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Podcast by a Panhandle Surf Angler for all anglers of any level. We will talk weekly to guests that are anglers and also industry professionals. I want you to walk away from this podcast with some knowledge either refreshed or new for you to become a better angler. Though it will start in the Panhandle of Florida, it will be around the entire United States so we can all learn something about fishing in different regions.
Demo (00:00:01):
This episode of Finding Demo o Surf Fishing is being brought to you by Ds custom tackle ds custom tackle.com is the website to go take a look at to get your hands on some outstanding gear for your surf fishing. You need floats. They got you covered hooks. Yep. Beads. Definitely. Uh, maybe you need your own rigs. Different types of fishing. They got you covered. Not just for the Florida area. They got you covered up and down the East Coast. Oh yeah. Delaware team knows what they're doing. They've been doing really good things with good shipping and good customer service. DS custom tackle.com. Go take a look. Get your order in today.
Demo (00:01:01):
Hey everybody, hope you're doing well wherever you are. It's been a good week. Hopefully the season has been good to you. So far. We are approaching, or, well, I guess we're in summer fishing. I mean, it is, uh, it's getting hot, it's getting real. And uh, of course we're right in the middle of the or. We're at the beginning of hurricane season here in Florida, so we're about to deal with a bunch of fun stuff 'cause that's what we do here in Florida. We deal with it. . Uh, this week we're, uh, we're actually going local. We're just heading over to Point, point, port, port, PORT, port, St. Joe area. We're going down there and we're gonna be talking with Travis Lucas of Hometown Sharks. Been pretty cool finding 'em on social, uh, lots of different fish species, some really cool ones there. And we're gonna get into a story and go from there and we're gonna continue on. So without further ado, good morning sir, and welcome to the show.
Travis (00:01:53):
How's it going? Good to be.
Demo (00:01:56):
Good day so far. Hasn't, hasn't been a bad one. I am not complaining at all. So you're out of the, uh, PSJ area support St. Joe, uh, down there on the peninsula. You got, you're real close to the old time border zone there. Um, and you get quite the different sets of fishery there, man. You guys got a unique one.
Travis (00:02:14):
Oh yeah. It's a, it can be pretty interesting, man. We get all the big sharks you can really think of. Uh, big red fish, big black drum flounder, uh, speckle trout. Pretty, pretty good variety. Big, huge, get all kinds of nice stingrays. Uh, I mean, it's interesting if you wanna get into the whole alligator tagging thing, we got a huge alligator population. It's, uh, gets pretty interesting most of the time.
Demo (00:02:43):
, I bet. It says one cool thing I love about Florida and you know, granted everybody's got their own little things, but one thing I've learned with Florida is, you know, you, you can go bass fishing in the morning, hop on and go get some alligator in the a or you know, and into the evening, throughout the day. You could be at the, at the beach or if you want to get on the boat, you can go out to the pier, you can go off to the ledge and you just get after it. There's so many great species, uh, you know, if you want to go after the monster, you sent me a text the other night, 13 footer, huge shark, beautiful shark in, out and done. You can, we can do it almost all here.
Travis (00:03:16):
Oh yeah. Year round too. We don't really have a down season, uh, for you pretty much just swap out species for different times of the year. Uh, summertime we go out into the river sometimes and do the whole gar thing. Uh, we just got a, a alligator snapping turtle a couple weeks ago. I posted that on there too. Yeah. Uh, wintertime or we get our summertime tigers just like that big one. We just caught hammers, uh, the other night. We just got a nine and a half foot lemon off the pier and then turn right around in the wintertime. And you got opportunities at dusky shards, makos, you know, I mean, pretty much year round. You can stay pretty busy if, uh, you're an angler or really any kinda wildlife thing you wanna get into over here.
Demo (00:03:59):
Yeah, definitely got you covered. Alright man, so let's start at the very beginning for you here. Let's back it up. Tell us your story and what got you into fishing.
Travis (00:04:06):
Alright, uh, I'm about third generation. My grandpa did it, his dad did it. Uh, my shoot, my mom did it. My uncles did it. My uncle used to run a shrimp boat and uh, that's what they kind of did on their ba pastime. They'd drop, drop a line and shark fish when they was waiting for the nighttime so they can run back out and drove for shrimp. And man, I kind of got into it there and went that and kind of went on my own route with it instead of on the boat. I kind of really got into the land-based stuff and bigger fish started getting caught and bigger gear started getting caught. And it just . It's, it's an addiction man. It went on from there.
Demo (00:04:48):
Yeah, it is. And it's, it's like a steam steamrolling one too. It doesn't just, you know, you can't just stop at one thing. It's like, oh, and I caught this. Okay, I wanna catch that again. I need this and then I need this and then I need this . It's just never ending.
Travis (00:05:01):
It's, it's a learning process. And, uh, I've, I've been doing it shoot most of my life pretty hot and heavy. I don't know, for probably the past 10 to 15 years. Pretty, pretty full on. And I tell people all the, that all the time. I've been doing it for a lot of years and you still learn something every time you go out there.
Demo (00:05:22):
Definitely. That's true. Well, what's your favorite thing about fishing?
Travis (00:05:26):
Uh, man, I've always been a adrenaline junkie man. I like, I like the big game stuff. Drag pulling the, the thought of something, catching something that could, can eat you. You're catching something that could drag you to your last day and it's just, I don't know, it's, it's awesome. Mm-Hmm, a lot of people say shark is easy, you know, but to do shark successfully and consistently, there's research that goes into it. Any, any average Joe can go out, cast out a line and maybe catch one good fish a year. It takes somebody that actually does the research to put consistently good fish on the beach.
Demo (00:06:08):
Yeah, very much so. And you've been, I mean, you just proved it right there with a third generation moving on from that and you've been growing into your own world there and catching great ones and continuing on, uh, let's play into that actually. What, well, can you share a memorable surf fishing story, including any kind of unexpected catches or challenging fishing situations?
Travis (00:06:29):
Man, I, I would have to say the, the most mind boggling one was actually here recently with that, uh, that big short Fin Mako, the location that we had got it from has never had a recorded mako landed from the beach ever. And, uh, man, we went out there, we did an expedition style trip. We, uh, it's a location we can drive down on the beach, so we wasn't by really anybody. And we did an ex expedition style trip. We had already landed quite a few good fish. It was our last night there, uh, I had caught a black tip in the surf and it was a nice one, I don't know, probably six and a half foot solid, solid black tip. And we dispatched it and I ran it out right there at sundown as a fresh bait. And it was a big bait, pretty, uh, pretty much the whole torso section of about a six, six and a half foot black tip.
Travis (00:07:25):
And I sent it out on a, a Mackay one 30. And we went on about our day, you know, we was expecting, you know, big tigers, stuff like that for wintertime stuff. And we, uh, we was actually on our sleep shift and I, I woke up to the Mara screaming just to, just screaming. Sounded like a boat. Ran into it. And, uh, we got over there, um, got the rest of the crew up, I harness up, we're ready to go. And I set hook into it. And at the initial hook set, it was a lot of weight. We was taking a big tiger. And then it, it woke up, it was like I grabbed the back of a boat going, going in the opposite direction. And uh, at that point we knew it was gonna be something cool. Uh, we was kind of thinking a big hammer.
Travis (00:08:15):
'cause we had caught a, about a 13 foot hammer the weekend before. So we was thinking another cold, cold water hammer. We fought it for a while and then, uh, she started jumping and we, we realized it was gonna be something, something special. And, uh, we still didn't know 100% what it was yet. And, uh, we got the actual video. I think I sent it to you of, uh, it coming up on the surf and the wave reciting off of it. And it, an initial thought. Yeah, the initial side of it, we thought it was a great white 'cause she was so girthy, she was huge. And then once the, the light hit it and we'd seen that beautiful purple blue shimmer off of her, we, we knew it was, it was a giant, giant makeup. And, uh, that, that right there, man, I, to this day that, that's probably been the most memorable kinda punch in the face situation right there, man. That, that was a beautiful shark. And, uh, it was, it was awesome. It was, it was a one, one of the most memorable experiences. I'd, I'd have to say that, uh, of any, any catch that I've had so far.
