On the Job

A lifelong fisherman, Modys had recently earned his captain’s license, which meant he could be a captain for hire. With a few months’ severance pay, he set about turning his love of the water into his dream job. Now, Captain Rob’s Soul Mate Charters is sailing smoothly, even through these bumpy economic times.

With so much competition, how did you position yourself to succeed?

I had a friend to do my Web site for me. I also didn’t treat is as just a fun thing to do. I approached it as a business, and I knew that could mean I was going to be eating peanut butter for a while. Actually, all the stuff I did previously, being in banking and having to show up for meetings—all the things we associate with a white-collar job—enabled me to keep appointments, make phone calls, do follow ups, send newsletters.

It took about three years. I’d say 65 percent of my business is repeat, and it took that long for me to get people coming back.

What about the other 35 percent?

A lot of women call to set up something for their husbands when they see the Web site; they say the name Soul Mate, the name of the boat, catches their attention. I teach classes at Bass Pro Shops. I think being enthusiastic, getting out in front of people and making contacts [is key to my success].

Have you faced any major challenges?

We had Hurricane Charley right as I was getting going, and then we had Wilma [the following year].

And now you have high fuel costs.

Fuel costs are affecting me. At the first of the year, I raised my prices across the board 25 bucks, and that pretty much covered the rising prices then. Now it doesn’t cover that much, but I’ve left things alone.

How much is that hurting business?

A lot of other captains [and I], we’re just making the runs shorter. We are working harder to find fish to catch closer. The benefit to the customer by fishing closer is that they get to go fishing right away. They don’t want an hour of their four hours to be running around. They’re happy and we save fuel. I spent all winter within 10 minutes of the dock.

Is there a risk of overfishing these areas?

We mostly practice catch and release. The mentality has gone past "fill the freezer or the cooler" when we go out. Most of the [customers] are conservationists. They just want a fish for the table, and mostly everything else is put back. There are also [size limits] in order to keep the fish, or there are fines. The last thing a captain wants is to be stopped for an undersized fish—for his image and the environment both.