Dramatic music. Rapid-fire cuts. Suspenseful narration. Huge paydays.The slick production values of Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks have made the show a mainstay on The National Geographic Channel for seven seasons. The reality, of course, is that a reality-TV show can’t come close to documenting the hard work undertaken by countless men and women who toil in the fishing industry day in and day out with little fanfare.
Commercial fishermen. Charter captains. Mates and guides. On-call fish cleaners. Tackle experts. The list goes on and on…
“There’s a lot of glamour with Wicked Tuna, and it’s funny to see how my clients react when we run past the Fishin’ Frenzy,” says charter captain of the Fly Girl, Sarah Gardner. “But what I like about that show is it does show how difficult the job is and how unglamorous it is. Over the course of your life as a guide, I mean, we call it ‘living the dream’ when your motor blows up, or you’re changing oil in your boat, or you’re driving to the DNR to renew licenses. It’s about as unglamorous as it can possibly be. You don’t have to scratch the surface to find the grit.” Commercial fishermen. Charter captains. Mates and guides. On-call fish cleaners. Tackle experts. The list goes on and on…
“There’s a lot of glamour with Wicked Tuna, and it’s funny to see how my clients react when we run past the Fishin’ Frenzy,” says charter captain of the Fly Girl, Sarah Gardner.

“But what I like about that show is it does show how difficult the job is and how unglamorous it is. Over the course of your life as a guide, I mean, we call it ‘living the dream’ when your motor blows up, or you’re changing oil in your boat, or you’re driving to the DNR to renew licenses. It’s about as unglamorous as it can possibly be. You don’t have to scratch the surface to find the grit.” It can be easy to lose sight of the grittiness of the Outer Banks’ fishing heritage when taking stock of million-dollar beach homes and crowded roads and shops during the tourist season. Yet the commercial fleet still casts its nets.

The charter fleet still introduces visitors to the thrill of the chase. And still, others make a living on the water in unconventional ways.
“I like to tell my friends it’s a love affair, but at some point when you get married, marriage is hard work and it’s a long-term commitment,” Gardner says. “You see a lot of people that get out of it because it’s just a lot harder than they think it is. It’s a lot. … I need to be able to make a living.”
Still, even when folks embark on different career paths, they never forget that first love.
Chris Mascio grew up in Manteo and was part of his step-dad’s commercial fishing operation as soon as he was old enough to cull crabs. He balanced his love of fishing with plenty of sports growing up, Mascio headed off to college, but the lure of his hometown brought him back after graduation.

Mascio got his captain’s license and started doing some charter fishing when he wasn’t busy in the commercial fleet hunting for giant bluefin tuna, but after several years of mixed results – and with a growing family to care for – Mascio realized he needed a little more stability and became a teacher for Dare County Schools.
“It all depends on the weather. If you don’t have good weather for a week, you can’t fish and you don’t get a paycheck.
There’s no unemployment for fishermen,” Mascio says of the decision-making process at the time. “It’s just the stability aspect of it when you have a family. Summer money is easy to make here. Winter money’s tough.” Mascio continues to work charters during the summer months – and fishes every chance he gets.

The freezer is stocked with his catches and of course the trades of shrimp, crabs, and oysters that every angler makes with friends. His family will eat seafood two to three times a week – “brain food,” he calls it with a laugh – with fish tacos being the primary go-to.
“I don’t have trophy fish on my wall. I have meat in the freezer,” Mascio says. “It’s a big sense of pride to be able to provide for your family. My kids really appreciate the concept of where their food comes from. That’s a big part of it, just appreciating it and not taking anything for granted because we’re lucky to have the best fisheries in the world here.”
Mascio has even managed to convince other family members of the value of “fresh off the boat” seafood. He recalled one vacation with his wife, Cassidy, and her family when a cousin saw Mascio cutting and cleaning a fresh catch for that night’s dinner.
“She said, ‘Well, it hasn’t been inspected.’ And I was like, ‘I inspected it – I know where it came from, I know what it was eating!’ ” Mascio recalls with a grin. “It’s that naivete that people don’t understand, that it doesn’t have to be touched by 25 hands to be good. It just comes from the ocean, nothing’s wrong with it. That first year, not many people ate. Then it was, ‘When are you cooking your fish?’ because everybody started getting it and it became our tradition. That’s the best part about all of it, is to bring that knowledge to people that don’t know.”

That includes sharing his love of fishing with his three daughters, who already have enjoyed some outings in which they’ve outfished the other adults Mascio has taken out with him. Countless anglers share that sentiment, including Mikey Sabadic when he’s out with “little man,” Brody.
Sabadic also grew up here and has been fishing his entire life. He never imagined that his high school hobby of taking photos and making videos of friends surfing might one day morph into a career, but Sabadic estimates he’s just a year or two away from being able to call himself a full-time kayak fishing guide.

The in-shore kayak fishing for trout, redfish, flounder, and striper keeps Sabadic and his customers busy much of the year.
A frequent companion on those trips is his son, Brody, who at the age of 7 already has caught more fish than most adults ever will. Sabadic cherishes their time together and even included his son in the Island Life Outfitters logo – the silhouette of one kayak fisherman in the main seat and his smaller sidekick behind him with another line in the water.
Aaron Kelly, who grew up in Kitty Hawk and has been in the fishing business since coming home after college, admits that it’s not an easy job to stick with.
“I wouldn’t push this on anybody unless they absolutely love it. It’s a tough job, a lot of work. Most people don’t make it more than about five years,” Kelly says. “They realize there’s a financial cap and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” Kelly, though, has been doing it for more than 20 years. He got a taste of commercial fishing aboard the Miss Molly. After two years of working off a trailer, he gained a coveted spot at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.
“Captain Sam Stokes of the Fight-N-Lady took me under his wing and spoke up for me and got me a slip at the fishing center and I haven’t looked back, haven’t stopped since,” Kelly says.

“You meet all kinds of amazing people – we’ve taken NASCAR driver (Martin) Truex Jr. fishing, we took the head of the Department of the
Interior fishing. It’s just neat to meet all the different people, whether it’s a plumber or stay-at-home mom,” Kelly says. “And what’s really cool about doing this, you take a dad and his son out, then the son comes fishing with you when he’s grown up and he brings his kids, and it’s just neat to see the relationship you build with these clients over the years.”
It’s moments like that that make it all worth it for the men and women who overcome so many obstacles to make it work. Weather. Catch limits and other government regulations. Shifting interests from the tourists. Through it all, though, they keep “living the dream” of a life on the water. They couldn’t imagine it any other way.
“I’m definitely doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” Gardner says. “I’m thrilled to be able to do it. And I’m thrilled to be able to make enough money that I can do some other fun things that I enjoy doing, too, so I feel really lucky.”
Sure, Wicked Tuna plays up the thrill of the chase for the 600-pound fish. But it also plays up a way of life that generations of gritty Outer Bankers have cultivated and will continue to do so.
“Fishing isn’t just something to do, it’s a lifestyle,” Mascio explains. “When you’re doing it for a living or doing it for your family, it’s a lifestyle. You talk about it, you call your friends to talk about it, you
live it.”