TikTok and YouTube lure young Richmonders to the sport and serenity of fishing

The first time 19-year-old Alan Zavala went fishing in Marina Bay, he caught a leopard shark. He was hooked. The next day, he went to buy a fishing license. 

“It’s fun when obviously you’re getting bites and catches,” said Zavala, who’s been fishing for six months. “You also feel adrenaline doing that.”

Zavala wanted to try fishing because of videos he saw on TikTok. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, social media influencers have attracted large audiences with content about fishing. Kaitlyn Bui, a Bay Area crabber and angler has around 725,000 followers on TikTok, and her most popular video, in which she excitedly reels in a barbed surf perch at Ocean Beach, has 25 million views.

The number of annual and short-term fishing license holders aged 15-24 in the Bay Area has increased since the pandemic, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In nine Bay Area counties including Contra Costa, there were 4,596 more young license holders in 2025 than in 2019 — a 16% increase. 

A fishing license for anyone over the age of 16 is required for inland and ocean fishing. A one-year license will cost $64.54 for a California resident in 2026, but a fishing license is not required for public piers, making the sport accessible for new anglers.

Rodeo Bait and Tackle has experienced an uptick in interest from young people since the pandemic, said Erika Moreno, whose family has owned the shop in Rodeo for eight years. 

“I think it’s a really good thing for the youth because it keeps them out of trouble,” Moreno said.

When new anglers come to the shop, Moreno and her family will set them up with gear and give them tips about where to go and what bait to use.

“You don’t know what you’ll catch off anchovies,” Moreno said of the universal bait the shop recommends.

Rico Calloway, 28, has been fishing since he was 12. He learned by watching the regulars at Richmond’s piers and by reading books and watching YouTube videos about fishing. 

“You just type it in on YouTube and there’s probably a thousand videos on what you’re trying to look for,” Calloway said. 

Now Calloway wants to share what he knows through his own YouTube channel. Though he is new to content creation, he intends to tackle the challenge as he did with fishing. 

“I was never a streamer or YouTuber and nothing like that, so now I’m trying to battle this new field of technology,” Calloway said.

On a recent morning at Ferry Point Pier in Richmond, Calloway placed pieces of store-bought shrimp on a hook and cast the line toward the old ferry dock.

A fish bit his line and dragged the bait toward the bottom of the bay. Calloway can often tell which fish is on his line by the way they bite. 

“This one is a halibut,” he said, explaining that they will grab the bait and swim down to the foundation of the old dock where the fish can use the structure to break off the bait.

“That can be the irony of it. Sometimes the fish could be a little smarter than what you are,” Calloway said as he reeled in an empty hook.

After putting on more bait and recasting, Calloway waited until he finally had a bite. He wound up the fishing line, and soon he pulled up a small, shiny blue fish. It was the second walleye surfperch of the day.

Calloway will sometimes eat his catch, depending on the species, but on this day, he was just excited to show his kids what he caught when he got home, so they could name the fish together.

Some anglers, Calloway said, only do catch-and-release and are simply out there for their own enjoyment. One of those anglers is Zavala.

Some people think it’s boring to wait around to catch a fish, Zavala said. But that’s a part of the experience. For him, it brings peace.

When he’s not fishing, Zavala is traveling around the Bay Area painting houses. After all that driving and all that labor, fishing is a welcome respite, he said.

“It just gives me my own space to just relax.”