Most fishermen have at least a few tall tales up their sleeves. But Plant City High School junior Chase Lott catches all of his outdoor adventures on video.
He found his calling last summer at Captiva Island just north of Sanibel in the Gulf of Mexico. But he didn’t get the idea to start shooting video while wrangling in a trophy fish caught during a day trip out on the water. Instead, the Plant City High junior’s story begins in the evening, during his sister’s birthday dinner at a little seafood shack.
Toying around with his mother’s GoPro camera, the idea hooked him. He’d always liked being outdoors and enjoyed shooting things, so why not combine the two?
And so, Chase-N-Tail was born.
ANGLER’S EYE
Although Lott, an avid fisherman, originally started Chase-N-Tail out on the water, he knew that he wanted to go beyond that. He has other interests and a habit of looking for the most creative shots possible. Therefore, “Tail” in his videography name is meant to be ambiguous.
“Gator, deer, fish, everything — it applies to everything,” Lott says.
To capture more shots, he got his boating and hunting licenses.
Using a GoPro and some basic film editing computer software, Lott began to hone his craft when he wasn’t at football practice. It helped that one of his favorite classes at Plant City High is TV production, taught by one of his coaches, Greg Meyer. The class gave him some background knowledge to build upon.
Lott currently has eight videos up on his YouTube page, but his work on Instagram has also benefitted his cause. Although he’s not a huge fan of using social media, Lott has managed to pick up a few sponsors through his Instagram clips, mostly by wearing the companies’ apparel or using their products. Another local sponsor, Gary Pike, has also invested in Lott’s work.
MIXING IT UP
Since Lott started Chase-N-Tail, he’s bolstered his arsenal to include just about everything a one-man film crew could want. With two GoPros, a GPS-programmed drone and other equipment, Lott has around $2,000 worth of gear to shoot footage with.
And he’s upgraded from that basic computer software to higher-quality apps on his phone, which link up directly with his GoPros. He picked up that knowledge from Mike Goodwine, a Plant City-based fisherman who also shoots his own videos and gained some notoriety on Instagram as Blackneck Adventures.
What makes Lott stand out from the many other fishing-geared handles on social media is that
he doesn’t want to just stick to fishing. He wants to capture everything he’s interested in: fishing, hunting, watersports, snowboarding and anything else that can be done outdoors.
And one day, he hopes to get famous enough for his own big-time outdoor sports show.
“The whole idea is to be more unique than anything out there,” Lott says. “I see SportFishing TV, they talk and they catch fish, but nothing that makes me go, ‘I want to go do that.’”
His favorite videography trips so far have not been fishing adventures. Lott enjoyed shooting his family’s Christmas snowboarding trip to Mount Crested Butte, Colorado. He also liked a gator hunting trip in Kissimmee with Team Goin’ Low, which he did on a Friday night, after playing in a football game. He wasn’t too tired to nab a 10-footer on the side.
“We hunted all the way through the night and, at about 4 a.m., we found this gator and started hunting him down,” Lott says. “We got him around, I don’t know what time, but it was early. Hard to stay up.”
Lott’s dream videography trip would include hog hunting from inside a helicopter. He’d also like to try his hand at shooting a paintball video soon, for which he would bust out the drone for some aerial shots. He’s already planning on new shoots and new equipment, but the fact that he’s gotten this far is still hard for him to believe.
“To be honest, I never expected it to be this big after a year,” Lott says.
With one year of high school left, Lott has already made up his mind for the future: He wants to go to college locally, perhaps at the University of South Florida, and study marketing in order to help make Chase-N-Tail get as big as it can. And, if everything goes as planned, Lott feels that there’s much to be excited about for the future.
“Every day, I’m getting better,” he says. “Every video I make, I keep getting better and better.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
Watch Chase Lott’s videos on YouTube by searching for the name of his channel, “Chase N Tail,” or by using the link, YouTube.com/user/MrZeno34. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @chase_ntail.