Closet design firm exec catches big wins while fishing

Executive

Taylor Rinehold, partner and director of operations, California Closets of Southwest Florida. The family-owned franchise serves Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Glades and Hendry counties. Rinehold works in the business, which recently moved into a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fort Myers and has some 65 employees, alongside her sister, Heather, and her mom Suzi. Taylor became a partner in the company in 2022. 

Diversion

Fishing. She first started fishing when she was a young girl, with her parents and family. She’s since participated in more than 50 tournaments, often with her husband, Billy Rinehold. “Fishing has always been a grounding force in my life,” Rinehold says. 

First time: Rinehold, 31, recalls camping with her family when she was three or four years old on Cabbage Key, a barrier island in Lee County. Her stepfather gave her a rod and a few examples of what to do. She was soon determined to do it solo. “I went out there by myself, and I was able to catch a snook,” she says. 

Courtesy image

Protect and serve: Rinehold does catch and release when fishing, saying she’s “100% passionate and protective about the environment.” That includes objecting once when a fishing captain in Hawaii planned to keep a fish her crew caught on a charter. It also includes being aware of rules and regulations wherever she fishes. “There’s a right way to handle the fish,” she says. “You can kill the fish if you don’t handle it the right way.”

Winner, winner: Rinehold has won multiple fishing tournaments, including first place at the Lee Building Industry Association's Bricks & Sticks event and the Venture Out Tarpon Tournament. She also won a gold charm at the Fingers O’Bannon Memorial Fishing Tournament on Cabbage Key. An invite-only event, it was founded in 1993 to honor the late Floyd “Fingers” O’Bannon, who fished in the area for decades. Like many of her events, Rinehold says winning wasn’t nearly as much about the prize as it was “the chase.”

Keep going: One of Rinehold’s favorite events to compete in is the "Ding" Darling & Doc Ford's Tarpon Tournament, an annual catch-and-release event on Sanibel Island to raise money for the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge there. She hasn’t won that event — but hasn’t given up trying. 

Angling for more: A never-give-up mantra is a big part of Rinehold’s fishing why. “You are always chasing something,” she says. “Success is possible, but nothing is guaranteed. You really don’t know if you’re going to get anything out there. It’s elusive — but attainable. There is always hope.” That’s a nod to her favorite fishing quote, from Scottish novelist and British Army Officer John Buchan, who said “the charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive, yet attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.”

Courtesy image

Reel deal: Beyond the chase, and the beautiful waters of Southwest Florida, another reason Rinehold loves to go fishing, she says, is to “detach from her phone.” That doesn’t mean she totally detaches from work on the water. Instead, she says fishing helps “clarify my mind,” where she and her husband often “spitball” ideas about their businesses. “It’s a good way to spark ideas and spark conversations,” she says. 

Hot rod: Rinehold relies heavily on the right fishing tools. That includes, Sewell Rods, which she says are "best in the game. And she and her husband wear Free Fly clothing to protect against sunburn. “It’s a game changer if you have the right gear,” she says. “It can create a real advantage for you in a tournament…if you have the wrong rod or the wrong reel, it really does have a negative impact.”

Oil and water: Two places outside the local area that were memorable fishing trips, meanwhile, are diverse. One is tuna fishing in Louisiana. “It was incredible,” she says. “You’re sitting there among all these big oil rigs. We really learned a lot. It was really amazing.” The other is Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala, a luxury, five-star fishing resort specializing in sailfish. “It was amazing to see how they run that facility,” she says. (The couple caught 63 sailfish in one day on a trip there.)

Up next: One of Rinehold’s bucket list trips is to go fishing on in Cape Verde, an island country off the West African coast. Another bucket list trip is to go fishing at the Tropic Star Lodge, about 150 miles southeast of Panama City in the remote Darien jungle. And in the months when the couple isn’t fishing, they mostly think about…when (and where) they will fish again. “In the off-season, we really miss it,” she says. “We go golfing because we get stir crazy.”