SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's going on, y'all? Welcome back to the Corpus Christi Originals podcast. I'm your host, Estue Laudio. Uh today we're going behind the scenes uh with a man who has a massive following on TikTok showing raw reality of fishing on the Texas coast, specifically near Corpus Christi, Texas. Uh he's a content creator, a local guide, and the engine behind the Texas Gulf Fish Hunter brand. Let's go. What's going on? Hey, what's up? You doing all right? What's your name? You doing good? You went fishing today? I did. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. For the people, so so I found your TikTok page through you showing us where to where to find the fish and stuff like that, which is something I wish I had when I was younger, learning how to fish. Uh uh for for the people that don't know you, like can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do?

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Yeah, uh, I'm Brandon. Most people call me uh fish hunter. But um, I just uh I started going live just for the fun of it. And then people just started being really awesome and building into a community, and so I just started helping people to get on fish and it kind of blossomed from there. It's just kept climbing up, and I'm like, okay, yeah, let's do this. Because I'd never seen that kind of sport, especially on the internet. Like, oh yeah, that's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

For sure. It seems like it's live on TikTok too. Like, like live meaning like uh a lot, there's a lot of creators doing fishing on TikTok.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Yeah, yeah. Um, I honestly don't really know what exactly sets mine apart. I mean, I got kind of a peculiar style. Um, I do my all my stuff's first person, like you know, like I told you before, unless I'm holding a big fish.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

And uh so people recognize me by my hands, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Yeah, so it's I don't know. I and I don't know why people like my voice. I don't like it. That's funny. So I'm surprised they stay.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

At what point did you get used to hearing your voice? Like, because you have to edit and then like hear yourself talk.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Yeah, it's I just I don't know. I just kind of got used to it. I never really thought about it. Yeah, I was like, okay, well, gotta get past this. Like, they don't seem to mind, so we'll just roll on with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, so uh was there a specific uh so okay, so you're not originally from Corpus Christie, which meant we were talking about this earlier. Uh and you said that when you did find Corpus Christi, like you felt like you were home.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Talk about a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

I I just fell in love with it here. There's so many fishermen and of course fishing places, yeah. And then, like, I don't know, the people here, man. I hear people talk crap about this place, and you will about your own hometown. But I'm sitting here and I'm like, you all have not been anywhere close to where I've lived. Oh wow if you're talking crap about this place because Corpus is gorgeous, and the people here really, they like most of them have just been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah, that's so cool to hear. Yeah, it's cool to hear, man. Like, because we're like you said, we're always talking bad about it. A lot of us grow up like, oh, we need to leave Corpus, there's nothing to do here, la la la, all this stuff. And to hear somebody come from a different place, like to say that is it's like, wow, cool. People actually some people actually think that this is a cool place, you know.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

I mean, I came from like literally the mountains of Appalachia, like yeah, the closest Walmart being like 45 minutes away.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Damn for real.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

Yeah, and like there was nothing there.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

So then to come here, and it's like there are tons of different restaurants and kind of hidden little places. Man, I've been exploring for two years now, and it's I'm still finding stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Wow, so cool.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

I'm like, how have I driven past here without noticing that little spot back there? I I love that, man. It's like the and this is just like an artistic place. Ah, and I'm into it. Like that's good to know. It's really cool. It's a crazy mixture of art and fishing.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Oh man, oh yeah, so up north, man, that's freshwater up there, bro. What's the difference between freshwater and saltwater?

SPEAKER_04 3:37

Huge difference. Yeah, I mean, it's the species mainly. Um, a lot of the techniques from freshwater, you know, you can easily adapt it to uh saltwater, but usually everything's a lot smaller in freshwater for the most part. Because like your normal size redfish, like your keeper size, are that's an insane fight. Oh, sure. That's like fish of a lifetime in freshwater for the most part. Like unless you're going after crazy stuff like giant um catfish or sturgeon.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Stuff like that. There are the fight is hard.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

How do you say uh much more harder for the saltwater fish? You're saying?

SPEAKER_04 4:12

I I feel like you have a much better chance of hooking up on something like serious, you know? Like even the small the younger versions of sharks, you know, stuff like that are usually like bigger than in any largemouth bass you're gonna catch. Stuff like that. And so it's like I'm catching these babies and they're massive. Oh shoot, compared here.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah. Well, yeah, so freshwater fish, and I and I was we were talking earlier, somebody told me on Lake Mathis you could use, and this Mathis is probably totally different from where you're from, but they were saying you can use soap to catch fish, yeah. And we were like, What? Like from saltwater fishing, like what are you talking about, bro? Is that like can you catch with stuff like that in freshwater?

SPEAKER_04 4:53

I mean, there's there are certain species that'll just randomly eat stuff. Yeah. Um, I've seen people catch on corn. Just a regular sweet corn, they have a can sitting next to them. Yeah, and people get creative and it can pay off.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah, that's cool, man. Yeah, so you so you came from up there, came down here, uh, freshwater fish. Uh the new pier, the pier just opened up, Bob Hall Pier. And it seems like, like, and I'm wanting I'm wanting to think that there's a lot of fish out there now because of the pier hasn't been there for a while, and maybe the fish are going around there. Do you study that type of stuff? Like, what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, uh any sort of structure is gonna kind of change the ecosystem. But I mean, especially whenever you're out in the surf like that, what you're like seeing is that's a place for bait fish to hide. Bait fish, yeah, bait fish, smaller uh pinfish and perch, things like that, whiting croaker, which are awesome to pull up and use as bait. I did that today actually. Oh, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

So you did it today and then threw recasted it out, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

No, either alive or cut it, you know. So it's really good to get a fish from the water or any sort of organism. If you can find blue crabs, that's gonna be good bait if you pull it up.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Yeah, so it's like that's what's there, that's what they're gonna hit.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

And get the bait, so get the bait from wherever you're fishing to fish for bigger fish. Yeah, if you can, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:15

If you can, that's always an awesome feeling. Oh, okay. To be throwing out there and then end up pulling in something like a bycatch, what they call it. Yeah, I um I did that also at Mud Bridge. I ended up catching uh pinfish that was probably like six inches, just way too big.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

I still put it on live. I ended up catching a huge you put that whole thing on there?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

And I caught a huge trout. Like I couldn't believe that trout went for it. What it didn't care. Didn't care, bro. It's really cool to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Oh man, that's dope. Yeah, so the Bob Hall Pier, and you were out there today. Is it was there a fee going on the on the bridge? Um, was there what? Like a fee like three dollars to get on the bridge.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

No, right now to get up on Bob Hall, it's uh free for the first 90 days. I couldn't tell you what date it opened or when it's gonna close, but you can look it up. It's free right now, so it's packed with people.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's packed with people, and you were and you were having problems today with like crossing lines and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Yeah, that happens. And there wasn't even that many people, it just happens. Like, it's just a part of it. It really is. I mean, some people are more negligent and you'll end up they'll end up crossing you three or four times, and but then it's just something that happens. Like me and my crew, um the guys on my team, we started up a team, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Um, they were out there with me. We were crossing each other, and we've we've we're seasoned fishermen, we've been fishing for a long time. We still crossed each other, and it just happens.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah, so yeah, you got a team. What what what's up with that?

