ever gotout fishing, you know, out in
the salt water, um, you've gotto be prepared for just about
everything um and once you get agood thing, it wasn't cold out,
that's right.
So the guys that get to get wet,at least you weren't cold.
(28:23):
Um, waves are a little bit um,but again you just had to anchor
yourself in the corner of theboat and hold on.
But no, it was a very, verygood time.
And a lot of people don't, Ithink, don't realize how far in
New England you think aboutgoing out fishing with a charter
.
You're thinking we're going todo.
(28:44):
You know, a half an hour driveout You're going out.
We go to jeffrey's ledge.
Is that where we were?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
uh, we're actually.
Uh, before style wagon, we wereat tilly's.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
Uh, we were right right in in and around tilly's
so people don't realize how faryou've got to go out to get some
of these fish and you know thetime period that you have to sit
there and you know talk topeople and relax before you get
into the action and stuff likethat.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
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They provide commercial,industrial and residential
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(29:33):
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(29:56):
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(30:18):
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(30:41):
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Visit them atDefendercom.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
It's a program.
Yeah, I'll tell you, you reallygot to kind of sharpen your
communication skills and we tryreally hard to make sure that
it's all about safety and youknow, we tell all the guests
just where all the equipment is,and then there's the normal
sort of questions about the showand questions about this, that
(31:17):
and the other things.
So you know, I had a reallygood charter captain, probably
about 25 years ago, say to me.
He said, bob, being a chartercaptain is about two things.
That is about being a chartercaptain is about two things.
Um, that is about being a goodhuman being and catching fish.
And he said the good humanbeing is about 90% of it, 10% is
(31:40):
catching fish.
And so, yeah, and and that'salways stuck with me and um,
yeah, it it's.
There's so much more to it.
As far as personality, you'vegot to.
You've got to be right on andgive them a good experience and
make them feel at home all daylong.
So when you have weather likethat, like you guys had, the
(32:00):
weather kind of takes over andyou just got to, you just got to
make sure that people are ascomfortable as they can possibly
be and you got to try to getthe job done and get the heck
home safely, and that's what wedid that day, yeah I remember
seeing videos of you out there,though.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You were laughing, smiling, having a good time.
Everyone was chatting relaxingyeah, I know people weren't
feeling the best when it came towanting to throw up over the
edge a little bit, but you'remaking the best out of it and
having a good time.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
They were, uh, they were troopers.
Man, they were yeah, they, theydidn't mind one bit.
I don't even remember if we hadany pukers on our boat.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Oh, that's good then.
Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
It only happens every trip.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Well, people don't realize how much you know.
If you're a flatlander in themiddle of nowhere, like me, you
know how much that water motioncan affect them.
And one of the things that I'vebeen telling a lot of people
who go plan to do big waterstuff is now you're taking that
drama mean prepare for the daysbefore, just not the day of
start taking that days before,because it doesn't absolutely
right.
(33:06):
Yeah, yeah no, it's very cool.
I do have a couple questionsfor you.
So you remember going back toyour very first bluefin tuna,
what that felt like.
Was that like just a completeincredible rush or like what?
Was it intentional, was itunintentional?
Just curious with that memoryyeah.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
So the memory is this I I was on a striped bass
charter.
I had clients on board and thisis probably let me see 2024,
probably 99.
All growing up I saw peoplecome into the marinas with
bluefin tuna.
I had no idea where the heckthey were getting those bluefin
(33:48):
tuna and I always wanted to know.
But I was always working onlobster boats and we really
weren't doing all that much rodand reel stuff.
But when I started guidingwhich was, like I said, in and
around 99 for striped bass,there's an area of islands
outside of Beverly, there'sInner Harbor, beverly, salem,
(34:09):
marblehead, then there's an areaof islands outside of Beverly,
there's Inner Harbor, beverly,Salem, marblehead, and then
there's islands.
So there's Misery Island,there's Baker's Island and we
were fishing the 180 line, whichis 180 feet of water, deep
water, which we didn't normallydo for striped bass.
We always fished inside amongstthe rocks.
