About Bob Aquatic

Some of my first memories are fishing. I don't even remember taking this photo so the fishing goes back even further. Must've been maybe four years old or so? Certain words naturally build in your vocabulary when you are that young. The word "Dinghy" was an immediate association to the tiny boat my father used to reach his larger Lobster boat. The concept of catching lobster and selling fresh fish seemed like, "Hey isn't this what everyone's parents do?"

When I was little we'd go fishing with bobbers at the park for pan fish, net blue crab in the summer or catch snapper bluefish in the harbor in the Fall. Fishing was fun, although I enjoyed the shore life more, like flipping rocks for crabs. There was a series of saltwater lobster tanks in my garage growing up. I think my dad knew I went in there so in addition to lobsters he'd randomly place sea horses and other species like toadfish. Kinda like an ever changing saltwater touch tank I could explore.

In 2005 I graduated high school and went to a community college. Most of the people in the classes were from all ages and walks of life. I found it tough to meet friends. 

A few years prior I really gained an interest in Striped Bass fishing. I had caught some on boats but never really focused on shore fishing for them. 

A lot of the community college classes would end early in the day so I'd bring the fishing rod and tackle to school and fish afterward. It became a routine. There was no instruction manual, no internet videos to learn from and no rules to follow. I'd see other anglers out fishing and ask questions. Between 2005 and 2010 I repeated this Striped Bass solo fishing escape routine. Every season slowly getting better and dialing in the bite. Each year I'd catch more fish and try new techniques. 

During this time I also developed a career working on film sets in NYC. This led to a little bit of a hiatus from fishing until 2013. 

In 2013 I moved into an apartment in Bushwick Brooklyn. After settling in that year I decided to try Striped Bass fishing in the city.

It was essentially like starting from scratch. All that time learning how to catch them was out the window. The city fished completely different than the areas I grew up understanding in the Long Island Sound. The Striped Bass behaved different, the tides were different. I'd roll up to the Coney Island beaches chunking bunker only to catch dog fish after dog fish. 

Everything clicked around 2018 after a lot of skunk years. First Jamaica bay made sense, the East River, the ocean. Then in 2020 all the film sets stopped and I was out of work. To avoid the world I'd just go fishing. 

A few years prior I took an interest in spearfishing and enjoyed watching youtube videos about it. They would film first person perspective of the dives and I learned a ton watching the raw underwater footage. 

So one day I decided to film my fishing trip in a vlog format and put it up on Youtube. I had been uploading to youtube since 2005 with many different accounts, some with success and most none at all. But I loved sharing my videos regardless of views. This was the start of the Bob Aquatic Youtube channel. It is now the end of 2025 and were still going.