SPEAKER_04 7:37

Yeah, we started up uh a little fishing team. We're wanting to start doing some team tournaments. Okay, just for the fun of it. It's just really just a group of like really awesome people that just love fishing and talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Okay, just like just a couple of buddies like hanging out, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Yeah, that's mostly what it is, but we're that's the plan. We put it together, and I think I'm gonna make a new TikTok and stuff just for the team and stuff like that. Maybe get some support, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

That's so cool, man. When did when did you first get get into like actual fishing? Like what what was it like what was that moment that you were like, dang, I want to do this like all the time?

SPEAKER_04 8:10

I gotta tell you, I was fishing before I can remember.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

And so like, I mean, there was never like this aha moment really, but there are some really good uh memories from catching like um some like really big uh like gar. Okay, I'm just like a little kid, so that thing's as tall as me. Wow, you know, because there are some big uh fish in saltwater. So crazy freshwater, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Fresh water, okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

So I'm like, you know, especially as a kid, how excited you get that you're like barely hold on to something like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Is that how you felt when you caught your first saltwater fish or um I was just excited to catch anything out of saltwater. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

See, I um I didn't grow up with any sort of a wealth, we'll say. So I didn't even get to really go to saltwater until I was 16. And so like it was it was mind-blowing to catch anything out of there. And so now and then like I got to come here and I did it on uh some vacations later in you know life, and then now I'm coming here, and like a lot of the people on my live, they got to see me catch the first one of each species that I've caught.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Yeah, so it's been a really cool thing to like share with people.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, and how do they respond whenever you cut out?

SPEAKER_04 9:21

Really? I could hook into anything and they all get pumped for you. That's what I love about the community.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Yeah, everyone's excited. I'm just as excited if someone next to me hooks up. I mean, my heart gets thumping still.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

That's amazing, man.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Yeah, that's amazing. I've been fishing for over 30 years, like, and I still my heart gets so cool. Get that adrenaline, man. Just get excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Uh and you did you do your lives mostly on TikTok? Uh uh, what's the what's the first uh saltwater fish you caught?

SPEAKER_04 9:53

The first saltwater fish I caught, I think it was a hard head. Okay, okay. Hardhead catfish, just your you know the ones you don't touch, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Because whatever you get electrocuted or whatever. No, no.

SPEAKER_04 10:03

No, they've got some uh they've got some spikes in their fins and stuff. Okay, and it does have a toxin, and uh it hurts really bad. Yeah, I don't think it would kill you. It wouldn't it didn't kill me, but I've been hit by uh uh freshwater catfish my whole life and they hurt. Oh really? Oh, okay. It'll it's like a tiny little wound, but it's there's so much pain for what's okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Like, can you eat freshwater? Because you can't eat the uh the hard head one. You can you can. Um I'm not recommending.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

I'm not recommending that anyone does. Um I mean it's a fish. Yeah, it's a fish. And I have.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

You know, it's not something you go after, but I mean, as far as like I don't know. Me personally, I just kind of do my own thing, and other people ask me a lot and they're like, is it safe to eat it? I was like, I don't know. No idea.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

It seems like that's the seagull of the of the what the salt water down here, the the the catfish. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

I mean I I know people eat gap top, that's a normal thing. And it's just another, I don't know if you know what that is, but it's it's just another type of the catfish. Okay, they got really big long fins. They look wild, like they've got some really long fins on the top and sides.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Yeah, it's real wispy looking. They're really cool. And they call it a gaff top because it looks like a big sail on the tip on their back.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Oh, okay, cool. I've I've probably only seen pictures of it.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

They're really cool. I mean, I think they are.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

A lot of people like to avoid those and the hard heads, of course, you know, because you're just you're aiming for these species of game fish.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah, do you so do you throw all your fish back like all your fish back? Do you keep all your fish? Like what what is your nah?

SPEAKER_04 11:34

It just depends on the day. Okay, I've had days that I've gone out and didn't plan on keeping and then catch just like a perfect keeper size red. I actually did that a couple weeks ago. Wow. And I saw I always keep a stringer with me. I strung it up and just went on fishing. But yeah, it's sometimes you'll go out there to do it. And a lot of the times I'm just kind of fishing for sport and yeah. I and I try to show people how I take care of the fish and stuff like that, especially whenever I catch like monsters.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

Like those are the ones I'll never keep.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Take care of like what what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Like you want to get a picture of the fish as quickly as possible if that's what you're doing. Me, I'm live, so I it's being shown while catching it. So I can get it like unhooked and in the water, and especially these uh larger fish. Um, you hold on to them, you keep a hold of their tail and you kind of pull them forward and backward so you can get the get the movement going. Yeah, get that through its gills, get them, and then that's like people call it CPR.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

You kind of resuscitate them and then they get to kicking and then you let them go. Also, it's a really cool looking on camera. It really is, but yeah, I I like to take care of the fish. If I'm not gonna keep it, I don't want to hurt it. Oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, man. I don't want to kill it, like even if it was keeper size, I just want to take care of the fish, you know, because these are animals, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how how big are you on on you? Are you on uh the amount of fish that are out there? Because we got like game wardens and stuff like that. I don't know too much about it, but I know that they're out there and I've heard about game wardens like catching seeing the fish that you catch and maybe throwing them back. Yeah. What what what's what's the deal with that? What's your take on that stuff?

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Well, I mean, they they make the regulations to protect the populations of different species of fish, um, and they keep track of it. And so they they're biologists and stuff. This is what they study, and it's for conservation, it's to make sure that we have fish for future generations. Okay, you know, so whenever they see a big drop in a number, then their regulations are going to change. Sometimes they'll outright stop anyone from being able to catch them for a season.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Really?

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Yeah, if it gets that extreme, but it's on it's for a reason, and those game wardens are there to make sure that people aren't going against these rules, and these rules are not for no reason, it's for the conservation of the fish.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

So we could so we could actually we we could actually run out of fish, would you say?