We were outside of the islandsand I kept seeing these vertical
(34:30):
splashes off in the distance,probably three miles away.
We had tons of visibility thatday and I kept looking.
I kept saying that looks legitLike somebody is dropping stuff
out of a plane and these bigvertical splashes.
And I said guys, I asked myclients.
I said do you want to go outthere and see what that is?
We got to see what that is.
And I said, guys, I asked myclients.
I said do you want to go outthere and see what that is?
(34:50):
We got to see what that is.
They said, yeah, yeah, yeah,let's do that.
Now.
I had mackerel in the live.
Well, we were catching stripedbass with that and I was only
using 30, 40, 50 pound test line.
I go out there and I start tosee it, and I start to see these
things, their whole body, comeout of the water and I said, oh
(35:11):
my god, what is that?
I've only ever heard about?
This is could this possibly bebluefin tuna?
And it was.
I throw out a bait.
I said, guys, this will be aboutthree seconds of fun if we I
couldn't even get the words outof my mouth just just takes it
out of my hands.
And this is on, I don't know a4,500 bait runner, shimano, uh,
(35:36):
which, again, like I said, 30pound test.
So, and so I, I loosened up thedrag, cause I knew it would
just pop if I didn't.
And uh, so we fought that thingfor about 10 or 12 minutes
Right, and ever since that day Ihad to go.
Of course we didn't land itRight.
So then we hooked up about fivemore times, didn't land them,
(35:58):
and then it was my goal to landone of these fish out there, and
I didn't see him again for therest of the freaking year.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Oh yeah, so we're going out there.
I'm like my charter is, yeah,that the striped bass are in the
deep waters outside here,outside here, whether they were
or not.
So I was going out there andtrying to find these things and,
uh, it wasn't until 2000, thenext year, where I I took the
boat out to the northwest cornerof Stellwagen and I ended up
(36:31):
landing like a 60, 65 inchbluefin tuna, which I don't know
.
130 pounds, 140 pounds, and butreally the funny thing is, with
bluefin tuna you only everremember like you only ever
remember the losses.
It's like a gambler's mentalityyou celebrate when you get one
(36:57):
on deck, but then all you canthink about is that next one,
that next one, that next one man, and then, 60-incher is you
want 100-incher, 100-incher, youwant 120-incher.
But the most memorable part ofbluefin tuna fishing for me is
the chase, and it was that chasethat every day I got to get one
of these things.
I got to get one of thesethings and I just had a charter.
I had one last week when wewere supposed to be on here, but
(37:19):
my last one was Sunday and theguys asked me.
They said do you still lovethis?
And I said, guys, it's thistime of year when you really
realize just how much you loveit and how much you love the
chase, because you're not doinga whole lot of fishing this time
of year.
This is the end of our season.
So and I looked at him, I said,guys, I love it more now than I
(37:41):
ever have, and it is.
It's that chase, and I, just I,I couldn't love it more.
So once I discovered bluefintuna, that was the only fish in
the ocean that really existed.
For me, that was it, that wasit, that's all I ever want to
catch it's nuts.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
So what's the biggest that you have taken in?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
920 pounds.
I can't even believe it.
I've probably caught a thousandof these things and sold a
thousand.
I've never caught a granderever.
I've never caught one over athousand pounds.
Every other person I know thatis in this game has caught a
thousand pounder.
I haven't.
It just pisses me off, but 920.
You said though 920, 920 thatwas 126 inches, and he was
(38:27):
skinny, skinny, skinny reallyand everybody says well, how
long did that take to land?
That thing was 40 minutes, itwas nothing, it was easy.
Sometimes when they're big, big, big like that, they get real
lazy and he's come right to theboat.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It wasn't hard at all you know you said 40 minutes.
You know that's crazy becauseyou know us from the midwest.
That is not something that youhear about.
How long would take you to landthat fish?
40 minutes, well, what was itnot here?
That does not happen here.
So what is a normal like lengthto reel one of those intake?
Usually I said 40 minutes isnot that bad.
So what's a?
(39:01):
What is the average?
