Thank You Fishing Guides, Fishing Experts, And Fishing Gurus!

I never thought that at age 36 I would go an entire month without:

• Wearing shoes
• Driving a car
• Watching TV
• Getting on the mainland (we lived on an island and didn’t get on the mainland the entire month of March)
• Shaving
• Showering frequently (I did manage to shower about every 5 days)

And that was just the tip of the iceberg of what happened during March Fishing Madness: Warrior Strong!

While Luke, Andrew, and I were down on Little Gasparilla Island, FL from Feb 28th to March 31st, we had a truly unbelievable experience. We were able to:

• Take Wounded Warrior Scotty Lilley out fishing, to have an absolute blast with this incredible guy, and to create memories on the water for someone that almost died for our freedom that neither of us will ever forget.
• Make many new friends on the island that were nice enough to come over and support the cause any way that they could.
• Catch loads of snook, redfish, and trout.
• And last, but certainly not least, to interview some of the most amazing fishing guides, fishing experts, and fishing gurus in the industry for a great cause.

Huge Thanks To The Fishing Gurus!

Salt Strong can’t thank you all enough for taking your time and your energy to do these interviews to help raise support, money, and awareness for all of the Wounded Warriors out there fighting for our freedom.

Not to mention, taking a complete risk to do an interview with two new guys that you didn’t even know.

That means a great deal to Luke and I, and I can assure you we won’t forget the list of fishing experts that took a chance on us whenever you need any favor or request in the future…

Moreover, part of the live Google Hangout interview process had Luke and I asking some fun “outdoor, fishing, hunting, and camping” quiz questions at the end of every interview. Because since it was “March Madness“, we wanted to at least have some sort of competition to keep it fun and entertaining, even if there was no real money or big prize involved.

However, we did tell all of the fishing guides that we would donate a portion of our $5,000 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project in their name (to give them some recognition for participating in a great cause) if they were one of the top 3 fishing experts that had the most questions correct at the end of month.

And as you probably saw, Captain Jeff Maggio (aka Lunkerdog) kicked off the very first interview, and it went amazing. Great guy, great stories, and a ton of fun.

However, after the interview was over, Luke and I realized that we had an issue…

The quiz questions that we were randomly selecting were way too hard. In fact, most of the questions we asked Jeff were questions that Luke and I had no clue how to answer ourselves. And that isn’t a good way to start a fun and friendly competition for a good cause. Somehow, Capt. Jeff managed to get a few of them correct (aka Lunkerdog has some smarts).

So after that first interview, Luke and I were forced to go through the entire set of questions (hundreds of them) and pick out only the most relevant and possible to answer questions. Then we threw the relevant ones back in a pile and only picked from that pile going forward.

And because of the quiz changes (and the fact that this is all for recognition only with no real money on the line), we decided to recognize all of the fishing guides and fishing experts instead of just three of them by splitting up the donation recognition equally.

However, because two of the fishing experts that we interviewed answered all of the questions perfectly, it was only right to give them a little more recognition (Amazing job Cameron Kirkconnell and Tom Rowland of Saltwater Experience for getting every single question correct).

Thank You Pictures

And yes, these are all different pictures as my wife took well over 30 of them before I was happy with them (I am a master of getting perfectly back into position every time).

Tom Rowland (of Saltwater Experience)

To see the Tom Rowland interview, click here.

Cameron Kirkconnell

To see the Cameron Kirkconnell interview, click here.

Captain Jeff Maggio (Lunkerdog)

To see the Capt. Jeff interview, click here.

Captain Lacey Kelly

To see the Capt. Lacey interview, click here.

Florida Freedivers

To see the FL Freedivers interview, click here.

Peter Miller

To see the Peter Miller interview, click here.

April Vokey

To see the April Vokey interview, click here.

Johan Attby (FishBrain CEO)

To see the Johan Attby interview, click here.

Captain Ryan Lambert

To see the Capt. Ryan Lambert interview, click here.

Darcizzle Offshore

To see the Darcizzle interview, click here.

Sam Root (Salty Shores)

To see the Sam Root interview, click here.

Flukemaster (Gene Jensen)

To see the Flukemaster interview, click here.

Jeremy Gwynne (Mystery Tackle Box co-founder)

To see the Mystery Tackle Box interview, click here.

The Sailsmen Fishing Team

To see the Sailsmen Fishing Team interview, click here.

Patrick Rhea (Livit Films)

To see the Patrick Rhea interview, click here.

Conclusion

Once again, a huge thanks to each and every one of you fishing guides, fishing experts, and fishing gurus that took the time do to an interview with us for a great cause.

The March Fishing Madness: Warrior Strong could not have gone any better, and we are forever grateful for your support.

To see the highlight videos of each day from the month-long event, click here now.

Donation Disclaimer: The full $5,000 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project from Salt Strong was donated in one lump sum deposit a couple of days before the island departure so that we could live up to our promise of donating our full pledge during the event. These individual checks are for recognition purposes only, and they do not constitute individual checks being sent to the WWP.