“If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” How many of us have heard that statement? The older I get, the more I tend to agree with the sentiment. After all, how many of us wouldn’t love to turn our hobbies into a career that pays a lot of money?
One of my favorite pastimes is fishing, and I’ve been blessed with 2 boys who also love to fish. When I ask them what they want to be when they grow up, they respond with “I want to fish.” Whether that’ll be their answer as young adults is unknown, but it got me thinking…how might they make money fishing?
In this article, I’ll review 15 ways to make money fishing. I’ll also rank each opportunity with my opinion of Earnings Potential and Ease of Entry.
Earnings Potential is defined as:
- Low: <$5,000 annually
- Moderate: >$5,000 to <$50,000 annually
- High: >$50,000 annually
Ease of Entry is defined as making some amount of money:
- Easy: within 6 months
- Moderate: between 6 and 12 months
- Difficult: 12 months or longer
#1: Start a YouTube channel
Earnings Potential: High, Ease of Entry: Difficult
There’s a YouTube channel for just about everything, and fishing is no different. If you don’t mind being on camera and are willing to learn videography, a YouTube channel is a great way to monetize your fishing hobby.
Starting a successful YouTube channel isn’t easy though. It takes persistence and patience as you work to grow an audience over time, so don’t expect overnight success.
The primary way to make money on YouTube is from ads. As your channel grows its audience, advertisers pay you (and YouTube) for ads placed in your videos. To monetize your channel, you’ll need at least 1,000 YouTube subscribers.
A successful YouTube channel could be a life-changer, but there’s a lot of competition. Look for ways to set yourself apart from others and attract greater viewership.
There are very few barriers to starting a YouTube channel, but gathering enough viewership to monetize it will likely take longer than 12 months. However, it may be worth the effort as a successful YouTube channel can generate hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, each year.
#2: Affiliate marketing
Earnings Potential: High, Ease of Entry: Moderate
Affiliate marketing is when you promote a company’s products to others and it results in a sale for the company. Because the sale resulted by your promoting the company’s product, the company pays you a commission. Coupling a YouTube channel with affiliate marketing is the best way to boost earnings.
A lot of companies offer affiliate programs. Are you a fan of Huk fishing gear? Or only fish Shimano reels? How about your obsession with Bass Pro Shops? These are just a few companies in the fishing industry which may offer affiliate programs.
Even if companies don’t list an affiliate program online, reaching out to them directly is a good idea. If your audience is large enough, or you’re winning all the local fishing tournaments you enter, you represent an opportunity for the company to market its products and make money. It’s a win-win.
Entrepreneurs who have success with affiliate marketing are typically successful because they have a large audience. However, it takes time and consistency to build an audience, hence generating any amount of money within 12 months would be difficult.
#3: Start a fishing blog
Earnings Potential: High, Ease of Entry: Moderate
If you don’t mind writing and are semi-tech savvy, starting your own fishing website or blog is another way to make extra money. With enough traffic, a blog could even become a career.
Basically, a blog is a compilation of articles. Just like YouTube videos, there’s a blog for everything, fishing included. You could write about the best places to fish, review life jackets, or explain the anatomy of tropical fish. Quite literally, the possibilities are almost endless.
One of the easiest ways to monetize a blog is with ads. Similar to YouTube, advertisers pay to place ads on your website. As the blog owner, you get paid every time an ad is seen or clicked. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. Google Adsense is probably the most popular choice amongst bloggers looking to monetize their website. Side note – Google Adsense can be used for YouTube as well.
Ads aren’t the only way to monetize a blog. It too can be coupled with affiliate marketing to boost earnings.
Similar to starting a YouTube channel, a blog has high earnings potential, but will likely take multiple years to reach peak performance. A blog is successful when it draws a lot of traffic. The good thing about a blog is you can start generating ad revenue with very little website traffic. It likely won’t be anything substantial for at least a year or more, but $20 per month is a start.
#4: Become a professional fisherman
Earnings Potential: High, Ease of Entry: Difficult
Obviously, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but there are professional fisherman out there, so it’s a possibility. As a bass fisherman, I’d love to join the Bassmaster Elite Series. What’s cool is, there’s nothing preventing me or you from registering to qualify. If you have the skill, and time, to participate, you’re technically only a few successful fishing contests away from becoming a pro fisherman and competing in national competitions throughout the US.
A quick search on Google shows the average professional fisherman makes around $70,000 per year; this excludes sponsorship deals. This isn’t a bad salary to fish for a living, but there are a lot of anglers competing for a limited number of spots.
#5: Catch fish to sell locally
Earnings Potential: Low, Ease of Entry: Easy
Another good way to make money fishing is by selling your catch to the local market, restaurant, or resident. Restaurants love to claim they serve the freshest of foods, and your score of rainbow trout or catfish may help to prove this claim valid.
Catching fish to sell locally may require living in an area where there’s a market for fresh fish. A lack of restaurants and potential clientele is sure to make selling difficult.
#6: Compete in local fishing tournaments
Earnings Potential: Low, Ease of Entry: Easy
If you’re not interested in becoming a professional and prefer to maintain your amateur status, consider competing in local tournaments. Many local tournaments offer prize money to the winners. It may not be much money, but getting paid to do something you love is icing on the cake.
