#42: April Vokey: The Wild Life Behind Anchored Outdoors

April Vokey has spent 25 years building a life around fishing. She decided to pursue professional fishing at 18, started her first business at 21, guided for steelhead in British Columbia, created the television series Shorelines, launched Anchored with April Vokey, and built Anchored Outdoors into an education platform and community for anglers.In this conversation, April takes us from landing a 300-pound arapaima in Guyana and having 32 spines pulled from her foot to the winter steelhead obsession that became her career. She also explains how a 2008 head-on collision forced her to rethink life and business, why motherhood changed her relationship with risk, and how discarded television interviews led to Anchored. We also resolve two important questions: whether wet jeans are secretly flattering and how many introductions stand between me and Liam Neeson.Subscribe to Longfire for more stories worth gathering around.Show linksWatch Longfire on YouTubeListen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyConnect with Steve Seger on LinkedInFollow Longfire on InstagramGuest linksAnchored OutdoorsTry Anchored Premium InsidersThe World Through Your EyesAnchored with April VokeyApril Vokey on InstagramChapters00:00 Rapid Fire: Wet Jeans, Campfire Dinner, and Liam Neeson02:37 A 300-Pound Arapaima and 32 Spines in Guyana06:07 Turning a Life in Fishing Into a Business10:40 The Salmon That Started Everything13:36 Why Winter Steelhead Became an Obsession18:31 Learning to Guide Before Google Earth20:46 Surviving a Head-On Collision22:38 The Injury That Forced a Business Pivot25:01 Saving the Stories Television Had to Cut27:31 Canada, Australia, Motherhood, and Risk32:19 The Dean River Run She Should Never Have Attempted36:10 Starting Over and Facing an Uncertain Next Chapter37:45 Anchored Outdoors and The World Through Your Eyes