Saturday, November 05, 2011

Fishing the Fort Lauderdale Intracoastal with Betty Bauman

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
Yours truly finally got her hands on something long and hard yet flexible.

About two weeks ago, Betty Bauman, founder of Ladies Let's Go Fishing, gave me a call and asked me if I wanted to go fishing on her new boat. Well, of course, I said yes! The occasion? Videotaping for CBS Miami's Aquatic Adventures, a TV segment hosted by meteorologist and accomplished angler Jeff Berardelli.

We launched out of beautiful John U. Lloyd State Park in Dania, got live bait at the 15th Street Fisheries and then tooled around the intracoastal for half a day among the mangroves, barges and docked cruise ships of Port Everglades. Airplanes flew above us as they landed or departed from FLL. I'm very used to fishing in the Everglades back country far from civilization, so it was interesting to be out on such an urban body of water.

The Baumans usually fish out in the ocean, but it was quite choppy and that's why we chose to cast inshore.

One of our crew was a young woman who had taken a Ladies Let's Go Fishing seminar in the past. She hails from Ohio originally and she got our only catch, a small puffer fish.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
Betty is becoming a great mentor for me. She works very hard to put these events together for lady anglers and I really admire her.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
Jeff was fun to fish with ... he's from New York originally. All water babies will love his Aquatic Adventures.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
Behind-the-scenes videotaping of Aquatic Adventures. We could see fish in the depth finder, but they weren't hungry apparently.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
It was a windy day and nothing was biting. We tried lures, live pilchards and frozen shrimp.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
Don't order these with your conch fritters.

Betty's husband grew up in Fort Lauderdale. The affable guy told me that catches were active here back in the day, so I hope our hard luck didn't speak to the deterioration of this marine environment. John U. Lloyd State Park is an anomaly here -- a beautiful barrier island with no beachfront condos, but chock full of native plants, enormous dunes and mangroves. In spite of this, we couldn't even spot a mangrove snapper, which you might expect to find here.

Anyway, it was a great occasion to practice my casting skills. In Jeff's video, he says it had been a long time since I had my hands on a pole, but that's not true Jeff, I took a few pole dancing classes last month. Now a rod, yes. It had been a long time for that!

NO YELLING

In a true tale of angling romance, Betty actually met her hubby at a fishing event. She started this "no yelling" school of fishing so that women could be empowered with fishing skills and the guys would stop complaining. When I asked Betty where I could find me a fisherman, she hinted I should move to the Florida Keys.

Now there's an idea I could bite.

As they always say, a bad day on the water is better than a good day in the office and truth be told, it wasn't a bad day at all. And I know I must have done ok, because there was no yelling from the menfolk in the boat.

Fishing with Betty Bauman and Jeff Berardelli
I'll probably end up buying one of these tank tops though I like to wear long sleeves because of the sun.

Follow me on Twitter next week @vicequeenmaria, November 11-13, as I live tweet my fishing adventures in Islamorada from Ladies, Let's Go Fishing. I won't be tweeting if I have a rod in my hands ... must concentrate and focus on the potential strike.

There's still time to register for the event if you are interested in attending the seminars and fishing trips.

To see me and the rest of the anglers in Jeff's Aquatic Adventure TV segment, click over to CBS Miami.

Below is my interview with Betty. Sorry for my bra strap showing. I've lost some weight and my clothes are loose. I need a fishing wardrobe stylist.

Is fishing better than sex? Find out in the video.




If you'd like to hear a full interview with Betty on my co-hosted radio show Social Chats, visit our podcast page.

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