Speaker 3 (39:02):
that's the average, if you're with a crew that knows
what they're doing, it's 30minutes to an hour.
So we bring charters out thereand our coaching kind of, and
the fact that we use the boatquite a bit, um, to kind of
chase after that fish in reverseand gain line back, and then
our coaching kind of what to do,assist the line onto the reel
(39:24):
and things like that.
But without kind of coachingand without I guess you would
call us the experts kind ofwatching a fight I've heard a
ton of them this year it couldbe three to five hours If you
don't run that drag at the rightsetting, if you're not using
the boat, if you're not doingall the things kind of required
(39:45):
to, I guess, lessen the timethat it takes to get that fish
in our.
Our longest fight we ever hadwas five and a half hours.
We lost that fish oh no that's.
That was terrible.
Again it's it's only ever theones that you lose that, like I
can't remember the ones that welanded this year, but I can
(40:06):
remember the ones we lostabsolutely yeah so go ahead
david.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
So so a fish like that you know 120 inch fish how
old does it take to get a fishthat big?
How did you say how old?
Yeah, how old is a fish likethat?
Speaker 3 (40:21):
you know, I had a chart that I always refer to.
I'm gonna I'm gonna guess thatthat one's about 23 years old
and I could be four or fiveyears off, but it's in and
around there.
It's in and around there.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Your size is what?
60, 65?
Is that what it is forcommercial?
Speaker 3 (40:40):
73.
73 and above Yep, yep.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
A fish like that is 10, 15 plus years old.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Around that?
Yep, I'd say eight to 12 yearsold, I think so.
Yeah, I'm going to have torefer to my chart.
I'm terrible at this type ofstuff but I've got a chart.
When clients ask that I pull upand I'm like, well, here it is.
I'm just terrible at kind ofknowing, but I can give you a
sort of ballpark.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
So you see on a show a lot of times you guys are out
there looking for whales becauseyou know with whales there's
more food and everything elseyou ever accidentally whale,
ever hook on hook up only ever.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yes, um, and that happens probably once every
couple of years, and that's onlywhen they're meandering through
the same bait that the tuna arefishing on.
In.
Uh, we've got two floaters outthere lines and they'll just
meander through and kind of goon their side and a peck, you
know, on on the humpback whale,let's say, or a minke or
something like that may catchthe line and that's it, but they
(41:41):
never actually eat a bait.
They never do that.
They'll never, ever do that.
It's very, very seldom thatwe'll even get like they're too
smart.
Um, whales are too smart, andum, and, and so are dolphins as
well.
I've I've I've hooked onedolphin in my whole entire
fishing career and, um, for somereason he bit the bait, but it
(42:04):
was dusk, uh, it was low light.
He just made a bad mistake andI brought, I brought that
dolphin all the way to the boat.
You should have seen it.
All of his family, I guess youwould call it came in.
The whole school came in andtried to save him.
There was sort of came all theway to the boat and there was
(42:24):
sort of jumping inside the linetrying to unhook him and they
couldn't do it and they wereright there by the side of the
boat.
It's just amazing how they sticktogether and sort of protect
each other.
That's the only time I reallysaw just how they get and I
loved seeing it.
That's a true family rightthere.
But I was able to get the hookright out of him real quick.
(42:45):
But no, with whales.
If it happens it's by mistakeand it's it's on their tail or
their peck or something likethat wow, that's incredible
chris, you have a question, yeah, keep go keep going when the
show started and as it wentalong.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Um, how did that affect?
You know the gloucester areaand you know all that.
Did it bring a lot more peopleinto the area?
Um, have a positive impact, ormaybe it could have been
opposite.
Maybe it was a negative impactto the community.
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3 (43:16):
well, I'm gonna say, by and large, for business, it
was extremely good and itcontinues to be really good to
this day.
We have there's probably fanshanging right over right there
right now, kind of waiting forme to be done, but a ton of
tourists come into town andtheir sole mission is to look
(43:37):
and see where the Andrea Galewas, perfect Storm and Wicatuna,
and it has had a very positiveimpact on the area.
We were able to kind ofshowcase Gloucester in all its
glory.