Registering for local tournaments is step 1, winning them is step 2. If you’re a skilled fisherman, becoming a local legend may not be too far from reality.
#7: Get a sponsorship
Earnings Potential: Low to Moderate, Ease of Entry: Difficult
You don’t need to be a professional angler to get sponsored. With a social media following or repeated success competing in local tournaments, getting a sponsorship is a real possibility. But don’t expect big fishing brands to come searching for you. It may take some initiative on your part to seek out sponsorships. Partnering with a local bait shop, fishing business, or start-up tackle company may prove to be an excellent idea..
Gather enough followers on social media or win all the local tournaments and a sponsorship may be in your future. However, building a reputation and growing an audience take time, so it’d be difficult to start making sponsorship money within a year.
#8: Become a fishing guide
Earnings Potential: Moderate to High, Ease of Entry: Moderate
If you live in an area that attracts tourists and outdoor enthusiasts, consider starting a fishing guide business. Your knowledge of the terrain, best fishing spots, and tackle could be a decent money maker. You could sell various packages based on fishing season and take anglers on a guided fishing trip to all your secret honey holes. You could set up a fishing camp and host your very own catch-and-cook.
Business is likely to start slow as a fishing guide as you work to land customers, but with every successful fishing trip, your reputation will build, likely resulting in repeat customers.
#9: Own a pay pond
Earnings Potential: Moderate to High, Ease of Entry: Easy
The concept is pretty simple. Own a pond, stock it with sizeable fish, and charge anglers to fish in it. You could also run a bait and tackle shop alongside the pay pond to supplement income.
Owning a pay pond is all about location and quantity/size of fish. When people pay to fish, they expect results.
#10: Make and sell your own lures
Earnings Potential: Low, Ease of Entry: Moderate
Do you enjoy tying flies or designing your own fishing lures? There are bait and tackle stores all over the US that partner with smaller brands to place product in their stores. You can also partner with local bait shops and convenient stores to place product on their shelves. It takes some initiative on your part, but with some effort, you could be selling your product to local fisherman in your area.
While it’s possible to grow your brand into a national enterprise, the likelihood is slim. Selling lures to local bait and tackle shops is more likely to be a side hustle than it is a full-time career.
#11: Raise fish to sell to fisheries and Natural Resource agencies
Earnings Potential: Moderate to High, Ease of Entry: High
Fisheries and Natural Resource agencies buy fish to stock local creeks, rivers, lakes, and fish ponds all over the US. Many agencies operate their own hatcheries, but a lot supplement what they can’t provide. Consider opening up a hatchery and selling your catch to local government agencies.
Owning a hatchery and selling fish to outside agencies has the potential to be a career, but it’ll likely take a lot of capital, and a year or more to understand the process and land new clients.
#12: Become a Fisheries Biologist
Earnings Potential: High, Ease of Entry: High
If your love for fishing runs deep, consider majoring in it. Many colleges and universities offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fisheries Biology. Those with a real passion may even consider getting a PhD and becoming a college professor.
As a Fisheries Biologist, you could find yourself working for your state’s Department of Natural Resources or the US Fish & Wildlife Service. A lot of what Fisheries Biologists do is fish (aka sampling) to gauge the health of the fish population in lakes and streams. And you won’t even need a fishing license!
Becoming a Fisheries Biologist will require a minimum 4 year college degree, but most higher salaried positions require a Master’s or PhD.
#13: Become a videographer
Earnings Potential: Low to Moderate, Ease of Entry: High
If you can’t be the angler with a successful YouTube channel, maybe you can be the guy behind the camera of the angler who has a successful YouTube channel. After all, it’s hard to fish and hold a camera at the same time. If you’re good with a camera and know how to edit, perhaps you can make good money making fishing videos for someone else’s channel.
Unless you’re already buddies with the next up and coming angler on the Bassmaster Elite Series, it’ll likely be very difficult to land a videographer gig.
#14 Become a commercial fisherman
Earnings Potential: Moderate to High, Ease of Entry: Easy
Consider joining a commercial fishing boat or chartering a boat yourself to chase yellowfin tuna, salmon, or other species people love to eat. The job is sure to be a lot of hard work, but may be another way to turn your favorite hobby into a career.
With a willing attitude and a love for hard work, becoming a commercial fisherman is a real possibility.
#15: Sell deep sea fishing tours
Earnings Potential: Moderate to High, Ease of Entry: Moderate
Tourists love to vacation at the beach, and many love the adventure of deep sea fishing. With your own boat, you could sell deep sea fishing tours to out-of-town anglers, and share in a few of their life stories. Show them a good time and you’re likely to have landed a customer for life.
Similar to becoming a fishing guide, building a customer base to sell deep sea fishing tours is sure to take time.
- Pre-Investment Questionnaire: How do you know if a stock represents a good investment? My free Pre-Investment Questionnaire can help.
- See inside my stock portfolio: Want to see inside my stock portfolio? Take a peak into all my accounts: 401K, Roth IRA, taxable, and international holdings.
- 4 attributes of stocks returning 100x: What makes a stock return 100-to-1 in the market? History gives us the blueprint. Let me show you the recipe.