Demo (00:09:23):
Dude, that's nice. Yeah, that was a hell of a catch. Good job. Really good job. Uh, you know, you said something piece there and unexpected in, uh, this year, I'd say, yeah, actually probably for 2024, I have learned a lot more about sharks, uh, than I have in my previous years of podcasting. Um, I've had some pretty cool guests on, um, that have really kind of, kind of helped me feel a little bit smarter about. I'm like, okay, I mean, granted, I will not, I'm not a shark guy. I won't go buy the gear I have that I, that's not my, that's not my land of happy. But it was very interesting to hear the stories. And, uh, one in particular being Captain Chip up in South Carolina was talking about the, the shark he caught Lee Beth, uh, the great white that he caught had gone down, gone down, come up, hung out in the gulf, got real close to us, real close to us, and then peaked off.
Demo (00:10:19):
And, um, the couple other people I was talking about, sharking said shark activity is up and it is becoming more erratic and unexpected. We're seeing different species that we weren't seeing before coming closer, chasing bait, um, with so many things changing. Uh, but it has been really, really cool to see what your community is doing and the responsible ang you know, the responsible, responsible sharks. There we go. Put my words in there, right? Uh, are doing such great things with the community for the research. It's impressive man. Y'all are really finding out some new things and helping scientists get an idea of what's going on in the world.
Travis (00:10:57):
Oh yeah, it's, uh, it is great man. And that, that's with any, really any kind of fishing man. That's something we talked about earlier. You can always, you're, there's always room to learn. Stuff's always changing. You know, stuff happens. You might figure out something by accident that ended up working great and then now, now you've got a new, uh, page in your arsenal on how to target certain stuff. I mean that, that, that's one of the cool things about fishing man. No matter how much you know, there's always gonna be something else you can figure out.
Demo (00:11:27):
Definitely. Absolutely true. Alright, so let's talk about some t uh, fishing tips, tricks and knowledge here. Let, let's move into that. How do you plan your personal fishing trip days?
Travis (00:11:37):
Personal fishing trip days? Uh, man, I'll go through check weather reports. I'm a, I'm a big, I don't know, uh, researched guy. I like, I'll look at the wind direction, I'll look at current direction, tide charts and kind of pick, pick my spot out of that. Which way is the wind blowing at what part of the peninsula? What area is gonna have the best tide difference? I will do that and then make some fresh leaders go over all my gear. Uh, I'm a big fresh bait guy. I'm, if I'm not shark fishing, chances are I'm chasing bait. And, uh, see what's in the area. I got what a a lot of my friends calls my black book. I logged all my information from all my catches, what bait I use, what time of the year, what time of day I'm catching. And I build, I build up a pretty much a reference book of all, all, all the knowledge that I gather between the, the moon phases. And so once I preplanned for a trip, that's what I look at. I'll check the wind, wind, I check, check the tide charts, check the moon phase, and I'll pick my location of where I wanna go set up based on all that and whatever position on the beach. 'cause out here on the peninsula, no matter where the wind's blowing, you can always find a position of the beach that's gonna have the wind in your favorite. So that's kind of where I base my trips off of.
Demo (00:13:03):
Yeah, you guys have an advantage, dude. I i I will give you, you, you guys definitely have a little sneaky on there. Hey, I don't like it. Hey, I'm gonna go to, I'm gonna go over here to the west. Eh, it's not so good on the west. You know what, I'm gonna go to the east. Ah, you know what? I'm going right to the tip. You guys got a little love there.
Travis (00:13:18):
Oh yeah. It, it's, uh, it definitely helps out. It makes it where, um, you can always do some kind of fishing. You can always get from the wave, get away from the surf in some, some way, shape or form.
Demo (00:13:29):
Yeah. So you do sharking. I know that, uh, you, and like you said earlier, you do all types of fishing. Is there any type for you? Like, this is my jam. That's what I prefer?
Travis (00:13:39):
Oh, the the big game stuff, man. Big game land base. That is, that is my calling. That's what I love. Uh, I I love chasing these big predatory fish, man. A lot of people give 'em a bad rap, but they're little, little water puppies, man. I mean just, and just like your everyday dog accidents happen. I mean, things happen. But
Demo (00:14:02):
Yeah,
Travis (00:14:03):
That's what I like, the big, the big toothy, the big toothy stuff that people always, you know, act, act like they're afraid of. And, uh, we get people come up to us sometime like, uh, we, we just caught that big tiger and uh, we just drove, drove down the beach, you know, and, uh, got away from the majority of the people. And we, you know, people still pull up, you know, they see you hooked up on a big rod reel and hear drag scream and you're gonna draw a crowd, or at least people coming by and stopping and people stopped and watched. And, uh, we like to educate. That's one of my, my big things on the hometown truckers page. Just like on my Facebook, I'm always doing a DA daily dose of fishing, usually in the morning. And then, uh, like a fun, fun facts.
Travis (00:14:45):
And I'll do a, a species that we've caught or been in contact with, and I'll do a bunch of fun facts on it. Lifespan, migration patterns, uh, just little fun facts and tips about 'em. And, uh, I'm big on the educational stuff, man, so I love people coming out and asking what we're doing and shoot, I, I'm fighting the fish and educating them while we're pulling the shark up. And I, I don't know, I like getting people involved, man. I think that's kind of my big calling is I guess the biology side of it. Teaching people something and allowing people to see something that most people that's not in this, and shoot even some people that do, do this, go lifetimes and not being able to see, I, I've talked to several people in my area that, I mean, tigers are known for the panhandle, but we always call it the tiger curse, you know, up until you catch your first tiger, you're never gonna see a tiger.
Demo (00:15:35):
Yeah.
Travis (00:15:36):
And uh, we, I, I've been, uh, I've been lucky enough, man, we've caught, we've caught quite a few, I think, uh, two, we average, I don't know, in between 10 and 13 fish over 10 foot a year, 13 being my most. And that, that's big numbers for, uh, I say little guys, a lot of people say we're bigger than what we are, but I don't know. I feel like we're pr still pretty small as far as the big picture of it. And I don't know, I feel like 13 fish over 10 foot a year is pretty, pretty good numbers how I feel. And I, I, I look at, I'm trying to up them as much as I can. And so being able to educate people on them type of situations, it's, it's pretty awesome. You get people coming up and again, unless you actually do this, not many people can say that they've been able to be hands on with a animal over 10 foot.
Demo (00:16:28):
Yeah. That is very, very, very true. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the, as I'm rambling here, uh, I, I was just kind of thinking about something that Blaine and Dylan had told me, uh, the guys from Coastal Worldwide, the, you know, they're like, Blaine was chasing that one for a long time. And he is like, you're just always chasing man. And then it's like, yes, we got this. And it's all an, an educational and, uh, a fun experience the, uh, the entire time you're out there. So I, I love that you're also sharing the stoke with that and sharing the knowledge with people. It's huge. So we talked about the fishing trip now let's talk about spot selection. Uh, what are you looking for to pick your spot to fish?
Travis (00:17:08):
Uh, yeah, uh, back a little bit. We touched on earlier. Uh, I'll check the wind direction and uh, tides are really a big, big thing for me. Uh, I'll kind look at the area and depending where it's at, you know, some places there's some days where we might have two tide changes in a day, and then there's sometimes we'll have one big swing and so I'll check the tide, check the wind direction, and, uh, that, that's pre pretty well what I base off of where I'm gonna go. I'll get on there, I gotta app that tells me when direction and stuff like that. And I'll, I'll, I base a lot off of that and then go from there. I got certain, certain wind patterns that I like to look for for certain fish.