SPEAKER_04 13:51

I mean, you can you can wipe out a species of fish. I mean, it's just like any animal that's gone extinct because of humans.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

It can happen. I'm just glad that we have a system in place to try and avoid that. And like, uh, that's why there's an off-season for flounder, is because they go out, that's when they spawn, that's when they make more, and you can, you know, and you can actually access the information. Um, you can look it up, like the numbers of fish and how that's trended from years past.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

To see if those numbers drop, see if they go up.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Wow. Wow, amazing.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

So they're trying to avoid completely wiping out the species.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Okay. Yeah, obviously it's it's that's pretty cool to have that in place. Yeah. To to know that uh species can actually get wiped out by by us. Yeah. Makes me think of like the buffalo and stuff like that. I don't know too much about that stuff, but like just how the buffaloes kind of extinct. Not the the bison or whatever they were that was here on on this land, whatever stuff like that. Um, yeah, that's pretty cool. And so so I the way I found you was obviously you would look on the map and you would say, Okay, this area is cool, and you would zoom in and you would show it. That was that was amazing to me. And you and we were talking before air that there's seasons that fish they they move around. Yeah, right. And is it like yearly that they move around? And is it the same type of cycles? Like, is it different? What is top of that?

SPEAKER_04 15:14

There's there's like two different ways that I kind of think of it and describe it. Uh-huh. And one's like a clock. If you think of the entire earth, and I'm just talking about marine life.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

And like how they move. And it's not just how they move, but it's like all these little gears of every type of uh like condition. What's the barometric pressure doing?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

What moon phase is it? Because that affects the tides and everything else. What's the water temperature versus the ambient temperatures? Um, you know, what's the what's the AVI? What's the AQI? Like it's all of these affect each other in a different way. And that's and it kind of makes it into a math equation. That's the other way I like to think of it.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Cause and then at the end for different species, because you also have to think of the species when they're spawning, when they're eating, when they're going to be most aggressive or least. And so then you end up with uh just like this answer at the end of this whole equation, and you can go down the list and be like, okay, well, this is most likely where they're gonna be, this certain species, this is what they're gonna be eating, you know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

You know, uh Paul Kingman says TGFH. Awesome, man.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

I'm glad you're watching.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yeah, that's cool. Uh yeah, that's pretty awesome. How you make it sound like uh super like like intelligent, like there's a math and a science behind this. Yeah that uh like you can catch a fish at any time like if you wanted to, because no of knowing that information, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:42

I think I raised my odds. I mean that's really what it is. It's knowing all this stuff, but at the end of the day, they are still an animal, and sometimes they'll surprise you by doing the complete opposite for an unknown reason. So it's really it's it's like a gamble, but you're just like hedging those bets, you know. You're yeah, yeah, yeah. You're you're setting yourself up for success. And it's I mean, that's why I catch, and that's why people who I like help catch, and I love getting pictures from them. Yeah, I tell people, I'm like, send me pictures. Oh, okay. If this helps you, send me pictures, I want to see them.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah, tag, man. Tag us, bro. Yeah, too for sure, man. So not a lot, not not a lot of people will give out this information, bro. What uh why why do you decide to give give this information out to people? Uh you know free, it seems like you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

I mean, I I just like helping people catch fish, man. I told you, I get just as excited with when somebody beside me hooks up as I do, and I'm like, I don't know. I wish someone could have helped me out. You know what I mean? Because you can go out there, especially whenever you're like, because a lot of people come here to visit, right? You know, or they just come down on the weekends to fish. It's like it's a popular place for people to travel to, and you know, you can take make that whole trip, bring your kids and everything. And if you don't know what you're doing, you can have a really disappointing time as far as fishing goes, which me personally, I don't even have to catch. I just I'm happy to be fishing one way or another.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Happy to be out there. Do you have a radio with you? Like uh like whenever you're out there, or how do you just like it? Is there a lot of passing the time waiting for a fish to look out? Oh no, man.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

I well that's that's the thing. I don't usually have that long of a waiting game. Wow. I'm trying not to sound pompous, dude. Not but you put the right baits out there at the right time. It's usually not that much of a wait. Now, like I went um live this morning, I didn't even look at any of the conditions. Oh, wow. I just knew my buddies wanted to go out to where we went to, and so I met up with them and we fished.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

It wasn't great fishing, but it was fishing, and we and that was more of like a waiting game to let's just see what hits. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Because you don't you know you haven't studied or whatever, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

It was more leisure, like it was just me going out and like sharing that with my live viewers. Usually it's somewhere a little easier to get to and stuff like that for that. But yeah. So, you know, sometimes, like I said, you can go out to just a random spot and throw in. You might get lucky and catch a ton without any study if you want. Well, but I try to refine it because you know, when people only are able to fish on Saturday and have to go back Sunday, yeah. They should be able to go where the best place that they can.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

I've heard the term uh honey hole. What what what is that? Is it is that a controversial topic to be asking about?

SPEAKER_04 19:13

The code word for a secret spot.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

It's like this is where this one if I had a honey hole, it'd be a certain spot. Nobody knows I go to, I protect it, I don't tell anyone. It's that sort of thing. Problem with a honey hole is unless it's like literally a farm pond, when you're out here in the salt and it all connects to the ocean and stuff, like that's gonna change. You'll go out there and get skunked some days. Oh, but that's every spot.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

If you're not looking where the fish are going and you're just fishing the same spot, because I always make the joke, I'm like, fish can swim.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

So they swim. People and so you'll see like a thousand people like all in the same spot, throwing into the same spot. I'm like, you know, they'll they'll swim 20 yards up that way away from all these people.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Away from all the hooks.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

That's where I'm gonna be. Yeah. You got a hundred like sinkers falling down around your head. I leave.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

I wouldn't stop to eat, you know. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and it so okay. Do you need do you need a fancy boat to like go out there and catch fish?

SPEAKER_04 20:12

I'm inshore. So inshore means what does that mean? Uh that means that kind of like what it sounds like. I'm I'm on the shore, or I'll wait out if I have to, especially like if water's way down and you need to get out deeper, like in the bay and stuff like that. Okay, yeah, I'll wait out and stuff. But yeah, it's generally just like not on a boat. Um, which I've I've been on a uh boat actually. I got invited out by a captain. I've been invited out by a few uh of the charter captains. Oh yeah, the guides. Yeah, they took me out. That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Is it different? I mean, is it that much?

