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ISLAND
PEOPLE….The man behind the Fishing Militia
By JOY CRIST  Ever see those bumper stickers that say “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work?” Well, lucky local Rob Alderman never has to make that distinction. If the name sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Chances are if you’ve spent a lazy afternoon flipping through the channels, you’ve caught Rob on the local channel 12 fishing program he co-created and hosts, “Outer Banks Angler.” If you’ve searched the Internet looking for local info on what’s biting, you might have come across his Web site, www.fishmilitia.com, or maybe you’ve just noticed him voicing a very vocal opinion on local hot button topics on an Internet forum or two. And because of his new-found fame and a business he built from scratch with a lot of optimism and a “what the hell- I’ll give it a shot” attitude, Rob Alderman is able to do what he loves every day, and, even better, be very successful at it. He has done it so well that his little program “Outer Banks Angler” will have a national audience with episodes scheduled to air in January on the Sportsman Channel, an up-and-coming network with about 15 million viewers in 49 states. It was picked up after Rob heard about the channel and decided, on a whim, to send them the fourth episode, just 3 1/2 months after he and co-creator and producer Mike Brazda had started the project. As Rob puts it, true to his optimistically laid back style of entrepreneurship, “The worst thing anyone can tell me is no.” He was raised in Norfolk, but with deep familial and personal ties in the Outer Banks, Rob, 33, jumped on an opportunity to live and work on Hatteras Island seven years ago and has been here ever since. He now lives in Buxton with his wife, Merrin, an administrative assistant at Camp Hatteras, and their two Labrador retrievers. In 2003, while working at Hatteras Island Resort, Rob was toying around with an idea to make a few extra bucks. He came up with a logo, trying to put a comical spin on the word militia. “It has such a bad connotation,” he says, “and I thought it would be pretty funny, and the next thing you know I have a gun site on a fish - the Fishing Militia.” Rob made a few dozen T-Shirts and they sold immediately. A pattern of taking a chance and having it work out beyond his expectations was quickly developing. Using his past experience doing fishing reports and his ability to go down anytime to the shoreline and see what was being reeled in, Rob’s next step was to develop a Web site for the Fishing Militia. “From what I had seen from other Web sites, which are all good sites, reporting from the beach was going to be a different approach,” he says. “Over the years it kind of grew, and people heard about me, and I tried to put more money into the budget through advertisements. Simple stuff.” The Fishing Militia site, besides being a popular Web retreat for local and visiting anglers, also led to Rob’s next venture, “Outer Banks Angler.” Rob posted an amateur fishing video on You Tube and his own site and received an e-mail from a Washington, D.C., resident who owns a house in Avon, Mike Brazda. “He had seen the video and asked me if we wanted to do a few projects. Thought the local market needed it.” Rob talked to Mike, and based on their conversation and mutual experience, they felt confident enough to approach Charter Media with the idea of a local fishing show. They had a great day of filming and brought the footage with them to show Charter what they could do. Eight days after the initial e-mail from Mike, “Outer Banks Angler” was ready for production. Mike and Rob produced and broadcast through the summer and are currently on the seventh of a planned 12 to 13 episode run for the year. While Rob does standard reporting from the beach or casting from the back of a boat, they had a few tricks up their sleeves to make sure Outer Banks Angler was a little something special and set apart from the crowd. “Jumping over the boat and swimming with the white marlin with an underwater camera helps,” he says. “We ran that one in the summer and have another one coming up Nov. 1 of incredible white marlin fishing, 64 miles off the beach, 7,000 feet deep. {With the underwater camera,} I look down and see more fish than I ever could have imagined. Here I am with schools of dolphins bouncing off of me as I’m filming. It’s really something.” For those of you keeping score, at this point Rob has a Web site, Fish Militia merchandise, and a well-received local fishing show that has an audience of thousands of new visitors every week. Naturally, it was time to expand further.  “I have a think-big attitude, so I can assure you that even in the initial stages, I was thinking we can grow and grow and maybe be seen outside if North Carolina.” This led Rob to send an episode to the Sportsman Channel, landing “Outer Banks Angler” a position on the national stage. “I don’t know if it was out of curiosity or self-gratification, but it was amazing,” he says. The show will run from January through March, the prime booking season for summer visitors and a big potential boost to the local tourism industry -- a thought that did not escape Rob’s attention. “Some people will cringe at the thought of more fishermen coming here, but it’s important to our economy. It’s important to beach access, and it gives us more of a say.” In fact, one of the fringe benefits of Rob’s local presence is that he’s able to have an audience for his views on ORV access on the beaches and the replacement of the Bonner Bridge, crucial issues for the Outer Banks fishing population. The off-season economy is fueled by the thousands of people who flock to the beaches for tournaments, to design and manufacture fishing equipment, and simply to enjoy some of the best surf fishing on the East Coast. “I’m very outspoken about it. When you look at the coastline as a whole, and the area that’s able to be driven on, I think this area is very unique,” says Rob. “I’m not against the wildlife, I just think there has to be equal balance between the wildlife and ORV access.” In addition, Rob sees the show as a tool to get courtesy and safety information out to the masses, including segments on beach driving and issues that might not be noticed by a week-long vacationer. “One thing the Outer Banks lacks is mass media. It’s very important to help our communication with the visitors in any way we can. They’re already watching, we have their attention, it’s not hard to bring them up to speed and get them involved in what’s going on.” Within just four years, Rob has gone from sketching a logo on the job to being a national fishing show producer and host. Every day Rob gets to check out the beach fishing, get the cameras ready, and go out to the Atlantic in the hopes of capturing something special, on the reel or in the water with a camera, that will boost his career. It’s a rough life. “I wanted to do something I really enjoyed, but there’s so many good tackle shops already around. And seeing what we have to offer, well, our fishing is so good -- shore fishing, sound fishing and charter fishing -- it’s world renowned,” says Rob. “From that, we found a way we could make an honest living, help the local community, and do what we like to do. I really can’t ask for anything more.” But it’s likely he will, and as a result, find a new big-thinking project to spearhead. And if you forget the name Rob Alderman, don’t worry because you’re going to hear it again and again. Chances are that by the time you’re finished reading this article, there will already be an “Outer Banks Angler” movie in the works. 
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