Demo (00:17:50):
Yeah. Okay. , quite a few people have a specific one they really love, so that's good stuff. Um, so when it comes to sharks, I get the piece, you, you gotta play different, uh, you gotta play zones in a way. I mean, you've got different drops for all those. Uh, and I know with like just regular cast, you know, surf fishing as we normally do for whining, palms, Spanish, all that fun stuff. You, you're playing the same game when it comes to drops. What is it something you look for when you're doing your drops out there for fishing?
Travis (00:18:21):
Uh, we pat we paddle most of our baits out. So I mean, different species of sharks, like different things. Uh, tigers are known to be your big lazy, you know, dumpsters of the sea. And so while I'm paddling out there, a lot of times you might find a crosscurrent, which is just a random, almost like a horizontal rip tide that's parallel to the beach. You might be paddling straight out and then you'll randomly look back and you've shifted, but you've kept the same direction A lot of times that to be a crosscurrent. And I've learned big tigers, they're lazy, so they'll get into them crosscurrents and just kind of ride 'em and eat whatever they find. So we like to look for cross currents for when we're, uh, going for our big tigers or, uh, any kind of deviation of the water. If you might find an, a random oil slick, usually big, big fish will throw an oil slick.
Travis (00:19:15):
If you see an oil slick, it could be anywhere from a shark swimming down deep or a big school of jacks that might have came through any, most of your big fish will throw an oil slick, which is just a, like a slick film over the top of the water. And then that right there, it could have been something feeding, which is a good sign. Or like I said, a school of jacks. It might've came through deep where you might not have seen the surface disruption on the surface of the water, but you'll see that oil slick from that bait right there. And so that just little stuff like that, uh, if we see anything fitting or any kind of bait popping, raise, jumping, raise, jumping, we'll just look for any, any kinda life while we're out there on the kayak. And that's, that's where we'll like to drop.
Demo (00:20:00):
That's smart. Yeah. The, the visual clues are huge and I think they're often overlooked in our world of surf fishing. Uh, I mean it's birds are one thing. Birds. Yeah, birds are cheater. You know, I can tell what the birds are doing. I'm like, oh, okay, I know what's over. But that oil slick, that is one that people I think go, well, why is it like that? It's like, oh, there's a disturbance right there that you need to get a line near.
Travis (00:20:24):
Yeah. Yeah. I've noticed that a lot. A lot of people don't really pay attention to that side of it, but every, every little detail, man, it, it all makes a difference. It, and again, you don't know 100% what's throwing that oil slick up. It could have been a shark that just ate something or it could have been a jack, some jacks that came through, you know, just most of your big fish, they do put off some nastiness. I've noticed if you ever get into big shark fishing and you're reeling up a big shark, that's something you can look for. Also, while you're fighting it and it's getting close, you can tell where the shark is 'cause he's gonna throw up an oil slick. You're gonna see wherever that shark is, you're gonna see a nice slick film over the top of the surface where that that shark is throwing an oil slick.
Demo (00:21:08):
Yeah, it's weird how that happens. Uh, well it's been 20 minutes, so let's go ahead and knock out a paycheck real quick. Okay.
Demo (00:21:21):
It is your first paycheck of the episode. Hopefully you've caught a bunch of fish by now. And if you haven't reel it in, double check that line. Make sure you got good bait on there. Probably a good time to re uh, top it off. Never hurts Every 20, 20 to 30 minutes. Always a good time to do a bait check when you're out there at the surf. Uh, this bait check's being brought to you by the kids Can Fish Foundation, kids can fish dot net's the website that take a look at to see all the cool things that they're doing for this community. They take kids out and do these camps and show them how to throw cast nets, surf fish, inshore fish, how to use the rod and rear, and all the, all rod and reel and all the gear. And then on the end of it, the kids get to take all the gear home.
Demo (00:21:53):
That's theirs. They are, they got it for free. And that's all thanks to your donations that make this happen. They've got their big tournament coming up in October. The annual kids can fish, uh, St. Simon's Island running of the Bulls, uh, out there in Georgia. I'll be there. It's gonna be really exciting. I'm always, that's a fun one. They got lots of cool raffles, lots of fun things on there. And you can also, Ben, or you can support them through buying the cast net from Promar Ahi. There's one support way or you can do right through the website and you can get into kids can fish.net and there's a donate button on there. They are a charitable don. Uh, they are a 5 0 1 3 CI think I'm saying that right. Uh, charity. So it's on there. It's all tax deductible, all the cool things. So lots of good stuff.
Demo (00:22:36):
Help them out. Go to help the kid go fishing and learn more. So now that we've played into that one, we're talking about those. Um, let's talk about into, uh, the moon phases tides and that influence. 'cause you, you touched on it there. So when you're looking at moons, 'cause my least favorite's a full for some reason and only because they eat all at night. Um, but again, I'm not sharking. What have you found with, uh, certain tides and moon phases that are advantageous and other ones that are just, that's just not a good time to go?
Travis (00:23:07):
Uh, I mean, like you said, full moons, man, full moons are a hit and miss. I've got a love hate relationship with full moons. You're either gonna catch or you're not gonna catch. There's no in between the full moon. It's, I don't know, it's a weird time. Me personally, I like a half moon, half moon's been been one of my favorites. And there's also an old, an old little wi I guess wives tell you could say about it. Most of your half moons, you're either gonna be kinda up or kind of over if the, it's tipped. If you get one that's kind of tipped over, it looks like you're dumping it. And there's old wise tail, meaning a slanted moons, it's dumping fish into the ocean. So a slanted moon tend, you tend to get more bites. There's, there's some, there's some facts that goes with that little white tail.
Travis (00:23:55):
I've had some very with that. And uh, that's what it looks like when you're cresting is off to the side and your, your half moon is kind of sideways. That's what it looks like. Looks like you're dumping something out. And it, uh, no. Was it, was it Oh, right after a full moon? Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, right again, right after a full moon tends to be good. I like right after a full moon, uh, again, right on a full moon, man, I've not had a whole lot of luck. And then sometimes I've had good luck, but there's really no in between. You're either gonna go out there and skunk and hate yourself for going out there or you're going to do great. There's, there's not really any mediocre trips on a full moon. You either do it or you don't. For me personally, I know some people that love and will chase after the full moon. And again, that's something that we touched on base earlier. It's very locational. What's good for me might not be good for them. Uh, the pan, yeah, the pan, the panhandle compared to the East coast, good gaps for me might be bad gaps for them 'cause they're on a different side of Florida. So that's, that's something you gotta look at for different areas. Different areas do better at different timeframes and time, time of years. But as far as like a rough idea, I'd say my favorite moon phase will be right after the full moon.
Demo (00:25:23):
Okay. Yeah, I like that. Good call. Uh, and you do a lot of night fishing obviously for reasons on that. Uh, so what would you say are some effective strategies for surf in night and what safety precautions should angler take during the nighttime fishing?
Travis (00:25:38):
Uh, nighttime fishing, just be safe, have a game plan. Uh, prep is everything. Uh, lights. Lights are huge when youe fishing between taking baits out and being able to handle a big fish in the surf. If you don't go out there with lights, you're out there with something that could potentially hurt you and not being able to really see what's going on. So lights, I wanna bite you. Yeah, lights, lights are a huge ordeal. We'll go out there with a headlamps cue beams. I got a 20 volt battery powered light that, uh, is on a stand once we're fighting it, get it up close, we'll flip it on and let it the surf. That way we can get eyes on before we go out there and put ourself in dam in danger, you know. So, uh, lights are a huge thing. And having a game plan, everybody's got a job when you're out there.
Travis (00:26:29):
Uh, yes, we're out there for fun, but again, the the danger factor is there. So every, everybody has their task. We got a guy that's gonna go out there and get on leader, a guy that's gonna get on the tail once, once they get in control of the shark, if I'm catching it personally, I'll rack up my rod, drop my drag down a little bit, and while they're grabbing the tail and maintaining it, I'm running down there with the de. So by the time I get down there with the de, they've already got the head open and ready to go. I posted a lot of videos of us Dehooking and I mean, it's all quick, efficient, as fast, as fast as possible. Everybody's got a job. Like I said, they one guy's on the tail, one guy's on the leader. Once I rack up, he is grabbing the head, picking the head up.