SPEAKER_04 20:44

Yeah, it's way different. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

That's cool. Uh it seems like the the ground would be a little bit further down, and it's like, do you cast all the way down to the ground? Or did you like mid-water? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 20:55

There's different, there's different weight, right? Yeah. Um, whenever I was out on that boat, I fished bottom and I also fished under a popping cork, which is afloat.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And it's like, how far is it supposed to go down? All that other stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

So it's like that's a whole nother uh thing. It's like, okay, can we determine are they gonna be eating down low on the bottom or are they gonna be going toward the top? And there's a lot of factors that'll factor into that. So then you've got to change your methods and your rigs and your leaders and your hooks and everything.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Everything, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Wow. So it's it's like it's all complicated, but I like to I like to do that work for people so that they don't have to.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

That's so cool, man. It just kind of like makes me feel like an ebook or something, bro. I gotta make some money off of it.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

That's awesome. I've got some stuff in the works.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

You do? Oh, well, yeah. So we're talking, speaking of that, you have uh what is it, a leader? A leader leaders for leaders, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

I've got leaders in R and G Bait. Okay, where's that at? Um, that is over in Flower Bluff. Okay. Um it's just on the right up there. It's easy to find. I always off the highway. Um, yeah, yeah. You get off the highway in Flower Bluff and just kind of go down there. Um it's on the right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

I'm pretty sure most fish people, fishermen, fishing people know where it's at.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Yeah, there's a couple uh bait shops on that side of the road, too. It's like before you get to bait bucket if you're heading to the island. Okay. And uh it's a really obscure blue building. Is it really? Yeah, if you like look up, just type in RG bait, yeah, you'll easily find it. It's the weirdest building, it's the most unique building.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, how did you get into like more to wanting to like have like leaders for self for your brand?

SPEAKER_04 22:29

You know, that was never an idea. Like that was not something I ever did. Um, I have had a lot of people ask me about my leaders, and they're always like, Where do you get them? I'm like, I sit down and I tie them. Like I'll sit down like like a grandma that's knitting, but I'm tying rigs. Wow. I'll I'll take days like that. I call them maintenance days. Seriously. That's the days I'll clean my rods and everything too, because I just have to, you know. But um yeah, no, I uh I went in there one day, uh, and it was just it was a random chance that that was the first bait shop I called up to get some bait, and they had live shrimp that day, so I went in there. So then I get a message like that next night, and someone's just and I get a lot of messages, a lot of random messages, and I don't even know why I answered it, but but they're like, Do you ever go to RNG bait? And for some reason it's just like, Yeah, I just did, I'll see what this is. I'm like, Yeah, and apparently it was like the manager, the person who runs the place. Wow, and they had recognized me. They they couldn't figure out where they knew me from, and it was another um another someone recognizing me by my hands because I'm not in front of the camera. Yeah, yeah. I think I'm the only fisherman that I know of that paints their nails.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Oh, yeah. Well, now I was thinking that hey bro, you know, I when I saw you, I thought automated automatically, like this guy listens to metal for sure, right? And there's a lot of us out here. I mean, my the the producer here, he's got black nails, he's in the metal. Like, it's not uncommon to have a bunch of metal heads out here, bro. Especially fishing out there.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

I listen to rap more than I do anything. Oh no, get in believe it or not, right on, bro.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Yeah, I think I think we're we're kind of in that eclectic range. Uh Maya and I I listen to everything too. Uh, but that's pretty cool, man. So so they recognize you from the from your hands, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

And then like first thing he said was if you ever want to like collaborate or something, let me know. And I was like, Yeah, I do. Wow, this is a bait shop, man. That's that's awesome. So I got to know them. Man, they are awesome people. So cool. Yeah, they're like the new management there. Wow. And um, man, they've just they're really bringing the place like into a more like modern place, you know. Okay, they do really good, man. They work so hard.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

What do you mean? So they're bringing it more, and we're talking about RNG, uh, was it tackle shop?

SPEAKER_04 24:42

Uh uh bait, just bait, I think. RNG bait shop.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

We'll check it out. But so what how what do you mean by they're making it more modern?

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Well, I mean, the first thing is is they put the best leaders and corpus in there. My leaders. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. No, but they um they're doing that, they're putting up some more um like a lot of new shirts and stuff, uh, with their logos and things on it. Okay. Um, they're just making it not just your average forgettable bait shop, which I mean a lot of people like that. You can walk into any bait shop and it's a copy of the last one.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

And so they're like doing more, and I think they're like working more toward um like bringing the community in. Um I think I think they're gonna be setting up some just like small tournaments and raffles and things like that, just to kind of bring it. Yeah, I've kind of tried to help them out with uh some ideas too. I mean, it's really mutual what we do there.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

Like my people um they want to come in there and get my stickers, my leaders, and then they support them.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

And uh I all the time people are like, hey man, RNG told us about your TikTok, stuff like that. So it's it's really mutual, yeah. That's nice. Yeah, it's helpful. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot more work together.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Yeah, that's awesome. So how come why how come leaders uh out of the all the fishing gear that you that you put on your rod well?

SPEAKER_04 26:01

I I've I've been making my own leaders for a long time, and I trust my fishing knots a lot.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

So you make your own leaders, and the leader is the weight, right? Obviously, what's the leader?

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Okay, so the leader is basically the end of your line. Okay. So you got your main line, mine's always braid. A lot of people use braid, but then on the end you make you have a fluorocarbon, which is uh lets light pass through it. It's also breakable because you can't break uh braid very easily if you get snagged up.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

The leader is braid, or then the okay, the line is braid.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

So these leaders are made of fluorocarbon. They've got a uh barrel swivel at one end that you can tie your line onto, and at the other end they have uh assortment of any sort of hooks. Where you can hook onto it the end of the. Yeah, just a hook. Okay, okay. So I got you. Then any weight you can put it on your main line or whatever. They can be used in a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

So you make the lead, the the actual leader itself, you make it wow.

SPEAKER_04 26:53

Yeah, I make the leaders. I've been refining these leaders down to like exact sizes, brand, everything. I'm not gonna give away my uh no, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

But so you it is a lot of it like you see you mentioned tying or or knitting or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

Yeah, I'll sit and tie it.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:08

Yeah, I've gotta have like special tools and you know, gloves and stuff, so I don't slice my finger out.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Wow. So what so how what do leaders how how do you how much how do you how much do they how much do you sell them for? Or what do they usually sell for?

SPEAKER_04 27:20

I I gotta be honest, man. I'm not sure um exactly what they're selling them for. We don't do really a consignment sort of thing, so they pay me a set price. Oh, that's cool. And then they sell them for however much. I honestly I don't know the numbers on it, but they're not really expensive. I mean But it's it's a it's one of those things that are like, okay, uh, I got a lot of people that want to have my logo on something because they've always asked for stickers and things like that, and I'm I'm just not mailing them out or selling them online or anything. So like the packaging to my leaders, I should have brought some, I should have gave you some, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

No, it's all good.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

You could probably put a picture on one of the but yeah, it's got like the background is is a more simplified version of my uh logo and stuff like that, and then the stickers have my actual logo and says tight lines because I say that at the end of every one of my uh live streams, and I say at the end of every one of my uh forecasts.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

What is that?