Gloucester is incredibleAmerica's oldest seaport and I
(43:58):
will say the negative impact isthat we've created a lot of
fishermen.
We've created a lot of bluefintuna fishermen.
They think they can come hereand get rich.
And I'm going to let you in on alittle secret here that $18,
$20 a pound that you see on TV,by the time it gets to us it's a
lot less.
There's a lot that comes out ofthat $18, $20 a pound.
(44:22):
So by the time it gets to usit's more like $8, $10.
You're talking about a brokerfee, a box fee, an ice fee, a
broker fee in Japan, a flightfee that we have to pay for the
11% commission that a brokerhere would take.
We're not making a ton of money.
But I guess that the show kindof glorifies it a little bit.
(44:45):
But we're just trying to kindof entertain people with this.
So the negative effect has beenour fellow fishermen.
A lot of times they say geez,you know, you guys are putting
the spotlight on this, you'recreating a lot of fishermen,
you're bringing a lot offishermen into the fleet.
And it's actually only somewhattrue the fact that bluefin tuna
(45:08):
fishing has become sosustainable and that's because
of all the restrictions andregulations.
I've never seen more bluefintuna in my 25 years of chasing
these things.
The stock is so healthy andpretty much anyone can go out
there and hook up to one ofthese things.
Whether they can land it or notis another story, but I mean we
(45:31):
get blamed for a lot, butreally it's because the fishing
is so good.
And social media is really thebiggest part of putting the
spotlight on the industry andteaching people how to go out
there and fish.
We're pretty vague on the show.
It's sort of you see the linesgo in the water.
You see us hook up.
You see us there and fish.
We're pretty vague on the show.
It's sort of you see the linesgo in the water.
You see us hook up, you see uscatch a fish.
(45:52):
There's so much more that goesinto that, but social media has
taken that and said A, b, c, d,e, f, g, this is how you catch a
bluefin tuna.
People have been able to dothat go out there and apply it
and actually catch fish.
But they could have never donethat unless we were as good as
we are with protecting thisspecies that we love.
(46:15):
And we're at the point now wherewe can only fish three days a
week.
We can only harvest three daysa week.
Monday, wednesday and Thursdayis the only time we can sell
fish now, and it only one fish aday.
So at the very best we can onlyharvest three fish a week.
So I know I'm going way offsubject, but there is, yeah, but
(46:38):
there's.
There's all these things thatcome into play.
So, by and large, 70 of whatwe've done on film has really
put a positive spotlight on thearea and injected a whole lot of
income to local businesses,which we're very proud of.
The other 30% there's nothingmuch we can do about it.
(46:59):
We'll always be blamed forsomething or other and I guess
we just got to take the abuseyou know from fellow fishermen
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
All of those.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
All of those guys would want to do what we're
doing, though, whether they saythey would or wouldn't, they all
want to be on the show.
I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Well, to your point.
You know the amount of workthat goes in behind the scenes.
It's not just an over the nighttype of success and
understanding of all this stuff.
You look at any major outdoorsperson you knowy titus, melissa
bachman, any of the meat eaterpeople you know they're putting
in the work in the back end tofigure out, yeah, the.
You know how these animals moveum, how to harvest them, you
(47:44):
know and and the countless hoursof pursuing that you'll never
see on tv.
And's just, you can't justfigure it out overnight.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
That's right and they can see all that they want on
TV.
But to take it out there andapply it, that's another thing
altogether and one of thenegative impacts.
It's been incredibly positivefor our charter businesses.
Excuse me, but one of thenegatives is people see it on TV
and they think we're going tocatch every day and to your
(48:14):
point, the work that goes in,the hours that we don't get
bites.
They never really show that onTV.
It's like catch fish, catchfish, catch fish.
And when you take a trotter outthere like, well, why haven't
we got bit yet?
It's like, oh, now you're goingto explain that away.
I'm an aquarium.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah, it's like oh man, now you're going to explain
that away.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
I'm not in the aquarium.
Yep yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
Well, and to the other part that you're speaking
about too, when you do bring inthe fish and they do get weighed
and there is a payout and youhave all the fees.