Travis (00:27:14):
I'm running down there with bolt cutters and a de. If I can yank it out with my hand to the de, that's where we go for first bolt, bolt cutters. Or if it, if it takes, I usually do two to three attempts and by the third attempt it don't pop out. We go straight into cutting it. It's easy to replace the hook. I'm not trying to, you know, kill a fish. And we, we've done good, good. I've, I've not lost a fish yet. So we've got our, our little routine pretty, pretty down pat. I'm, uh, I'm big on karma, man. If you, if you treat what you're going for right then it's gonna treat you right. And I feel like that's one of the reasons why we've had such good look at luck at what we do. You treat everything with respect and it, it comes, it comes back for you.
Demo (00:28:04):
Nice. Very good. And yeah, and getting that fish back out, like you said, they're very important. Get 'em out quick so they live. It's, it's one of those hard ones. Uh, so you've talked about, uh, the night one. Let's talk about baits. So different species, like different things, like you said, the trash can of the ocean likes to eat a certain way, you know, sandbars and lemons. Sure they all love sharks. And you know, some things just like other things more, certain sharks really love Bonita. Certain ones love cows. Ray, uh, I know that that one kind of comes into that. So what would you say are some effective, uh, bait or lure choices when you're playing around for surfing shark fishing that you have found to be successful?
Travis (00:28:43):
Uh, me personally, uh, uh, I'd have to say my favorite bait to run would've to be blunt, no stingray. And they're a bigger species of Ray, actually kind of newer for our area up until the past two years. I'd never seen one before. And then the past two years we've caught quite a few of them. And, uh, they've, they've produced very, very well for me. Blunt nose ray has done, done great. Uh, I actually got my personal best one last year. It was about 155 pounds, huge stingray. And they're su a super unique ray. They, at first glance, a lot of people would misidentify 'em, they look a lot like a, like a southern vein. But when you look at the tail of a southern stingray, it's got that whip shape. How it's s like rounded, it goes down long. It's a real smooth tail besides ob obviously your barbs.
Travis (00:29:44):
And, uh, the difference between that and a blunt nose, a blunt nail, a blunt nose ray actually falls into a paddle tail species. And if you actually look at the tail, they, their tail is built like a, a boat paddle. It's got the rounder in the middle and then it's got bl a black fin across the top and a black fin across the bottom. And instead of like a southern stinger where the barb's kind of farther back closer to the base of the tail, a blunt nose, the barb is more towards the end of the tail. Almost like a, almost like a scorpion. Not quite to the tip of it, but it's a lot further down the tail than on the base. And I'd have to say blunt nosed ray, it's, it's, it's produced some very, very good fish for me since we've started catching 'em.
Travis (00:30:31):
And again, fresh bait's the best bait. I'm a huge ray guy. Uh, I like running Jack crl. I've had luck with fresh Jack crl. Uh, and again, if we're talking about as far as surf fishing, I like top water, big poppers. Uh, I'll usually put a little bit of wire on it, you know, just in case. 'cause shark sharks will smoke a popper and it's, it's a pretty, pretty fun experience catching sharks on top water. It's, uh, it's definitely a blast. And then top water, I mean you get into everything on the surface. Jacks, they hit a top water, big red fish, uh, sharks, I mean big, uh, speckled trout. There's a lot, a lot of stuff you can get in with the top water. And again, whoa, water condition plays a big part on that. You don't wanna be in super rough or a lot of surf chop throwing a popper, but will you come
Demo (00:31:26):
Sit the table? Yeah, yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't like to, you can't get that good spray when you're in two foot of, uh, in two foot waves. , you can't get that pole you want.
Travis (00:31:37):
Heck yeah.
Demo (00:31:39):
Oh,
Travis (00:31:40):
A gear's got a big play in that too. Uh, I've, I've been teamed up with, uh, reaction tackle as a sponsor for quite a few years now. And, uh, I have to say, man, I've done, I've done great with their stuff and uh, a lot of people kind of shy from it 'cause I guess it is, it's a, it's a cheaper, cheaper line base. But, uh, I've done, I've done really great with it. And, uh, they make 16 Strand hollow cord. It's a, it's a little bit thicker, but man, that stuff, uh, like I tell everybody else, I post what I catch. Everybody sees what I catch and I use them 100% of the time. They're, they're great. It's a great and cheaper than a lot of your competitors.
Demo (00:32:26):
Okay, good window. It's a good reaction. Tackle got that one. Uh, and that'll be marked back. Everybody, you guys can take a look at that. So now that we're talking about that, you, you bring me into the perfect part here. What are the essential gear and tackle needs for that kind of successful trip out there? And how can anglers that are looking to get into this, choose the right gear for that?
Travis (00:32:45):
Uh, man as far as shark fishing, drag output in the line capacity is gonna be your main, your main looks. I, I love Mara's. The okumas is my, that's my brand. That's what I like. Again, different strokes for different folks, but, uh, but uh, I love my Mara's man. They do great. Uh, and again, it goes, that goes on location, location wise, man, if, if you're fish in an area that's known for big fish, you're not gonna wanna go out there with a 30 wide or even a 50 wide, like on the East coast, they're known for their big hammers. So I, I wouldn't suggest somebody to go get a squall 50 and go drop a chunk of stingray on the east coast. 'cause then you're either one, you're gonna get spooled, two, you're gonna damage your gear, or three being the most important, you're gonna wind up with a dead, a dead fish on your hands.
Travis (00:33:42):
And so it's very, very locational if you do a lot of bay fishing and you, you're, you, you know you're gonna get bulls or tippers or lemon sharks and smaller stuff like that. Yeah. There's no reason in going and dropping a thousand dollars on a one 30. But again, if you're south Florida, east coast, you know the panhandle like you, I don't, I wouldn't suggest going and getting a 50 wide or a 30 wide. So that's a very big locational side thing. But if you're fishing somewhere where you're known for black tips and bulls, I mean big spin gear, go get a 8,000 to a ten five, uh, spin rod or a 50 wide that's gonna make your black tips. Bull sharks, slim sharks spinners, even make it fun. You're not wanna go out there, you're not wanna go go out there with a one 30.
Travis (00:34:35):
If you're catching only four foot five foot sharks for, I mean, one, you're overpowering it, two, you're not gonna get to enjoy it. You're just gonna drag the fish in. There's not, it's not gonna pull no string. Like on my one 30, we still hook smaller stuff on it sometimes. Uh, we pulled up like a five foot bull shark on it the other night. Never even knew it was there. Grilled it all the way. . Yep. Yeah, my wife grilled it in, never, never even knew it was there. Got it all the way up into the surf and then seen it and was like, oh woo, we got a shark on here and went and dehooking it and let it swim back off. Never even knew it was there. So, uh, it's got it really based on what you're targeting, if you're targeting sharks between that three to six foot mark, a big spin rod even.
Travis (00:35:25):
And if you're first starting out, spin rod would probably be your best bet. Get, get on a couple smaller sharks right there in the surf. That way you get comfortable handling them. Like if you're just getting into shark fishing, it's not good for you or the fish for you to hook a 10 to 13 foot animal your first time ever putting your hands on, on a shark like that one, you're putting yourself in danger, you're putting goers in danger If they're, uh, there's people out there and you're putting that shark in danger, like if you have zero experience on dealing with it. I've seen a lot of people that look at us like we're crazy when we're out there chest deep in the water with a 10 plus foot animal. Like if you're not somebody that does this on a regular basis, you're not gonna be comfortable make swimming that shark out, making sure it swims off green.
Demo (00:36:16):
Yeah, definitely on that one for sure. Nicely done. So you definitely travel a lot and then you brought up a good thing when you're talking about the east coast, the panhandle in different parts of Florida. What do you do when you go fishing in a new place before you put lines in the water?
