FISHING
23
TREASURE COAST BOATING
Austin has been fishing full time since 2009, after working
for 21 years for the marine conglomerate Bombardier Corp. in
research and design and marketing roles. He made the move
simply because he loves working outdoors. Yet it has been a
financial challenge at times.
“It is a fun job, but what money you take home doesn’t
compensate for the amount of time you have to put in,” he
said. “We keep money in the bank for our expenses and take
paychecks every two weeks. A lot of guys rely on cash, but
then often can’t get credit when they need to purchase big
items like a new truck or boat.”
Austin spends 80 percent of his time fishing the Indian
River Lagoon.
He recalled how March and May of 2020 were the worst
months for loss of business due to the pandemic, but by May
of that year, he said, people wanted to go fishing again. The
summer of 2020 was pretty decent he recalled, but by the fall
reservations had slowed way down again because of successive
waves of COVID, children going back to school and
other factors.
As in previous years, December 2020 and January 2021
were back on track and by February through August he had
more business than he could handle.
“It was off the chain,” he said. “I guess people had gotten
tired of just sitting around at home.
“We had a lot of new customers in 2021. We’d lost some to
the pandemic,” but those cancellations allowed others onto >>
Standing the Test of Time...
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ED KILLER
Capt. Glyn Austin of Going Coastal Fishing Charters of Sebastian holds up
a redfish caught by a client.
CAPT. GLYN AUSTIN, SEBASTIAN
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