But also people also don'tthink about the amount of money
that goes into your maintenanceand everything that you do with
your equipment.
You know your fuel.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
You know, especially with fuel costs being higher,
that stuff really contributes tothe amount of overhead that it
comes to what you're doing.
I have a 46 foot boat and, um,I have to make every single year
51 000 before I make a dime.
It costs me about 51 grand ayear to run this boat.
It's insane, absolutely insane.
Yeah, and as we all know,that's not going down, that's
only going up.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
So yeah right, no, it's.
You think about thatperspective wise, you know.
I mean, obviously you do somecharters and other stuff, but
how many fish, you know, wouldthat really be over time, you
know, especially when youstarted taking off the fees?
I mean, that adds up fast, youcan't you can't.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
You can't do it just harvesting bluefin anymore.
You have to do the charters,you have to do other fisheries.
Yeah, yeah, you have to.
And um, yeah, that's, that'sone thing that we really didn't
showcase on the show.
Uh, too, too much and kind ofwish they did.
You know, uh, this is what theydo as well.
They run charters.
We do this, we run fish markets, we run pizza joints, it's.
(49:57):
We live in the Northeast.
This here is probably thesecond most expensive state to
live in in the country, probablyMassachusetts, new York,
california.
I don't know what order they'rein, but I mean the mean home
price now around here is around$900,000.
I don't know what order they'rein, but I mean the mean home
price now around here is around$900,000.
It's insane.
(50:17):
So we can't.
We have to have so many sidehustles now and it's.
It's a shame, because all wewant to do is go out there and
catch, harvest, sell, you know,make our sole source of income
on bluefin tuna, but we reallycan't anymore.
But we're so happy to bringpeople out, so and and run
(50:38):
charters for bluefin so thatthey can go out there and
experience what we experienced,cause it's pretty damn cool.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
That is cool.
Well, I know just the trip thatyou did with us on three boats,
with you and Dave Marciano'stwo boats, regardless of the
conditions.
The guys coming off the boatwhen we were packing up and
everything, guys were like thatis the best experience they ever
had in their life, regardlessof the weather.
They didn't even really payattention to the fact it was
raining.
Yeah, it might be soaked, butit was just the best experience
(51:07):
they had.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
That's very cool, I tell you.
I love to hear that because youjust never know.
You're so focused on the taskat hand.
And then, it's funny, two orthree days after the charter, a
lot of times, that's when youstart to get pictures and you
start to get the thank yous fromguests and this, that and the
(51:28):
other thing, and this, that andthe other thing, and we're so
busy that we can't really fathomjust how much of a great time
they're having and we take itfor granted.
Maybe that's a good thing,because it makes us work as hard
as any other day, because we'refocused on them having a good
time.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Well, it was the next day and the next couple of days
all we were getting becauseeveryone's in a big group chat
with all those people from thethree boats was everyone showing
them with the prepared food,you know, the fresh paddock and
all of that and everything else.
And, yeah, they were loving it.
They absolutely loved it and wecan't thank you enough for that
.
Speaker 3 (52:04):
Oh, of course.
Again, it's like I said before,and perhaps you know a lot of
times I don't explain it as well, but honestly, what you guys do
for us is a heck of a oh my God.
Anyways, it's the very least wecould do and we're so happy to
do it, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Oh, that's cool.
I get asked all the time whatkind of things do you guys get
to go do, or what do you put onfor your members and whatnot.
And we talk about all thevarious trips and outdoor stuff
we have and I'm like, oh yeah,and I said, david gray up in new
england, uh, recently did atrip with the wicked tuna guys
and everyone's like what it's sofunny?
Their mouth just that's verycool, no, they're just.
(52:49):
The amount of appreciation thatwe have for you and helping our
members is off the charts andI'm excited for doing it in the
future.
Again, if we have that abilityand I appreciate everything
you've done for us and it doesmake a difference in people's
lives, like we talked about newhealthy habits and experiences
and showing that people do care,I think that goes a very, very
long way.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
Very cool, very cool guys.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Well, we are coming up in an hour here, you know,
and I just wanted to take a fewminutes here to see if there's
anything you want to talk about.
