Respect connects 'Paw Paw' Arey and young cameraman

(Editor's note: This short feature comes from Alan McGuckin of Dynamic Sponsorships.)
There’s no way a barely out of high school kid from York County, Pennsylvania could have imagined how a phone call he answered during a day trip to New York City in late 2019 would change his life in so many ways.

But that’s exactly what happened when hopeful young videographer Macoy Fisher answered a ring from top Yamaha pro and highly popular YouTube angler Scott Martin telling him he’d chosen Fisher as his new lead cameraman from a vast pool of applicants.

Step 1 of Fisher’s life transformation was moving 17 hours south to Martin’s hometown of Clewiston, Florida at Lake Okeechobee. Next was the realization that he’d be part of a traveling circus better known as the Bassmaster Elites Series, in which two men old enough to be his dad would be his roommates.

Not just any ‘ol middle-aged men, but instead Martin’s tournament roadmates and multi-time world championship qualifiers Scott Canterbury and Team Toyota’s Matt Arey, who before long, in large part thanks to Fisher, became a huge part of Martin’s social media show that’s seen by an average of 70,000 people each time a new episode drops.

Part of the secret sauce of any ultra-successful fishing-based YouTube channel is not just teaching viewers a few fishing tips, tournament coverage, and high-quality video production, but also the daringness to take fans behind the scene, or inside the VRBO rental home, of top tournament pros, which includes getting in their personal space occasionally to capture the emotional good times and bad times of life on tour.

In Fisher’s case, that might mean capturing anything from Martin doing push-ups and burpees en route to losing 40-pounds, Canterbury’s famous cooking, or Arey telling Fisher to take a hike when it’s time for bed at 9 p.m.

“Oh, Matt is definitely the Paw Paw of the group. He’s got a strict 9 p.m. bedtime. He has to have his own bedroom at every house we rent and he gets mad if we’re too loud when it’s his bedtime,” Fisher said with a grin.

However, there’s a shared magic between Arey and Fisher that simply makes the production better – mutual respect.

“Matt Arey is a straight shooter. Brutally honest. But I know he genuinely cares not only about the value of what I do for the YouTube show, but my life as well. He even invites me to hunt with him in the off-season, and everybody knows Matt takes his deer hunting super serious. So that’s an honor,” said Fisher.

“Oh, we definitely like to pick on Macoy,” says Arey. “He likes to sleep in. But he’d do anything for ya to make our jobs as pros easier. And let me tell you something, when it’s time to work and make video magic, Macoy is a dang worker! Whether that’s capturing my nappy head getting out of bed at 4 a.m. or turning the lights out at 9 that night, Macoy is always working."

“Sometimes they treat me like a kid, but they always treat me with respect,” says Fisher.

Respect. Indeed, the common-thread virtue between two guys a generation apart, making constant social media magic while sharing the tribulations and triumphs of life on the road as part of pro bass fishing’s traveling circus. A life Macoy Fisher could never have fully imagined when he answered Martin’s call that day four years ago in New York City.

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