Outdoor-loving couple turn addiction into television career

Fans of the Outdoor Channel television show Addicted to the Outdoors” will have an opportunity to meet the show’s readily recognizable hosts.

Jon and Gina Brunson, hosts of the show which airs Thursdays at 6 p.m. will be the celebrity guests at the Rotary Club of Brandon’s 39th annual Wild Game Night Friday, March 20 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Lupton’s Boggy Bottom Ranch, 8407 Lupton Place off Keysville Road in Plant City.

Although they call Brandon home, each week the Brunsons travel to hunting locales around the country, sharing their adventures, and occasionally their misadventures, with the television audience.

Married for 23 years and the parents of six children, the Brunsons say they’re living their dream.

“I grew up in a hunting family,” said Jon Brunson. “My dad was a Southern Baptist preacher and we had 10 kids in our family. Everything we did involved the outdoors. We were always hunting, fishing and camping.

“I was a nut for the outdoors,” said Brunson. “I remember sitting on my grandpa’s front porch at the age of 5, cleaning quail. I never played a video game as a child. I just couldn’t stand to be indoors when there was so much fun stuff to do outside.”

One of his favorite childhood memories is hunting for doves in Brandon cow pastures owned by the Carey Cattle Co.

“Ironically, it’s the same area (on Falkenburg Road) where the new Bass Pro Shop is being built,” said Jon Brunson. “Now, Gina and I have been asked to make a guest appearance at the store’s grand opening.”

A 1990 graduate of Armwood High School, Jon Brunson was 19 years old when he met his soulmate, Gina, who was 17 years old and preparing to graduate as a member of Brandon High School’s Class of 1993.

“I grew up in Keysville,” said Gina Brunson. “My parents weren’t into hunting but we did a lot of camping and fishing. I was pretty much a tomboy and lived outdoors. When I met Jon, it was an easy transition to hunting.”

At the age of 15, Jon Brunson informed his parents that he intended to make his living as a hunter. His opportunity to do just that came about with the rising popularity of the Outdoor Channel, launched in 1994.

Thousands of TV watchers were eager to live vicariously through the Brunsons and other outdoor fanatics like rock star Ted Nugent and professional hunter and television host Steve West.

The idea of a married couple who hunt together appealed to the Outdoor Channel’s executives. The Brunsons’ good looks and artless appeal sealed the deal.

“We launched our first ‘Addicted to the Outdoors’ show in 2004 and it just evolved from there,” said Jon Brunson. “A year later, we were working with the Outdoor Channel full time.”

Over the seven seasons the Brunsons have been filming the show, theirs have become household names among regular viewers of the Outdoor Channel.

“We don’t script anything, and we show both the ups and downs, even our arguments,” said Gina Brunson. “I think a lot of couples really related to us.”

Fans have watched the couple shiver for days in a tree stand during a brisk Alberta, Canada winter, while waiting for a trophy buck to stroll by. Viewers also have traveled with the Brunsons to Alabama to participate in their first Squirrel Master Classic, to Wyoming in search of speed goats, to Kansas for the World Turkey Hunting Championships, to western Kentucky where they braved a blizzard in search of an elusive mule deer named Miracle and twice to Africa where the Brunsons participated in safaris with their good friend and NBA legend Brad Miller.

The audience also experienced Florida’s natural environment as the Brunsons headed to Key West to bow fish for tuna and dolphin, waded through swamps in the Everglades in pursuit of Osceola turkeys and joined their kids on a family hog hunt in Bushnell.

“Our kids have been hunting, fishing and camping with us since they were born,” said Gina Brunson. Their oldest child, Kayla, now attends Florida State University of a full scholarship while two oldest sons, Kyle and Tyler, work as editors in the Brunsons’ production company, JBO Productions. Their 12-year-old twins and 11-year-old son attend Burns Middle School.

In between hunting trips and trade shows around the country, the Brunsons keep busy operating their Tampa-based full-service production company, JBO Production, which produces 21 shows including L.L. Bean’s “Guide to the Outdoors” and “Country Boys Outdoors” with Brad Miller.

“We’re best known as TV personalities on ‘Addicted to the Outdoors,’ but we stay most busy with our work for LL Bean and JBO Production. “

The Brunsons also are preparing to launch their own streaming outdoor television network and are working with the Travel Channel on producing a show focusing on their love of spear fishing.

In the meantime, the couple are preparing for a new season of “Addicted to the Outdoors.”

“We want to revamp the show to showcase more of the Southern lifestyle,” said Jon Brunson. “It’s a national TV show and it seems like most of our appearances are up North so most fans assume we live on a farm in Iowa and Kansas, not a neighborhood in Brandon, Florida.”

Brunson believes outdoorsmen have underestimated the opportunities in Florida.

“We’ve bear hunted in Canada and Alaska but the biggest black bear I’ve ever seen was on a 1,000-acre property we lease in Bushnell,” he said. “Between hunting quail, duck, alligator, turkey, hog and deer, there’s a lot to do in Florida.”

The Brunsons also are interested in supporting Brandon area charities, especially those that assist children. To that end, they will attend the popular Wild Game Night fundraiser to participate in a question-and-answer session, sign autographs and pose for pictures.

The guys-only event also will include a buffet of wild game dishes as well as conventional barbecue and fresh-caught fish, an open bar stocked with top-shelf liquors and draft and craft beers and a chance to win thousands of dollars’ worth of raffle and door prizes including hunting rifles, collectible knives, bows, guided fishing trips, camping, hunting and fishing gear, golf accessories and sports memorabilia.

All proceeds from Wild Game Night are donated to local charities. In past years, the event has raised $40,000 to $50,000 for organizations like Rotary’s Camp Florida, the Brandon Outreach Clinic and the Emergency Care Help Organization.

Donations for tickets are $75 and are available through Eventbrite, from any Brandon Rotary Club member or by calling chairman Joe Campoamor at (813) 748-2076.

For more information, visit the Brandon Rotary Club Facebook event page or website.