SPEAKER_04 28:10

What did that mean? Tight lines tight lines, it's just it's just a thing, it's a really general statement that fishermen say to each other. It's like, I hope that your lines get pulled tight.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, I gotcha. Wow, yeah. Yeah, so how do you keep so I this is probably a basic question, but how do you keep it from like busting like your lines or your your leaders and stuff like that from whenever you're fishing? Because it seems like there's a lot of a lot of weight on oh yeah, you know what I mean? Like, and even the rod, you mean maybe even the rod could snap too, but I guess oh your drag is important.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

Drag a lot of people don't understand their drag. What's the drag? So there's a setting on your reels. I use open face reels or spinning reels. Um setting on top. If I tighten it up, I can't pull the line at all.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Right.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

If I loosen it up, then I can pull it. If I loosen it real loose, then you can just pull line pretty much free.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:00

So that drag is important to have enough tension to fight the fish, but not so much that it can't fight back and pull your line out. Because you're well, you you've heard of like um like 40 pound test.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

That means that line can only take up to 40 pounds of pressure. And if I'm hooked into a massive fish that has more power than that, oh sure, then when it reaches closer to that 40, it's gonna be able to pull line out rather than snap it.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

And so it can make for longer fights. But if you learn to like use that, then I mean you can literally have super light line and catch a shark.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Really?

SPEAKER_04 29:33

You just gotta wear it out.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Crazy. That's what I was gonna say. So do you put like what hundred-pound tested line on everything just to be sure?

SPEAKER_04 29:40

I mean, some people will uh set them up like that and basically winch them in. You can do that, but you also gotta think, you know, thicker line because it's heavier pound test, it's a lot harder to catch fish when they can see it. Oh, you know, stuff like that. So it's like you want to find that middle ground if it's like, okay, you gotta kind of finesse it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Wow. And what's braid you mentioned braided. What what is that?

SPEAKER_04 30:04

That's I actually never used braided line until I came here and started saltwater fishing. Wow, really? Like it was always uh monofilament, just clear white line.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yeah, yeah, like nylon, like a nylon line or what because I'm thinking guitar stream, but it's pretty classical.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

The braided line is like material. Okay, like it feels like thread, okay, thick thread, and so it's I guess it's a lot of small braided thread.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

On top, probably on the or wrapped on the outside of like a plastic, not plastic, but whatever. That makes sense. But it's why do you shift? So how come you shift it from the that clear one to the braided?

SPEAKER_04 30:36

I mean, honestly, um, when I came here, I met my buddy Scott, and I am never afraid to like learn, you know. So I especially come into salt water, and he's been fishing saltwater for a long time, and that's what he used. And I was trying to set up and everything, you know. And so I started using it, and I was like, man, because if you pull off like monofilament or uh fluorocarbon, if you pull it off of your reel, or if you cast it off your reel, it twists up. This doesn't, it's like thread, it's literally like thread.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

So cool.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Yeah, so it's like that's a big thing. I don't tangle it up as much because it's not trying to spile on spiral on itself. Oh, wow. And it casts really smooth and it's smaller than monofilament. So I can have like 10-pound test monofilament, and I I mean 10-pound test sprayed would be I mean microscopic.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Yeah, oh crazy.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

So you can put a ton on your re reels and stuff, which be light and be light, kind of like kind of like carbon fiber and aluminum, whatever. Yeah, yeah, that type of uh I look at it. That's so awesome. Well, guys, if you've been listening up until this point, appreciate you guys. This is uh Texas Gulf Fish Hunter. Check him out. He's on uh Facebook. I'm sorry, uh TikTok mostly. Are you on Facebook and YouTube?

SPEAKER_04 31:46

I you know, I have a Facebook and I have a YouTube, but those are just kind of like backups. I don't really post to him very much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we'll start getting on that a little more.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Oh, that's cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

But if anybody doesn't have TikTok, then they can start getting on there because I'm gonna start keeping up on them.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Yeah, for sure. Also, you guys, if you're if you don't know where to find these full videos for the Corpus Christi Originals podcast, they're all on YouTube. They're also on audio version on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, all kinds of places that that uh my hosting service pushes out. If you want to watch the long form, also the clips are everywhere: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Uh there's clips on uh YouTube as well. Go check it out. The website is currently being revamped. Uh, I have two websites, and I'm probably gonna combine them. One is corpuscristials.com, which was the clothing brand, and the other one is CC Originals Podcast.com. I'm gonna put those together soon so that way either one will go to the same uh location, so you can find episodes on there uh that you want to watch. Uh also we're streaming from Purdue Sound Studios, Corpus Christi, Texas. If you're interested in doing doing a podcast like this, uh this is a place you can rent out for your own podcast if you're interested. Uh yeah, man, that's so amazing. Um thanks a lot, Paul. On YouTube, he says awesome interview. Uh yeah, braided. Yeah, that was actually on here, braided and monofilming and why specific waters. Uh, what's one piece of fishing tech that you think is totally overrated?

SPEAKER_04 33:15

That's a weird question. You caught me off guard. I've been doing pretty good up to this final. I don't want I don't want to sit and have to think all day, but something that's overrated.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

So we're talking we're talking fishing, uh GPS, uh maybe like an app that people can use, or uh maybe something with your rod, or maybe type of bait, like like how do you find the fish? But like we're talking about the science of of like uh how to find the fish and where they're at, yeah. Stuff like that. That's interesting information too.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

I mean, the only I I can't really think of anything that's like overrated. See, like that's my whole thing. And I I mean I even say it a lot. You'll have two dudes who both catch fish consistently and they do it completely different with different equipment. Wow, and they're arguing who's doing it better. You guys both have fish. I don't so it's like I can't, I've never like used fish finders or anything. I don't know if they're overrated. I don't know if they are or not, or like drones or anything. That's a big hot button. Drone, really. Oh my god, that's a huge issue. Oh, wow. Hear about it nonstop right now. That's bad or good, but outlawed them.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Oh, are you serious?

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Yeah, and I hear a lot about it. I don't have a whole lot to say about it because I don't use them.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Outlawed it because they can find the fish.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

Man, I I don't really know the reason, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

So crazy, bro.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

Yeah, I mean, it's illegal to use them to fly out. Um I don't even think you can fly bait out, which a lot of shark fishermen do in the surf um and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Um maybe it's the waters like uh the the whole pirate international waters thing.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

I didn't know if it was because there's like a uh airbase here or I don't know. I yeah, I'm sure there's some reasons, but I don't have but people are always on my live asking me about that too, and they're and I'm like, I don't really know.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Like they're wanting you to try it out?