Travis (00:36:30):
Uh, pretty much same thing as I do here. I mean routinely check, check everything, find a good spot that's gonna be away from people for the best part. Uh, check the surf, check the winds, check the tides and maybe do a little bit of recon. Check around and see what ba bates around you wanna base base what you're bringing to drop for bait by what other people are catching around the area. Matching the hatch is a huge ordeal. You got an area that Jacks aren't known for and you go drop a jack, you're putting a bait down in there that your fish aren't eating, so there's a good chance it's not gonna get ate where it might work good in your area if they're, they don't have a routine population of jacks, you're gonna be a lot less likely to get ate by it. Now if you go somewhere where the cow knows are full fledged, uh, coming through and their big schools and you know, if you drop a cow knows that's something that the your sharks are already feeding on. So you got a lot higher percentage of a shark seeing it and be like, oh, cows and eat it. So I mean, I'm a big prep guy man. I like, I like looking at the little details before I go out there and fish. But again, we're running a lot of big gear, so it's a lot of work doing what we do. So we do whatever we can to put the odds in our favor to produce something that makes it worth our time at doing it.
Demo (00:37:55):
For sure. How do you adjust the t or how do you adjust your tactics for phishing when the bite isn't on fire?
Travis (00:38:01):
Uh, a lot, a lot of times the leader, leader size, uh, bait change. So some days you can go out there and soak one bait for 12 hours and it get picked up on that 12 12th hour. You know, it just, if one bait ain't picking up, we might swap our baits around, do more consistent bait changes or the hardiness difference or like, uh, our leaders, like I'll run several different types of leaders that I make and uh, also Adam Williams with a Williams top-notch tackle. He does a great, a great job making leaders. I get my 1200 pound leaders from him. And again, the leader size makes a huge, huge difference. So if we're going somewhere that's got a a lot cleaner water, uh, just like your offshore fishing and stuff like that, fish get leader shy. So where we might start off with a 1200 pound liter for our big stuff, if there seems to be no action on it, I might drop to my 800 pound liter sharks just like any other animal, if they see a hook and they're not that hungry, they're gonna be less likely to eat it.
Travis (00:39:10):
So sometimes I'll run my 1200 pound liter with a 24 alt hook and a big old bait. If we're not getting no action on it, I might drop to my 800 pound liter with a 20 T hook. And sometimes that fixes it. There might be sharks in the area. I mean it's the ocean. There's always sharks there, but they might see your leader line or they might see your hook and be like, ah, not today. And so you drop a little bit smaller gauge leader with a 20 zero hook and that might make all the difference. They, you might get picked up eight times while everybody else is not catching nothing. We've had trips like that before where depth drop might have to change. Uh, I went out with a few buddies where I catch eight sharks and them not catch nothing. But, and the only difference be they might be running the 1200 pound liter and I'm running an 800 pound liter. I mean leader, leader size makes a huge difference.
Demo (00:40:07):
Yeah, people you talk about that in sharking is huge in our, and in the regular spearfish, I think it's an overlooked thing is leader size makes a difference and you know, you, you don't always need certain amounts, you don't always need the heavy poundage. Sometimes the lighter stuff works out a lot better for you. So nicely put. Um, you mentioned this one earlier and this kind of ties back in with it. Seasons. We, we have, I mean we've either got summer or winter here. Um, it seems depending on who you talk to, but seasons, seasonal fishing here is a real thing. So what have you noticed when it comes to different types of seasons? The fishing, uh, the fishing area,
Travis (00:40:45):
Uh, really it just comes to what's migrating through the area. Like, you know, fall you get your drums and your red fish coming in for the most part, uh, spring they're coming in. So just kind of goes with what we was talking about before, matching the hatch. If, uh, the red fish are running, and this is speaking on shark, if the redfish are running, again, this is very different on areas. Some areas you can't do this. Some areas you can on your sports fish, your red fish and stuff like that. Some areas you're not allowed to run 'em as bait. Over here you can, but you gotta look in your local laws here you can run 'em, but you have to run intact. So if like you filet it, you have to keep the entire carcass. You can't just dock it off and run just the head, you have to leave the whole carcass.
Travis (00:41:34):
That way if you are stopped, they can check it, make sure it's illegal. Keepable fish. Some places you can't even do that and it's against, against the FWC rules or whatever your wildlife management is in your area. They don't allow it at all. But, uh, seasonal, again, it goes with bait running. If you're wanting to get on red fish or big black drum, spring and fall is a great time. Uh, spring into, uh, early summer your jacks are coming through your tippers. Uh, we get, uh, pretty good winter season, man, winter season. A lot of your smaller surface die out. Uh, now whenever I say die out, I don't mean they die, they push off shore, but your bite slows down. But you can go out there and you can cast out crab for big, big black drum, big red fish even, or push intercoastal wise.
Travis (00:42:27):
And that's where most of your speckled trouts, your red fish and stuff like that pushes up your intercoastal stuff during the winter time. So if you got a nice, you know, non landlocked river system, a lot of people don't think about it. But you can push up in the rivers and get your red fish to get your speckled trout. That's a, that's the type of fishing a lot of people don't look into because a lot of people think of red fish and stuff as saltwater fish, speckled trout, saltwater fish. But don't realize during your wintertime they push inland and you can go inland and throw a popper in something like you would in salt water and get your red fish, get your tarpon, uh, get your black drum, get your trout. And a lot of your bigger saltwater species that everybody packs up their gear for the wintertime and gives up on fishing, like you're losing such, such a big, uh, I guess undercut fishery is your wintertime ensure fishing.
Travis (00:43:24):
'cause all, all your, all your big saltwater stuff that you would originally go for on your surf side, you find an intercoastal or a non landlocked river system and you can push up in there and probably have one of the best fishing experiences of your life with your trout and red fish and black drum and a lot of, a lot of stuff here. I've no, I have noticed a lot of people pack their stuff up during the wintertime, so you don't have to do that. Just figure out, figure out your other fisheries and you can fish year round.
Demo (00:43:55):
Yeah, definitely. Oh, what are you, would you say are some of the top surface mistakes to avoid and how can anglers continuously improve their skills and knowledge?
Travis (00:44:05):
Uh, getting stuck in your ways, man, I think is the big one. Getting, having your mindset on doing stuff one way and holding to that one way, man, the little, little bitty changes can make all the difference. Uh, like, so just like what we talked about earlier with the shark fishing, you don't matter how long you've done this, there's always something you can learn. Uh, again, changing leader size, uh, changing baits, you might have your one bait that you're hooked on man, and it just, something as small as changing from a paddle tail to a fluke might be all, might be all the difference. Uh, that's, I think that one of the biggest mistakes, man getting, getting stuck in your ways and not being open minded to try something different. You might be all about live shrimp or Carolina rig and today you might be able to flatline a pin fish and might catch your PB that you've been looking for all because that one little change instead of Carolina rig and a live shrimp flatlining, that one pin fish. You might, it might make all the difference, but I think that's the biggest thing, man. Being stuck. Being stuck in the, in what you think is gonna work them little bitty changes might, might make or break the trip.
Demo (00:45:24):
Yep. Yeah, yeah. It's easy to get stuck in your ways. That's for dang sure. Uh, now we're at 45 minutes, man. It's just flying right along. So now we're time, we're due for another paycheck and then we're actually gonna move into here. Let's, like, we're gonna talk about the social media world that you're running in. So let's get this knocked out real quick.
Demo (00:45:48):
Is your second paycheck of the episode. And man it is a good time. Hopefully you still got a bunch of fish going and everything's rocking really well for you. This paycheck is being brought to you by the sink guy. Oh yeah. Sink guy.com Great website. 'cause the chips got you covered. He's got a bunch of things in the sinker guy garage. He's got the sputniks all covered, different weights and sizes all day, no problem. Hooks, rigs, gear, all of it. All set. If you need scissors, uh, pliers. Well, I don't know, hooking tools for your hooks. He's got all of that. So lots of good stuff there@thesinkerguy.com. Go take a look, get your order in today. You will not be sorry. That's for sure. All right, now that we've played into that, let's talk into the social media world. So you guys, you run into with, uh, when we didn't say it from the start and I apologize, hometown Sharks. And so let's talk about that. What is Hometown Sharks and how'd you guys get started?
