TV Fisherman From Bayside Recalls Journey From Wall Street To Sea

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Tuna fisherman Captain Bobby Earl was fishing off the coast of New Jersey last summer when his boat went up in flames — a saga that the Baysider chronicles in this season of Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks, a fishing reality show.

“The biggest moment of really ‘oh my God’ was thinking that [my friend onboard] was dead, and knowing I couldn’t leave him, but once he regained consciousness I knew the steps — get outside, get a survival suit, call the Coast Guard, and get off the boat,” Earl said in a recent interview with the Hollywood Soapbox.

While Earl counts escaping the blazing boat as among “the most surreal experience[s] of my life,” the Wall Street manager turned commercial fisherman has had a rather unusual life trajectory.

From Wall Street to the sea

Earl was born and raised in Bayside, Queens, before rising through the ranks on Wall Street.

When the housing market crashed in 2008, Earl got laid off from his job at Bank of America.

“At that point, I didn't have any clients because I had spent three years in management. It would have meant starting all over again and I just wasn't willing to do it,” he told the entertainment site Screen Rant.

So instead, Earl decided to start over again: This time as a bed bug exterminator.

“I got to be my own boss,” he said, adding that running a bed bug business with his older son afforded him a chance to spend several months a year pursuing his real passion — fishing, on a boat that he aptly named Reel E’ Bugging.

“My thought was, bed bugs paid for the boat,” Earl said. What started a three month escape to the Outer Banks in North Carolina became longer trips running charters, and then a full time job after passing the bed bug business on to his son.

‘Once I caught that first tuna, it was over’

Earl’s passion for fishing dates back to when he was six-years-old, freshwater fishing at a lake with his father. That yearly trip evolved into pier fishing, and then boat fishing.

“Once I caught that first tuna, it was over, and that was really all I wanted to do,” he told the Hollywood Soapbox.

Earl — who is known for his fiery, no-nonsense personality on Outer Banks — built up a boat and a crew, and then set his eyes on the competitive reality show.

“I said to my crew, ‘We're gonna be on that show one day, we're better than these guys!’ That's just my personality. I said it verbatim. It was a process, but as soon as they gave us a shot, I knew we would shine,” he said.

And shine he did. In 2019, Earl and his crew won season six of Outer Banks, which is set up as part reality show, part competition, since teams of fisherman battle each other on screen to see who can catch the most fish.

Now, with season eight of the show underway as of July 18, Earl is back for victory — new boat and all.

“The competition, this particular season, it was as if everyone was fishing for the Super Bowl,” he said, describing the season as a “fierce competition in terrible conditions,” including some of the worst weather he’s ever seen.

Earl thinks his new boat “can handle almost anything in the ocean,” and the same goes for his crew.

“We’ll push it harder than anybody, that’s a fact,” he said.

Learn more about Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks — including where to stream the show — here.