SPEAKER_04 35:00

Like they're no, they're just asking me what my opinion on the ban was because it was huge, like it really bothered a lot of people, especially people who go out and spend three thousand dollars on a drone and then it gets outlawed. Oh, and they can't use it. Yeah, and so that's I imagine that was a cause of a lot of anger with that. But yeah, that was something that um changed since I've been here that was that affected the fishing community a lot.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Oh, that's interesting, bro. I gotta get into that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

It would be it'd be something to look into.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Oh, yeah, for sure, man. And there's there's a lot of people doing drone shots of the city. And in fact, I reached out to a couple of them for some content for another podcast that I do. I've got to ask some people about that. That's pretty cool. Uh, how much of the tide really matters compared to the moon phase of the upper Laguna Madre? I got this from Chat GPT, bro. I'm just trying just trying to throw questions out there.

SPEAKER_04 35:46

That was a mouthful of words.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

So Laguna Madre, what is that, bro? I've heard that before.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

It's uh that's my problem out here is like trying to figure out what areas, what they call certain areas. Oh, okay. Um, I did go out there though, whenever I went on that um without with that captain that invited me out. And we went up there, it's just like it's like its own bay, sort of, it feels like when I was out there, I had no idea where I was. I like I had no idea how he was like, because I mean he had clearly been you know on a boat since he was able to walk, but yeah, uh, but we just got out in the middle of there. I'm like, I have zero idea what direction would take me to anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Like you needed a comp you need a compass, bro.

SPEAKER_04 36:24

So I mean, I know there was at one point we weren't at Laguna Madre anymore, but no, yeah. Um as far as those conditions goes, is like I was saying, they all affect each other and stuff like that. People will focus in, like they'll learn about one condition and they'll focus on it. Okay. And like you'll have one dude swear that if the baryometric pressure is low, they're gonna catch, and then someone else says, No, when it's low, that's when you're not gonna catch.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Where?

SPEAKER_04 36:48

And it's like because it it changes, it's also a spectrum, okay, but it's affected by every other condition that is happening, and every other condition is affecting every other condition.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Where what's their baryometric? That's what temperature of the water. No, the baryometric pressure is like I wish I had a dictionarial guys in the chat in the chat, help us out here. I do it on my live a lot. That's so cool, man. Uh, yeah, so uh there's two things that we were talking about before air. Well, one I want to talk about like the they're wanting to do a plant right here in the city, and then wanting to put the brine inside the bay for desalination. Yeah, desalination. How much do you get into that? Like, how much do you think that affect would that actually affect the sea life if they was to put it?

SPEAKER_04 37:34

I mean, it absolutely will affect it. Okay, the way they go about it's gonna change how it'll affect it. Like, how many regulations do they want to have? Are they gonna watch it around the clock?

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Regulations like how much they're gonna put in there and all this stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

What kind of how are they gonna dilute it? I don't work for a place like that, so I'm not gonna be like an authority, but um, yeah, any structure that you put on the water is gonna affect the marine life, and plus we're pumping water out of there, which is gonna change the landscape, it's gonna change up patterns, it's gonna frankly it's gonna kill some micro organisms and things like that, and it'll throw a pattern off. Now, if they're just like blatantly just dumping stuff in there that fish can't survive in brine without anything, yeah, it's gonna really, really affect it. So it's really like a and I mean structure in the water can be good and can be bad. You know, it can mess up spawns and stuff, but it can also maybe cost some structure for something to spawn better, you know?

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Like it's it's a balancing act, and it's really just kind of it's on whoever's in charge of that to you know to see that it's regulated and to to hopefully not because they say kill the bay. They're saying it's oh it would kill the bay or whatever. I don't know nothing.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

I don't know enough uh to really just like throw an opinion. Like that's a strong statement.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Oh yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

I would have to have more information before I would even say something like that. But yeah, I mean, if you just look at the basics of it, you know, there's only a certain amount of salt that they can live in and breathe in and things like that. And if you're not properly diluting it, then you're just pouring salt directly back into the water, and be like be like pouring too much salt into a saltwater tank all of a sudden, and now your seahorses are dead.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Oh damn, that's crazy, bro. Yeah, the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on the earth's surface caused by gravity. I'm even more confused, Paul. The way I the way I think of it is like thanks for sharing that, Paul. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

If you're swimming, yeah, and the further down you swim and the more pressure on your head, okay. I think it's like that basically, but not in the water. Um, but that affects like different organs in different species. So like their swim bladders and stuff, it can make them come up, it can make them go, it could make them go deeper.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Could probably possibly kill a fish if it went too deep, it just depending on how much. I don't think so. I mean, I don't think I don't know. So, man, so and then another thing I want to talk about uh was you're giving out all this information, and a lot of the guys that I that I've heard from are like they don't want to give away their spot. Yeah, is uh and it seems like you're just like, hey, check out this spot, check out this spot. Do you do you ever get any backlash from people? So much you do?

SPEAKER_04 40:19

So much for you giving up their spot. Well, I mean, I'm not giving up their spot. Okay, I'm not giving up a spot. Okay, I just know like I'll just oh there's a spot right there, you're driving past it, you can go fish there. And if I'm fishing there and I'd say, hey, you guys try this spot. Yeah, or if they see me catch a fish there, but I think a lot of my longtime watchers are starting to understand that the fish patterns do change with the conditions and things like that. And so it's not so much the spot, it's the all the conditions, and what spot can I I'll point them to different spots based off where the fish are, okay, or where they should be.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

So somebody's spot like their fish aren't always there all the time.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

No, no, I mean you'll get skunked if you fish the same spot every single time. There's days you'll do awesome. Yeah, there are days you will get skunked and not catch anything. Oh if you're not if you're only fishing that spot and not moving based off of or changing up your uh methods based off of the uh conditions, um, then you know it's just gonna be hit and miss.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

It seems like uh it seems like you can only call it your spot if you actually own that. That's what I was thinking. You know what I mean? Because it's public. Like I mean, this play these places are public, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:31

That you're showing I mean, I it's you know, humans are territorial. They are, even in spaces that that don't really belong to them. Um but it's you know, people are just some people are that way. But man, I gotta tell you, the fishing community here has been nothing but welcome.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Like you could walk out right now, I guarantee, onto that pier and just walk up to someone and ask them if you can have some bait and they'd hand it to you.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 41:54

They'd even tell you how they're using it. Wow, like it's I have never seen kindness like this. It's nuts.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

That's amazing, dude. Yeah, that's really amazing about about that you're saying that about Corpus. Because like having this podcast and just playing videos out, the people everybody's got an opinion, bro. Oh, they do. Sometimes it's I don't even want to look at the comments, like just you know, I don't even want to respond to them. Just unless Facebook is like, hey, you need to respond to 14 comments to get the next whatever, I'll do it. I'll just put like eight cool whatever. But for the most part, there's there's too much of that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

Until you get used to it, man, whenever you get insulted, it it hits you. Like whenever you're like a content creator and you're on there, and some people just for no reason, when you first start, man, it I lost a little sleep over some things. Now I just hand I give it back to them. Honestly, I don't even have to anymore. I have so many people that just like if anybody has something to say, they like to mention my nails. Not so much anymore. Whenever I was like a smaller channel, just a couple thousand, especially. Interesting. It seemed like people were like fine with it. Now I've just got a ton of people, I don't even have to say anything. And then I've got I think 17 moderators. That way I always have moderators all the time.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_04 43:07

Yeah, I just keep growing that. I just find people who I'm trusting who are always there and always supporting and helping me answer questions because I have to split my attention between fishing and the chat. And so they'll and once somebody does that for long enough, I'll ask them and be like, Hey, you want to be a moderator? Yeah, and so like they're like I keep saying they're like uh those quick gun cowboys, man. I I'll see that someone got blocked and I didn't even see what they said.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah, and do you want a cowboy hat? No, I don't me either. That's so cool. Yeah, yeah. Having those mod when you when did you realize you had to do like live instead of like uh actual just vid edited video or whatever?

