Hiring a captain, especially a young one, is often like looking into a crystal ball and trying to assess future potential and a good team fit for a sportfish owner. What captains early in their careers may lack in decades of experience is often more than made up for by natural deftness, determination and drive. These are the good omen clouds to look for in that fortuneteller’s tool. An excellent example of one such young gun is Capt. Tyler Maxwell, who runs the 72’ Viking, Yellow Steel.
Early Days and Fishing Legacy
Born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, Tyler says he can’t remember a time he wasn’t fishing. It’s no exaggeration. His father, Capt. Corey Maxwell, has owned and operated the local inshore charter business Doubled Up Fishing Charters for 20-plus years. As such, Tyler grew up fishing for redfish on the bays and cobia and king mackerel off the Pensacola Beach Pier. He says he knew from a young age that he wanted to fish for a living, but always figured it would be in the inshore charter industry.
First Introduction To Sportfishing
“By the time I was in my early teens, I started to learn about some of the local sportfishing boats here in Pensacola. About how they traveled around the Gulf fishing the tournament circuit. That really piqued my interest. I’ve been very fortunate to have a father who is well-connected in the fishing community and he introduced me to the crew of the 56’ Viking, Reel Addiction. I got to do some cobia fishing with them. That was my first introduction to a sportfishing boat,” he says.
Journey to Leadership: The Helm’s Calling
A few years later, Tyler became acquainted with the crew of the 64’ Viking, Reel Worthless. They invited him on what was his first offshore fishing trip. He was still in high school, but the question of “what do I want to do when I grow up” was cemented in his mind. He says it was at that point he looked up and thought someday he’d be on the helm.
Tyler’s first job in sportfishing came when he was the age of 17. He landed a summer job mating on the 48’ Tiara Convertible, the Donny D III, out of Orange Beach, Alabama. The team fished a couple of tournaments that summer and did some fun fishing trips. It proved a great chapter in Tyler’s life, should he have been asked to write about what he did on his summer vacation. That winter Scooter Porto, the captain of the Reel Addiction, called and hired him to be the second mate for the upcoming summer. The team fished a full tournament circuit, adding even more weight to Tyler’s decision to make sportfishing a career. He moved up to first mate and fished with them for three more seasons as well as earned his 100-ton license. At the end of that third season, Capt. Myles Colley, who has captained the Reel Worthless, got a new job running a 63’ Hatteras, Born2Run. Tyler made the move and spent almost five years with them.
Mentors and Influences
“Myles has been my biggest mentor. I worked for him for five years and I have tried to emulate him in a lot of things I do. He always tried to come up with ways to improve what we were doing, and he didn’t settle for being mediocre at anything we did, fishing or otherwise. His competitiveness and drive pushed me to find that fire in myself, and without him, there is no way I would be where I’m now,” Tyler says.
Milestone Moments: First Time as Captain
One of Tyler’s favorite memories is of the first time he had the opportunity to run a boat.
“When I was still mating on the Born2Run, Myles was out of town on a hunting trip in November, when we had a nice weather window to go fishing. The owner allowed me to run the boat. I was nervous, and I remember thinking all I wanted to do was to get out there and back safely and catch one blue marlin. As it was, we wound up having an unbelievable trip and caught seven blues on an overnighter. The boss had so much fun that we came back in, dropped off some guests, refueled, and went back out the next day and caught five more. That was a huge moment for my confidence. It also drove home the idea in my head that I really could do this and be successful at it,” he says.
Professional Achievements: Making a Mark
In August of 2020, Tyler left Born2Run and took his first captain’s job on the 48’ Viking, Pearl, in Orange Beach. Tournaments, fun fishing, traveling to the Bahamas; they did it all. It proved a great way to pack plenty of experience in a short amount of time. It was also a fertile time for resume-making fish stories.
“My first year running the Pearl we killed a 572-pound blue marlin in the Blue Marlin Grand Championship. We finished in second place, missing the top spot by three pounds. Last year, we came in third place in catch-and-release in the same tournament, catching five blue marlin and one white marlin,” Tyler says.
There was another memory-making fish tale aboard the Pearl that happened in February 2021 in the Bahamas.
“The boss was going to meet us in Chub Cay. We got there a couple of days before, and he gave us the okay to use the boat and fish. The day before he arrived, my mate, another captain in the marina, and I went out to fish the Pocket for the day. We didn’t have the tackle to dredge fish, so we put out a small lure spread and a couple of teasers. We caught a blue and a white and really wanted a sail to finish out the slam,” he tells.
Tyler says they planned on going back in at 4 p.m. but decided to stay another 30 minutes to try and scratch out a sail. Less than 15 minutes later, he saw a huge explosion on the long rigger and then another on the opposite side.
“At first, I thought we had a double header of blue marlin, but after about 10 minutes when we hadn’t seen one jump, we started to think something strange was going on. Long story short, we had hooked a double header of bluefin tunas. We wound up losing one fish, and 2.5 hours later, we killed the other. They didn’t have a scale big enough on Chub Cay to weigh it, but it was 109 inches, and we estimated it to be 600 pounds. We were way more excited to catch that than we would have been to catch a sailfish for the slam.”
Current Pursuits and Future Aspirations
In November, Tyler accepted a job running the 72’ Viking, Yellow Steel, in Orange Beach. The upcoming game plan, he says, is to have fun and tournament fish the Gulf of Mexico in the summers, and then do a bit of traveling in the winter. Traveling to other fishing destinations is something Tyler says he’s especially looking forward to. He sees it as something that brings a lot of value and gives him even more tools in his toolbelt.
Reflection
“I have been so blessed to learn from so many good captains and mates. I’ve taken pieces from everyone I’ve met and worked with, and it’s shaped who I am in this industry. I think to set yourself apart from the pack, you have to love what you do because not every day is going to be fun. It’s those days that you have to push hard to excel at your job. You have to pay attention to the little details and make sure you’re doing them well, and if you do the little things right, the rest of it will fall into place,” says Tyler, whose predictive qualities of deftness, drive and determination are destined to take him far.
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