Meet Joel Arledge | Elite Fish Processing owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joel Arledge and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I would say the main thing for me was that I was tired of trading my time for money. All my life I always worked for somebody else. I was always looking for something different, a different way to build a life for my family which also afforded me some more time to spend with my family. I had some different ideas but I was always too nervous to take the risk of quitting the 9 to 5:00 to throw caution to the wind and start something on my own not knowing if it would work out. Eventually I got to the point where I knew I had a skill that not to many have to the degree where people that do what I do do and there was a high demand. So I had an old bass boat that I sold to get up some funds to throw towards this idea along with some additional funding I got together and I just made up my mind that this was happening, I was going to dive in head first and whatever happens…well happens. You never know unless you try so, here we go.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Elite Fish Processing we are a sport caught or recreational caught fish processor. So we filet and vacuum seal/label sport Fisherman’s catch. We are not a commercial processor, nothing we do is for sale. Most if not all of the fish we process is processed and returned to the customer same day or the next day depending upon pickup and availability. There are a handful of other companies that do what we do and it’s all fairly relative as far as product goes with the exception of some minor details. As far as what sets us apart from others I would say that we strive to have excellent customer service and we do our best to be as flexible as we can to the customers needs while putting out a superior quality product in a timely fashion. Over the past two seasons we have formed many incredible relationships / friendships with our customers and have extensive repeat customer clientele. So of course a great majority of this was not easy. Running an operation like this although seasonal requires extreme dedication, very long hours, some patience and a lot of coffee! Although this requires every waking moment of your life during the season to be grinding away, it does afford me the time with my family in the off season that I was after. Some lessons I’ve learned along the way? Anything is possible if you put in the time and work hard, always no matter what…keep it professional. Things aren’t always going to be ideal, in this business especially. It’s how you deal with it that matters. Always go the extra mile for your customers, you’re lucky they called you. They could have called anyone else but they called you so make it count.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well to be honest most of my friends are outdoors enthusiast. So they’d either be fishing or hitting the hills hiking, shooting archery at Rube Powell
or Morelly field archery ranges, hunting things of that nature. When it comes to fishing there’s so many opportunities in San Diego from the major sport fishing Landings in town to riding some of the smaller six pack Charter operations like Brothers Sport Fishing for example. As far as food, we would definitely be getting into some sushi from Mike over at @sushimerollnsd. Make sure to check him out and give him a follow on Instagram. Absolutely best around hands down..its not even up for debate. Aside from all that we probably be spending the rest of our time at the beach just relaxing.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would definitely say there’s a few people that deserve a shout out when it comes to my story. First and foremost Bill Gaedke. I worked for Bill for many years on sport fishing boats and he has always been a great friend/mentor to me. Years back Bill had told me that there was an opening over at Five Star Fish Processing, if I was interested in picking up some hours. So I said yes and started working at Five Star Fish Processing and after some time ended up in the cutting room where I had to completely relearn how to cut fish compared to how I had been cutting fish on sport fishing boats for many years, it’s not exactly something you learn overnight. So tjats how it all started. Huge shout out to Andy and Sarah Saraspe who were the owners of Five Star at the time and to this day are still there for me for any advice I may need. I would also throw a huge shout out to Corey Thompson from California Fish Processing. Corey has always been a great friend and always there for advice or a helping hand when needed. So with that being said I cannot forget about my wife, Charity Arledge and my family. They always have my back when it comes to taking a risk like quiting your job to chase your dream. There are so many more to list but I think lastly my brother in law Chris Selvagne. He has been with me since day one of this journey through many ups and downs and put in extremely long hours to make this dream a reality.

Website: https://Elitefishprocessing.com

Instagram: @elitefish619

Image Credits
Credit: Elite Fish Processing