TOM ROWLAND PODCAST

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“Over and Over again, people in the network are helping other people find places to fish and places to vacation. And actually care whether or not it works for them…”

Podcast Synopsis

I had the chance to sit down with Captain Jeff Maggio (LunkerDog) after going to LunkerCon. We sat down at 10:30am the following morning and Jeff told me that his tarpon guiding had him on a nocturnal schedule and that 10:30 felt early to him. Jeff told me that LunkerCon got started about 12 years ago at a live event as a local tarpon and snook fishing tournament. The tournament consisted of about 12-15 boats and before the tournament Captain Jeff had a gathering to go over the rules and actually had a lot of people show up because they announced it on YouTube.

The following year Jeff was actually gearing up for the pre-tournament gathering and he says he went live at the gathering and there were about 100 people tuning in… Because there was no real agenda, the participants were able to just enjoy each others company and their shared interest in fishing and fishing tournaments. With the combination of having a blast with some fellow fisherman and the lure of going live, Jeff decided to do it again the following year.

The next year there was about 150 people who came to the event and it slowly began to grow organically. Today, Jeff says, people are looking forward to it and hundreds of people are showing up and are beginning to talk about next years LunkerCon event.

I had a blast getting to go down to the event and meet a bunch of people and see some old friends as well. If you look at some of the pictures posted it will look like an organic party, and that is really abnormal for the fishing industry. It really feels like just a time to hang out with people who are very similar to yourself, and there is no real goal in mind other than just getting to hang out. It is really a unique atmosphere at LunkerCon, even if people recognize you from TV they will just let you be yourself and nobody is wanting to shake hands and take pictures.

I’ve noticed as social media begins to play a larger role in our lives that face-to-face interactions are becoming less and less of a norm. Events like LunkerCon, where you get people together, I think that's suggests the future of social media where you can announce these things. Right? But actually getting people together, I think that more and more the more people are ingesting little, tiny bits of information like Twitter the more they have a craving for face to face conversation.

I think what Jeff is doing is awesome. I can’t believe that I haven’t gone to LunkerCon before, but I was glad to be apart this year. There were so many guides that gave away trips that night. There were so many people that gave away whatever their services were and I'm sure that Jeff raised a whole bunch of money. And then the other cool thing about it is that he chose to have this money go towards conservation. He donated all of the proceeds to Captains For Clean Water and CCA.

Here are some highlights of this show:

00:00:00 - Guest Intro -  People willing to help each other fish and find fishing spots

00:00:55- Tom Rowland’s introduction of Jeff Maggio, all about LunkerDog and LunkerCon and all of the proceeds went to CCA and Captains For Cleanwater

00:02:28 - Here we are at 10:30am feeling post-LunkerCon and Jeff is more of a night person with his Tarpon guiding schedule.

00:03:30 - LunkerCon, how did it get started? This is the first I had heard about it

00:11:01 - Carrie chan's and the Morris chaney's and the older people Eric Leach was here all the way to the guys that are closing the party and then everybody in between and then the kids that showed up, right? You know, I love to see the kids because the kids.

00:11:58 - They watched somebody like you walk by and, you know, they're just there. And then you put your arm around it and take a picture, and then immediately they're showing their friends, and they're just on top of the world. So I love seeing the kids here.

People, organizations and terms mentioned in this podcast:

Jeff Maggio, LunkerDog, LunkerCon, CCA, Captains For Clean Water

See you next time,

Tom Rowland