Or, david, do you have anyadditional questions or things
they'd like to say?
Speaker 4 (53:23):
No, I just, I just want to thank you again for the
experience and everything.
Um, it was, you know, for thefor some of our trips has had a
lot of people across the countrythat put in for the trips.
Um, why, a lot of people don'trealize I mean, I'm just up here
in New Hampshire so I'm, youknow, stone's throw away from
you guys.
We see this stuff and we dothis stuff all the time.
But to offer this to otherpeople where it becomes a bucket
(53:45):
list item you know, someoneflying in from someplace just to
get on the boat to go out theremeans the world to these
individuals.
And again, again, can't thankyou guys enough for offering us
and hopefully we can dosomething like this in the
future and being able to havethat connection.
Speaker 3 (54:01):
It goes both ways.
This is also a once in alifetime opportunity for myself
and my mate to spend time withyou guys is really it's it
incredible for us too.
Experience-wise, I don't know,I wouldn't change it for the
world.
It's great, it really is, andso anything we can do is still
not enough and, yeah, anythingyou guys need.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
This one's scary 66% of Americans would struggle to
pay for a $1,000 emergency.
We don't keep any money in thesavings accounts, right?
The scary part about that isthat 8 out of 10 of us watching
this right now are going toexperience a $5,000 whoopsie
(54:46):
every 10 years.
Something's going to happen.
Kid's going to break a leg andthere's going to be
out-of-pocket max medical thatyear.
Right, there's going to be ahell storm or a fire or some
kind of a natural disaster thatcauses us to have to write a big
old check for our deductiblefor the roof replacement or the
car.
Right, Something's going tohappen.
And I want you to think back tothe last time you had a
financial emergency.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Was it the event that caused the stress, or was it
trying to figure out how to payfor the event that caused the
stress?
There's one thing I wanted totouch on too.
For any fans of the show thatare out there Nat Geo I'll just
say it.
They did not pick up season 14.
So Wicked Tuna did not filmseason 14.
But we are on the phone withthe agents every single day, and
Wicked Tuna is still thehighest rated show Nat Geo has
ever had, and even season 13 wasone of the highest ratings it's
(55:40):
ever had in 13 seasons.
So there are people lining upto get this show, and so right
now it's well above my pay grade.
But stay tuned.
There's big things that I thinkare going to happen here, so
your favorite captains will beback.
Speaker 2 (56:00):
Good, that's crazy.
I mean that's a bummer, thoughat the same time, If you guys
have ratings that great, that'skind of a weird move.
But yeah, higher powers, biggerpaychecks, bigger decision
makers, I hear you.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
So what happened there is they're owned by Disney
, nat Geo, the TV world and liveTV especially is non-streaming
networks.
I don't fully understand whatgoes into it.
I know they made plenty ofmoney off the show.
(56:34):
There was a lot of really goodmarketing that went on.
So I'm still not sure to thisday, no matter how many times
people explain it, why theywouldn't pick it up if it was
their highest rated show.
And what it was explaining tome was a production company
which is Pilgrim, sells it toNat Geo.
Nat Geo actually has to fork outthe money to buy it and they no
(56:57):
longer really want to do that.
They want to do their ownoriginal programming, no matter
how successful the show is.
So now we have to pivot awayfrom that, not knowing that that
was the landscape now and thefuture of TV.
And so we have to kind of pickup and say and our agents and
(57:17):
streaming platforms and othernetworks have to say, okay, this
is what we've got now, how dowe move forward with this?
Are you guys out of contract,which right now we are.
And so right now there's a lotof stuff happening and we're
hoping to be filming next season.
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
Good, no, it's pivot.
Speaker 3 (57:40):
That's all, that's it .
Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yes, no.
Thank you very much for comingon the podcast today.
If people want to reach out orlearn more about yourself or
your, your charters that youhave, how would people do that
want to?
Speaker 3 (57:53):
reach out or learn more about yourself or your,
your charters that you have, howpeople do that.
Yeah, thanks for asking.