Travis (00:46:42):
Well, home Hometown Sharks, I I started it, uh, quite a few years ago and it just started off as, you know, kind of just a big game fishing thing, man, it was here locally because that's why it's hometown, hometown Sharks is what we started off as. And it was just something that nobody in my general area and I'm, I'm out of the forgotten coast, so you see a lot of people in Navar and Pensacola that get into the big game stuff over here. It was really a, a fishery that's, no, no one's really touched base on, and again, we've done it for a while and like, like I said, third, third generation and there's people that even come out of town here just for regular fishing. You're redfish, you're surf fishing and stuff like that. And, uh, I kind of got into it and like I said, my family's done it for a while, but it was a lot of like, boat stuff wise and like, they'd get into their big spin stuff or like bring up like the old school senators, man, the old, old old school stuff.
Travis (00:47:44):
And so as my family got older, they kind of slacked off on it and, uh, I didn't, man, I I kind of dove head first into it, and uh, the gear got bigger, the fish got bigger. And then, uh, we did charters for a while. I did charters, I don't know, two, three years and loved it for what it was, you know, it was a blast. Uh, and it just kind of wasn't what I was looking for. You know, most people when they go into a charter, they're looking to land something. So obviously I'm dropping my gear size and we're going for what I call, uh, pastime fish. So something where your tipper or black tips, uh, black nose bull sharks, stuff like that, that you could pretty much guarantee you're gonna catch. You use smaller gear, smaller hooks, smaller baits, you know, clients love it.
Travis (00:48:41):
And every once in a while you might hook into a big one fishing that way. And it just wasn't my calling. I like, I like going for the larger, larger stuff, your stuff that's gonna make you earn it. The stuff that you, when you lose it, you kind of contemplate yourself for a little while and it makes you wanna figure out, what did I do wrong, what can I do to make it to where that don't happen? It kind of goes again with the knowledge. I, I, I'm big on the knowledge of it. I enjoy the biology backside of it, logging information, stuff like that and tagging. We, we tag for Noah doing this also. And, uh, then it kinda evolved into more of a team, a team thing. Once that stopped, I got, I got a few guys that I fish with on a pretty pretty consistent level.
Travis (00:49:29):
Uh, again, uh, Dan, we've, uh, linked up with him here recently and fished with him a lot. He runs, uh, Kernan land-based shark fishing. He's heavy into the charter stuff outta South Carolina. Uh, Ben Braner, uh, Joshua Smith fishes with us a lot. Uh, will Harrison. Will Harrison. And we've kind of just accumulated a few guys, which is awesome because all of us fish different fisheries. Dan's from South Carolina, Ben's from Gainesville, Will's from Alabama. Josh is from Georgia. So it's, it's nice to combine all these outside fisheries and so we get to bounce around a little bit and it's just, it's nice having all this outside knowledge all combined into one and it, it, it helps man. We, we produce quite a bit and so we quit doing the charters. We've do, we've done quite a few charity side of things. Uh, we do, we've taken, uh, people from our military, we support our military.
Travis (00:50:36):
Uh, we've done a couple free trips for them, them hit us up and, uh, just stuff that we, we don't make nothing off of. It's just take taking 'em out there to get, show 'em a good time, get getting more people. The knowledge and experience of what we do is huge. Like I said, I, I'm huge on the educational side of it. Uh, we've done a couple like ill people, sick sickness related situations where we've came, took them out and their families out to show 'em a good time while their, their health is degenerating and, uh, so we're a huge, you we're huge on that, that side of things. And yeah, so pretty, pretty much now we're, we're just a team of like-minded individuals that just love this and got the kind of the same aspect on it. We do tournaments. We actually got a tournament coming up, uh, this coming weekend, which is the big boss, big shark Florida tournament.
Travis (00:51:30):
And, uh, I've already got several of my sponsors help sponsoring it. And uh, that's, that's just kind of what I enjoy, man. I've gotten my sponsors involved with a, a few local people, couple of the shops here locally. Uh, we did a cancer benefit for a local shop here. Uh, one of the guys here, uh, it's, uh, WEWA, wiggler Bait and Tackle. Y'all be sure to go check 'em out. He, uh, got up with us and said that a local family stage five cancer, you know, not doing well and they needed help to pay for their stuff. Again, I won't, I won't specify no names for the sake of them, but, uh, I was able to reach out to a bunch of my sponsors and, uh, keepers only, uh, re uh, reaction tackle, uh, FC Fish Co, which is a local guy, uh, which is Forgotten Coast Fish Company.
Travis (00:52:23):
They're great. I've done great on their bait. They helped sponsor it and just being able to get it, I'm kind of, I don't know the middleman, I get my sponsors involved in a lot of these local stuff that, uh, by their self wouldn't have ever heard of it. So we helped, uh, we helped, uh, surpass what they were asking for, for their, what they were looking for, making for their, uh, hospital bills. And I wouldn't be able to do that without the help of our sponsors, which is great. It's nice, it's nice being able to go out and make a difference in the community like that. And at the same time, educate people. We set up a big booth, uh, with all this stuff from our donations. We did a raffle. I brought the gear out and did like a gear walk around. I had a bunch of the pictures hanging up of a bunch of the stuff.
Travis (00:53:08):
We caught the makos, several of the big hammers, several of the big tigers. So we do educational walkthrough on the rods and reels, educational talk about the pictures of what fish they are, uh, tagging stuff. We talked about the tagging stuff and just did, uh, uh, questionnaire thing. They gotta ask whatever questions they wanted. And then obviously it's not all seriousness. We're wanting to get people involved and coming out there and make it worth their time of donating. So I brought out a couple harnesses and we did the, uh, like fishing reel tug of war. We'd let a couple people harness up and play tug of war draw lines and see who can drag who, so they can see how much drag that we're putting to these fish on these reels. And you'd be amazed on how many people were just dumbfounded on how much drag these reels put out and talk to on. That's why we use spotters. Have somebody holding onto the back of the harness. 'cause you're like, I myself, I weigh about 160 pounds and you look at 160 pounds against seven, eight a thousand plus pounds by the books. They drag me all over the place. But with the right harness and the right gear, man, you, you can, you can catch anything.
Demo (00:54:24):
Yeah, yeah, you can. Those are fun to watch the old tug of wars back and forth. It's always, it always just kind of makes me laugh. It was definitely an, a fun thing to see. So you created this and then you've been doing things on social media and, you know, you've been doing the, the cool with the tournaments there. Uh, what made you decide, all right, cool, let's put this stuff on social media and let's start doing this, uh, for everyone to see,
Travis (00:54:50):
Again, the, the educational side of it. Man, I, I love getting people involved and to reach more people. Again, uh, people think of shark fishing whenever I first got into it. It wasn't, it wasn't a big thing. It's grown substantially over the past few years whenever I did it. And I, again, still right now, there's not many people in my area that do it. But, uh, again, I think, uh, Navar in Pensacola, you might only have five or six people that do it on a big level. Besides, you get, obviously out of towners that come down from northern states where they're like, oh, I want to catch a shark. And I mean, it's grown substantially around multiple areas. Texas being the biggest one. I think Texas has one of the hugest shark fishing kind of populations out of anywhere. And so it just got, uh, just got into it and started a little bit on Facebook and then TikTok.