SPEAKER_04 43:43

I literally just did it for the fun of it.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

Just to try it out, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

I was because I'd already said that before I moved here. I was like, I would like to try and make a TikTok and just do some live fish and see how it goes. And then like it literally just blew up from the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Why do you think people like fishing videos? Because it seems like the

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Because they're they have to work. They're oppressed by having to work and do everything else other than fishing and they're passionate like I am, but I'm a distraction. It's a distraction. And they're getting to see something that is happening right now and they're part of it. And then they can talk to you. So they're even more a part of it. And like I think that is an appeal of my uh how I do mine is that I talk to the people like by name. Like you, I even had somebody talking about they're like, they were saying, you know, I watched this other guy and he's always just like, What's up, chat? And that's kind of the as close to the people as they get. And I'm thinking, I thank every single follower that I can catch. I try my best because sometimes I'll get rushed with them. Yeah. And I'll get like 17 of them, or I'll be catching a fish, and I get follows, but I try to thank every single person by name for following just because I'm I'm thankful that they followed. Like that's really awesome. Yeah, it's amazing. Like it's almost like a community that you're growing. Oh, it definitely is.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

Right.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

People are getting to know each other in my chat that never knew each other. And then I'm getting to know people. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

How's that feel? Like for you, like that's really amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:05

Yeah. Feels like you got someone, like all these people have your back. And uh the craziest part is getting recognized out in public. That's that's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean it is, but also like I don't know how to react because I've never been in a situation where people know me and I don't know them.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Man, sometimes I'll scare people off when they're looking at me in public, and I'm like, why are they looking at me like that? And then some of them actually have the courage. Oh, I follow your podcast. Yeah, and I'm like, oh shoot, I forgot I forgot that I was in out in public, you know what I mean? So it it I I feel y'all know for real.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

Yeah, I like it. It gives me a little bit of a big head, but then at the same time, I like, you know, I don't really have a lot of confidence as a person. Like I I have more than I ever have, though. Like, I'm not a pompous person, but I have I feel like people care. Okay, and then people are entertained by me. And like I think I I think I've I've made some friends, like I'm not great at making friends, but then these people like I start talking to them and they already know me. They've already knew me. Wow, and then I get to know them. It's like I got a chance to kind of they got a chance to get to know me first.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Do you what do you feel like you need to like share your opinions or stuff like that? Because I've I've been hearing lately like uh like I'm the face of Corpus Christi Originals, and then maybe people want to hear my opinion or whatever. Do you feel like you need to share not your opinion, but like your your thoughts on certain things that could be related to your your brand? You know what I'm saying? Is it do you feel like they need you need to do that for them to get to know you more or um not really, you know?

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Most of my stuff isn't like planned out at all. Um, it's really not. Like I went into this, like I feel like I'm more genuinely myself than I've ever been in my life up to this point. Like, really am. Um, and I I brought that into my TikTok. Like what you see is what you get. I'm gonna be the same on there as I'm gonna be in person, like it or not, that I'm gonna be genuine about it. So I don't really even like um plan anything, man. I so I get into these conversations with people and it's just random, man. It's always different, it's always changing. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

That's so cool, yeah. Cause a lot of us can get caught up in like what other people are thinking and this and that. But at one point, whenever you just let that go, you're just like, oh I know they're gonna see me like this, whatever, I'm gonna be like this anyway. Like, what's why am I gonna change it for for that?

SPEAKER_04 47:30

Yeah, I won't do it. I can't do that. I can't change myself for anybody, and yeah, you know, and I I don't think I'm that bad, so I don't think I need to change too much, but that's cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Uh is there anything you want to share? Um, not really. Um I I would like to mention R and G bait, though. They've been a super huge supporter. Um, they work really hard to have good baits and live bait and uh everything else you'd need, including my leaders and stuff. And so I really like to put to support those because I ended up getting to know them and they're actually really cool people.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 48:01

Yeah, so they're like people you can talk to as well when you go in there. They're just they're just chill, cool people. Yeah. But yeah, I like to thank them.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

Yeah, that's awesome because you you a lot of times with like corporations, you think you might never ever have a relationship with like like that with any business. Yeah. And it's like these local businesses actually care who they're selling to selling to. Some, I mean, not all of them, but like for the most part, you know what I mean? They care about who their customers and stuff like that. Yeah, and so it's cool that you have a relationship with them like that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 48:34

It seems to me like, yeah, of course they they want it's a business, they want to be successful as a business, but now it seems like they really just want to connect to the community a little bit more, too, like and to just be here, you know. That's cool. Like to exist outside of just like I said, like copied bait stores over and over. It seems like they're becoming like more active of a community here, and I think that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

I mean, which uh so you buy bait from that, which which bait, which baits do you usually buy from them? If you do, uh what kind of bait do they have there to sell?

SPEAKER_04 49:05

I'm gonna have my same boring answer. It depends on the conditions and the species. Like that will change, that will change really quickly. Like there are days that dead bait will be better than live bait, and people don't think that's the case. They think if it's live, it's better. Some days, yeah, but it just depends on all the factors. It's like you'll know how they're hunting, how they're eating, and things like that, and if they're you know so it's it's that same boring answer, but it really all comes down to that just this equation that I've put together, and I have to so cool go through it. And I mean it's tedious, and I put a lot of hours in every week to do that, and that and I go out and I scout and I look and I do tests and I check, and I just do it, and then then people uh they watch my fish and forecast every weekend, every Friday.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

And so you do you have that consistently every Friday?

SPEAKER_04 49:53

Yeah, so nice around four o'clock. That's usually the best time to do it. People are getting off work and they want to fish on Friday. Oh they're usually off, you know, a lot of people are off for the weekend. So yeah, around four o'clock or so, I always make sure I have it up and ready, and that's usually gives me time to compile all the data from the week and get that all to be like current. It's like this is where they're at right now. This is the trail, this is where they're gonna be. Wow, this is what they're gonna be eating.