So it's uh, fat tunacharterscom.
It's uh, as simple as that.
And, um, yeah, uh, all all ofwhat we offer is on there.
We do early season ground fishtrips, which is what we did, um,
and so that's haddock and youknow you can keep 15 per person
and so if you have six people onthe trip, that's 90 fish
(58:14):
hopefully going home with you.
Yeah, and the coolers.
So we do that May 1st to June15th and we have a lot of fun
with that.
I mean a lot of fun with theguys and girls that come out to
do it and kids, and it's just socool.
And then from June 15th on, wepivot, which is a word we keep
using here.
We pivot over to bluefin tunaand we do bluefin from about
(58:39):
June 15th until like right now.
So right now we're going to bedone.
We do have a little bit ofquota, like I said for December,
but we stopped doing chartersaround this time of year because
the northeast wind startsblowing and it's pretty messy
and it's too volatile and toocold to bring clients out.
Speaker 2 (59:01):
So, yeah, Family time right.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, exactly, so, yeah, so yeah,
fattunacharterscom Groundfish,and then we go right into
Bluefin Tuna so you can go righton there and book anytime you
want with a small deposit, andthat secures your spot.
Speaker 2 (59:18):
And you're on any major social media platform
Facebook, instagram all thatgood stuff.
Speaker 3 (59:23):
Instagram I'm Captain Bob Cook and Facebook I'm just
Bob Cook on there, and thenthere's Captain Bob Cook as well
.
I might be under Fat Tuna onFacebook, but Instagram's the
one that I pay attention to most, and that's Captain Bob Cook on
there.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
Well and people can reach out to you on there, or,
do you prefer, through yourwebsite?
Speaker 3 (59:43):
Anytime, reach out on there, private message on
Instagram, and I'll get back toyou, probably within that day.
Speaker 2 (59:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (59:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (59:50):
Well, thanks for coming on.
Do you have any last things youwant to share with the audience
?
Speaker 3 (59:55):
No, just uh, I guess, our love and appreciation for
what you guys do and what you'vedone for us.
Um, thank you so much and uh,again, stay tuned, uh, for the
show, because we'll be back,we'll be back and uh, we're
coming up to holiday season here, so everybody just hug your
loved ones and yeah, family iseverything as we know and yeah,
(01:00:20):
that's the most important thing.
So, have fun through theholidays, guys, and best wishes
to you all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Yes, thank you very much.
I appreciate you coming on.
Mr David Gray, do you have anylast words you'd like?
Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
to share.
Nope, he summed it up rightthere.
Thank you, paul.
Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
All right, no problem , thanks, guys.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Absolutely yeah, and for our listeners too.
I just want to remind you allthat you know, as an
organization, we're here to helpwith your mental health, you
know, through outdoor activities, creating new healthy habits,
but there are times when some ofus can't come back for some of
that stuff.
Just want to remind you allthat our listeners here are to.
Our listeners that are fieldstaff are trained in applied
(01:00:57):
suicide intervention skillstraining, which is also known as
assist.
It's a crisis intervention thatwe do as a tool to help get
people off that ledge and getthem some help.
We are not mental healthprofessionals, but we are here
to help you and be a someone tolean on, and we are always here
to listen.
And you can reach out to us onour Facebook, our Instagram, our
website.
Our phone numbers are out there, so please reach out.
(01:01:19):
If you are in immediate need,911 is always an option, but
also 988 is the crisis line.
You can call or text that, butplease do reach out.
We are here, we want you heretomorrow and we are here to help
.
So, with that, listeners, thankyou for being here and we're
here to help.
So, with that, listeners, thankyou for being here and we will
see you on the next HometownHero.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Outdoors podcast.
Thank you.
The Hometown Hero Outdoorspodcast is made possible by the
following sponsors O'NeillElectric Contractors.
The Minnesota Police and PeaceOfficers Association.
Relentless Defender, appareland Financial Cop Financial
Advisors.
Thank you for listening to theHometown Hero Outdoors podcast.
(01:02:00):
For more information, visit ourwebsite at
hometownherooutdoorsorg.
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