Travis (00:55:46):
And then we do a little bit on YouTube. We're a little bit newer on the YouTube side. And shoot, even my personal Facebook page just turned into a content page. So I think I, I post more about the educational stuff on there than I do my hometown truckers page. And then, uh, it's just, I love getting, seeing people get excited about it. I love this and I, I like sharing my love for this sport with other people. And it's nice seeing other people enjoy it as much as we do. I get, I get several con comments and several statements and likes and it's, it is just nice seeing people get involved the way that they do. I, I've met so many awesome people off off of social media just where I've connected with the majority of my sponsors. And, uh, shoot again on the sponsors, man, they, they benefit a lot.
Travis (00:56:36):
Uh, again, FC Fish co. Uh, my newest sponsor, I've, uh, linked up with that Senator Enterprise with, uh, rain shadow rods. Again, super cool people. And, uh, I, I don't think I'd be able to do this stuff as big as I do it without the help of them. They help a lot between, uh, SC Fish co helping with bait, uh, Williams Notch tackle, helping with my terminal tackle weights leaders, uh, that's, uh, something that people don't look at when they do it. They're doing this or getting into this, the cost of it gets crazy. Like the little stuff crimps, uh, leader line cable, little stuff like that that people think they, oh, I can just buy a rod and reel and go do this cutoffs exist shark, uh, . And with without the right gear, I mean, there's a joke that people joke about on social media is, uh, cheap and shark fishing don't go together.
Travis (00:57:33):
And it, it really don't, I mean, you might be able to get in cheaper stuff. You wanna get a good sturdy, uh, spinning setup or something like that. And even that, you're a couple hundred dollars into it quick. And it's not just the reel and rod you're getting, you gotta look at leaders and hooks. And if you're gonna buy pre-made leaders from a company that's great, but that you still cost the cost of it's gonna go through a line over time. You're gonna have to get new line over time, you're gonna lose leaders. Or if you end up having to cut a hook, now you gotta buy a new hook or buy another section of cable. Uh, the cost of it builds up. And, uh, being sponsored definitely helps that, being able to tag them in my social media and branch them out. Now they get more people.
Travis (00:58:20):
And I myself don't work with a company that I myself don't use. So the people that I use are people that I know I know and trust, which is, is awesome. And being involved in social media, you get to meet super cool people like that. I've met, uh, Eli Glisten outta South Carolina. Super cool guy. Super cool guy, the shark and sa savage man. And, uh, he runs Salty Savage over there and we've gotten to link up with him a few times and we fished together quite a bit. And again, I would've never met him if it wasn't for social media. Just the social media side of it, man, it opens up such, such an expansion, which it's just mind blowing. I've talked with people from Wisconsin, Australia, I've linked up with youth through social media and it's just, it opens up a whole new page of it, which is awesome.
Travis (00:59:15):
I love the collabing with people. I've, like I said, I've gotten a lot of experience and I've met with people on the beach. That's, that day on the beach was their first time ever on the beach. And then I've met with people that's done this stuff for years, like I have, huh? From Paris. Yeah. We met up, met with people from France the other weekend through fishing because they seen us fishing stop by to ask questions and stuff, and just gave us some pictures between the social media and just the phishing in general. Man, you get to meet such awesome people and people that on a day-today basis, you would've probably not said two words about, or said two words to. And it's, it's awesome, man. You get to meet with just, I, I don't know, man. It's such, it's mind boggling. Like when, whenever I got into this, whenever I was a kid and I was, I never once thought that I'd be into it the way that I am today meeting.
Travis (01:00:07):
I've met people from all, all over the world through fishing. It's, it's super cool to actually think about like, I'm, I still feel like I'm a little guy, but not many people can say they can, they've collabed with people from France or Australia or on the other side of Florida. And I meet people still to, on a day to day that are mind boggled to meet me. And it's just, I don't know. It's, it's a crazy feeling, Amanda. Oh, I know, I've, I've seen your stuff from this and that and people act like I'm some something special. It's like, shoot, all I do is go and play with fish on a regular basis. . It's just, I don't know. It's super cool, man. Yeah, social media ,
Demo (01:00:46):
It is a good thing. I mean, that's the positive side of it, for sure. So you, you, uh, actually let's do our last paycheck of the episode first 'cause it's been an hour. And then we'll get into these last questions and get you into the final questions. I didn't realize how fast time was. I looked up, I was like, oh, hey, that just happened.
Demo (01:01:09):
It is time for your third and final paycheck of the episode. Hopefully you've caught a bunch of fish today and life's good and you're on the way home listening to this, or you're going out and you're already planted on it. Like I said, 2030 minutes is normally a good interval for a ba check. And make sure you top it off, get a fresh one on there to go. Yeah. This BA Check's being brought to you by Ninja tackle, ninja tackle va.com. Go take a look at that website, home of the Ninja Dagger series. You guys know I love 'em, the Seven Footer. Oh, I love that thing. It's always in the car with me up to the 13 footer. I've got 'em and I love 'em. They're great rods. I have caught a bunch of fish on 'em, and they are definitely trustworthy rods. They throw, well, they hold up and they're great customer service.
Demo (01:01:47):
I've never had one problem with them. If you need to get your hands on reels, he's got plenty of ones in there. Conventional, uh, uh, rigs definitely all set up for different types of fishing that you could need. It's a one-stop shop if you're into firearm or firearm accessories. He's got you covered there with Ninja Tactical. I can tell you more about it, but, uh, unfortunately the sensors don't like that, so we're not gonna say anything else other than if you need optics or parts, they got you covered. Ninja tackle va.com. Go take a look, get your order in today. So running in social media that you like, you've had the positive there. We've all had the po negative, positive and the negative, but let's, uh, let's go on to this one. What has been the biggest lesson learned after running in these social media circles, doing the stuff you've posted and continuing on with content?
Travis (01:02:31):
Uh, the sensory side of thing, , like you was just talking about in the debate talk. It's, uh, it's, it's bit me in the butt a couple times. Uh, Facebook and TikTok don't like certain stuff and, uh, it's still nothing bad. And I mean, you're always gonna have your, uh, again, I, I can't say this the way that I want to say this again for sensory, but you have your naysayers and your people that don't approve of what we do, which is mind boggling. Like, I mean, it's cra crazy to think that there's still people like that, but, uh, teach their own, you know, not everybody was raised the way we was and you can't control that. But, uh, I'd have to say really that that's it, you know, between some, some of the sensories. I actually just had a, a TikTok removed that I posted over, which was, it's crazy.
Travis (01:03:21):
And for one, it's been posted for months and it just, just got removed, which I find crazy. And it was all, it was, was a video of a foul hook sandbar. I had a FA video of a foul hook sandbar. It got it up, it showed my guys running down there, grabbing it, pulling it up. I walked up, seen it was foul hooked. And, uh, I, I jiggled it loose, tossed it off to the side and drug it out. Nothing bad at all, you know. And I got notified by TikTok that it, it was removed for animal abuse. And, uh, all my TikTok is, is shark fishing. It's all 100%. And besides a little bit of like, uh, turtle stuff, I, I like playing with turtles. Every now and again, we'll get our alligator stabbing turtles and our common snap turtles and stuff. I'm that weird guy that if I see a turtle in the road, I'm stopping and I'm pulling it out outta the road. Uh, like, uh, Matt with FC Fish Co, he always calls me the Florida Steve Irwin , because I'm, I'm always out there grabbing a hold of something. But, uh, really that's, uh, that's really the only negative that I've had and I've been lucky enough to not have a whole bunch of ne negatives on it. Uh, most of the people that check out and follow me are usually pretty supportive of what we do. And, uh, because I, I do push the educational side of it pretty, pretty heavy on my social media.
Demo (01:04:47):
That's good of you, man. And yeah, it's, it's definitely one of the, the rougher side of things. So with the social media, let's get into the final bit here and get you outta here for your days to go spend with your family, what knowledge would you give to a brand new I'm starting out today, angler?