SPEAKER_01 50:19

Bro, why do you do that, though? That's good. It seems like it takes a lot of work. I would do it if I weren't sharing it.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

So may as well share. I mean, yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

We'll do some rapid fire, man, before we go. I don't know what that means. Rapid fire question, just like a maybe like a quick answer. All right. Uh live bait or artificials.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

Live bait.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Favorite local spot for a post-fishing burger.

SPEAKER_04 50:47

Oh, Padre Island Burger Co.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Nice. Early bird sunrise or sunset golden hour. Sunset golden hour? Corpus Christi Bay or I don't know what this is. Corpus Christi Bay or the land cut? Corpus Christi Bay. Okay. Best time of the year to fish the Texas coast.

SPEAKER_04 51:09

That's that's one of those that I it's basically the same answer. It depends. Wow. It really depends on the uh everything.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Wait, okay. So which season would you say was the best season that you had?

SPEAKER_04 51:21

My favorite is around February.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:24

Here I love fishing February.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Just recently. Yeah. Dang.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

Uh February, like early February, maybe even January. I like whenever it's a little too cold for most people to want to go out, and then I'm the only one out there.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

That's why I get all these fish to myself for a minute. Well, what's your theme song when you're launching uh when you're when you're going out there? My theme song. Yeah, what's your theme song?

SPEAKER_04 51:50

Oh man, I am constantly rolling through all kinds of different music. I don't know. I have no idea, man.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

What do you have in the player right now, bro?

SPEAKER_04 51:58

What have I been listening to? I listen to so much stuff, dude. It's really just on like random. It's either it's either on shuffle through a bunch of different playlists or it's just whatever Spotify plays. I was gonna ask, you use Spotify?

SPEAKER_02 52:13

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:13

I actually, you know, um, I like to listen to Queen Herbie. I don't know if you've heard of her. Going to see her in um two months, gonna get to see her live. Huge fan of hers. I would check it out. Nice. I would. I mean, it's it's like rap sort of stuff, it's kind of weird, but I'm I dig it. It gets me pumped up too. I I listen to her a lot, so yeah, that's what's up.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

Oh, she's oh she's a rapper. It's a she and she's a rapper?

SPEAKER_04 52:35

Yes. Wow, she's impressive and weird, and it's like it's it's just really it's really cool music. I relate to it. So I'm like, all right, yeah. So I listen to her a lot whenever I'm driving around, go into spots and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Nice, awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

Well, uh, is if the is there anything else? Uh let me see. Put can you plug your show your socials?

SPEAKER_04 52:53

I mean, pretty much TikTok, Texas Golf Fish Hunter, that's about it. Um, I also am on YouTube and uh Facebook. I'm just not so active on those. Yeah. Um, that's really all I do online as far as those go. I do have a Patreon at the moment, um, but I think I'm gonna be switching, uh, switching off of it and going back to subscriptions on TikTok. Because I did really well on there, but they weren't paying out, so I ended it. So I ended it and then they paid out. Yeah. So I'm like, well, if I start it back up, um, then that'll probably be next month, I think, when the 90 days is up, but um, I'll probably start that back up and that'll be cool. I mean, that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

Yeah, I saw I'm sorry, man, I got sidetracked. Uh it's all good. You you're how did you come up with that name?

SPEAKER_04 53:35

Texas Golf Fish Hunter? Yeah, yeah. You know, I've actually talked to somebody about that. Like, and this was whenever I got like I reached like a thousand followers, and I was like, I can't believe this. Wow, I can't believe I remember feeling that way at a hundred.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Holy smokes.

SPEAKER_04 53:47

But I was like, if I knew this thing was gonna blow up, I'd have probably thought about the name a little more because I just came up with a name on the fly, like out of nowhere. Pulled it out, and I'm like, okay, Texas Golf fish hunter. That's what I'm doing. I'm hunting fish in the Texas Golf. I didn't know it was gonna go somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

So there's not some story all no, no, there's not a profound moment.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

It's like a little bar popped up, and it's like, what do you want to call this?

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 54:14

I'm like, all right, well, let's do it. And then by the time like I got, you know, it started like jumping up in numbers on followers, then I'm like, and oh now I can't change it. Oh, we've got brand recognition. But if you had it, what would you change it to? I don't think I would now.

SPEAKER_02 54:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

I mean, I can't really, you know, I like it. It's growing on me. I mean, I didn't hate it in the beginning. It's just it's general, but I I like that it's to the point.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

That's cool, man.

SPEAKER_04 54:36

It tells you exactly what I'm doing and where.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Yeah. So la I guess I guess last takeaway from from you, uh not takeaway, but last piece of advice you would give maybe to uh anybody that's wanting to learn how to fish or maybe gets discouraged of fishing because they don't catch fish. Like what kind of advice would you give those those?

SPEAKER_04 54:55

I'd say I'd say follow me, go back through my videos. Um, I have instructional ones that have it in the thumbnail. I have literally have one that's beginner's guide to uh saltwater fishing. Wow, just giving all the basic stuff. Um, you don't have to spend a whole lot of money. And whenever you find the guy that says he knows everything about fishing, go ask somebody else. Because that guy doesn't know everything. I don't know everything about fishing, and I never will. It's ever evolving, and it is. So I would say just kind of take advice from a little bit of everywhere, and don't let anyone pound something in your head because it's probably gonna change or it's probably wrong. But I I mean, I I just want people to be able to use my TikTok as a resource to to get on fish more, yeah. You know, so it's like a community, it's also kind of instructional and it's kind of a social place, and that's what I'm building on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Nice, man. That's great.

SPEAKER_04 55:46

And you know what? If anybody wants to message me and ask some questions, I'd be happy to give them advice.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Cool. And the best way to message is on TikTok.

SPEAKER_04 55:54

On TikTok.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

All right.

SPEAKER_04 55:55

I may take a while, but I'll I'll help somebody.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

Yeah, it gets buried in there for some life. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah, thanks a lot, you guys, for watching. That was uh Texas Gold Fish Hunter. You guys give him a follow. Thanks a lot, Paul. Keep in on YouTube. Uh, probably the only viewer right now. But we're gonna reclip this, uh, reclip this stuff and put it out there for you guys. I'm sure uh he's gonna put this his clips and stuff of uh this stuff if he wants to. Uh oh, definitely, definitely. But yeah, follow us, you guys, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, everywhere, Corpus Christians podcast. Uh check out the clips and stuff like that. Um, you want to go out fishing, definitely check out his his resources that he has online on TikTok. Uh, shout out to Maya, the producer back there for making this look great. And uh thanks a lot, you guys. Have a good one.