Travis (01:05:08):
Uh, stay consistent. I mean, that's the big biggest thing I can say. Try new stuff. Experiment. Uh, don't, don't get stuck in a too much of a pattern. Uh, and consistency is key. If you're planning on doing it, even just a hobby or something, you wanna get into consistent knowledge, uh, mark your stuff down. If you catch something, mark down or write down, start your little book. What bait is working for that point in time? Uh, what leader is working for that point in time? Cool thing about pretty much any kind of fish is everything is migratory. Whatever you catch right now, at this point in time, there's a good chance you're gonna catch next year. At that same point in time, book your knowledge, uh, the more stuff you can have booked is gonna get easier, is gonna, I mean, fishing's easy, everything's migratory.
Travis (01:06:01):
Once you learn a good pattern, you'll be able to repeat it over and over and then you'll pretty much remove your guessing game. It's, you're, it's just like studying for a test. Your side notes for a test back in school. Same thing works for fishing book. Your little bit of knowledge, your timeframe, date, season, whatever little bit of information you could think of to put down, you can repeat that same process over and over. It takes all the guesswork out of fishing, which is 90% of Phish is hoping and guessing once you get a couple years into it, that book will benefit you so much, so much.
Demo (01:06:41):
Nice. Very, very well done. Now you kind of covered a bunch of the other questions there so I can basically ask you the last couple here. loving it man, just made it simple. Uh, let's do the first one here. Where can people follow your fishing adventures on social media?
Travis (01:06:59):
Hometown Sharker on TikTok, I got a hometown Sharker on Facebook also. And then Travis Lucas, which is my personal page on Facebook, I post the most on there. Uh, Travis Lucas, 76 on Snapchat. Uh, you'll get a lot of my pre posts on there 'cause I'll post as it's happening on my Snapchat. And uh, I think, uh, you could search it up. I think it's Little Trav 8 5 0 is how you would search it up on Snapchat. And then, uh, the Travis Lucas 76 also on TikTok or Hometown Truckers. So either one of those that I should pull up the, uh, TikTok account. And I do Instagram also tra or Hometown Sharker is also on Instagram. It's not posted as consistent, but a lot of the guys that support me on there post for me. So you'll see a lot of tags and stuff that pop up on my Instagram and, uh, yeah, or YouTube also Hometown Shark or Hometown Shark, hometown Shark Adventures on YouTube.
Demo (01:08:06):
And all of that will be linked back on finding the most surf phishing.com. Under the information of this episode, it'll also be on the transistor homepage, so you can link up on all those and make sure you're following, uh, Travis on that whole one and the team. All right. Uh, second to last question for you is, who's the sponsors that you have?
Travis (01:08:23):
Alright, sponsors I had to shout out to is a Batson Enterprise. They're awesome, man. Best, best rod you can get. They do custom rod blinks. I mean hop hold 'em. They're, why, why go through a rod of year when you can get a rod that lasts you a lifetime? Uh, FC Fish Cove, they're local to here, here in Florida, forgotten Coast Fish Company. They do an all natural shrimp bait and liver bake for you fresh water guys. It's all naturally salt preserved with added scent to it. Uh, we'll have to say reaction, tackle their line, uh, top tier and why, why pay hundreds of dollars for line when you can get something just as good for a little bit. And also, I got my code, uh, PS 15 off that has, that has saved you some cash on there too. Keepers only co man, uh, again, the hat, they're freaking awesome. They've sponsored several events for us. They do all fishing apparel and uh, code for them is the shark guy. All capital letters. They're, uh, keepers only, uh, company, the Williams top-notch tackle leaders weights, man, I guarantee they can be anybody else on their shipping. Super quick. You order it. I've, I've had 'em get it to me in two days because I've had a turn tournament coming up. Uh, St. Joe's Shrimp Company, again, a local company here. They do, uh, local seafood and bait, freaking phenomenal people.
Travis (01:09:57):
And uh, I think, I think that's it. , uh, well we wall Wiggler bait and Tackle. They're here in We Wall Hitchcock, Florida, super awesome people, uh, family owned su super great. They're all, they're all su super great companies.
Demo (01:10:17):
That's excellent man. Great job on all those ones. So, I mean, we pretty much nailed into the entire episode here. Let's get into the last question. What's next for you?
Travis (01:10:26):
I mean, the better and improve man. Uh, I'd like to get a little bit bigger on my social media. I think I'm up to, uh, 45 or 4,600 people on Facebook. I'm pushing two grand on TikTok. I'd like to get more followers on my TikTok. I do great on my, uh, interactions and my likes. I think I'm almost 50,000 likes on my TikTok. Wow. But under 2000 followers. So I'd like for my following to pick up on there quite a bit. But ain't nothing I can do for that. If people don't smash the follow button there, I can't make 'em smash the follow button. people are loving the content. 'cause I mean, I see people with 50,000 followers that's not got 40 plus thousand likes. So I'd like, I'd like the people to start following the TikTok more. And, uh, I plan on doing a little, a few more travel trips. Uh, like I said, we got the tournament coming up this weekend for Florida. We're working on, I wanna do a Texas trip. I wanna do a East Coast trip. South Carolina. We got a quite, quite a few little things in the works for this coming, uh, couple years. So a little, little bit more travel stuff, uh, new pbs, you know, the basic stuff. And, uh, just a lot more information, man. I'm, I'm huge on the educational stuff. I got a few more species I wanna knock out that might might be coming soon.
Travis (01:11:54):
And yeah, uh, I feel like, I feel like that's, that's really it just to improve. I want to better what we do and get, knock out a few more travel trips and uh, just grow, grow more. Just keep on, keep on,
Demo (01:12:09):
Keep on. That's all you can do ever, right? ? Uh, that's good stuff, man. Okay, so here's a weird thing. I think I'm still recording. My computer is now officially frozen.
Travis (01:12:22):
Yeah, I see you're not moving no more, but yeah, it's, it's still recording.
Demo (01:12:25):
Yeah. So what I'm gonna do is, uh, I'm gonna try something here. Hopefully it does what I think it's gonna do and it's gonna hold. But let me try this. I'm gonna be right back. Uh, just hang out there for a second, okay?
Travis (01:12:38):
Alright, I gotcha. He froze. That did go by really quick though. An hour and 12 minutes already. And
Demo (01:13:04):
There we go. The joys of technology. It's still stayed recording and I can fix it later. Oh no, you can't hear me. Okay.
Demo (01:13:19):
After playing all the technical glitches here, now we're back on. Alright, so Travis, thank you man. Seriously, I, I really appreciate you spending the time with me this morning. I know I messed you last week. Uh, we were supposed to record and I screwed that up. And thank you for being patient and coming back on. Uh, I'm excited man. I'm excited to see the contents that you keep on doing and all the fun things that you're gonna keep building on. I think you got a long cool career ahead of you and I think you're gonna nail it and rock it outta the park, man.
Travis (01:13:46):
Thank you. And, uh, yeah, and I, I get it, things happen. We get busy too. Uh, it would've been cool last week 'cause you know, we was on the beach and that we caught the, that tiger shark and within the timeframe that we would've been on the podcast . Interesting. But hey, it happens. Life, life gets sometimes, so it's, it's cool.
Demo (01:14:05):
It's better. It's better. You weren't distracted. Oh,
Travis (01:14:08):
Yeah. I it would've been cool to do the interview while hooked up to that thing though. That would've been , but I look forward to doing it again. Uh, this is definitely, definitely cool. We'll definitely have to talk again about it sometime.
Demo (01:14:21):
Uh, definitely man. All right. You take care of yourself. We'll talk soon.
Travis (01:14:24):
You too.
Demo (01:14:25):
All right, ladies and gentlemen. So there you go. We've had a great conversation with hometown Sharpers Travis Lucas, it was a good episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Hope you picked up some good knowledge. Keep doing the good things you are. Yeah. Appreciate you always coming back here to check out finding demo surf fishing. Uh, everything will be linked back on finding demo spearfishing.com. And you can take a look and listen and then go back and link up with all the stuff that, uh, Travis said. We'll all be hyperlinked back there and you can follow him in all his adventures. You been listening to finding DML Surf Fishing. I'm outta here.