Tag: sports

A native of North Miami, where he grew up fishing with his father, Poveromo and his wife, Edie, moved to Parkland in 1994, where they raised their daughters Lindsay and Megan.

That the country’s foremost saltwater fishing expert, whose
TV show has aired for 20 years and whose Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series has been held for 33 years (visit www.georgepoveromo.com), lives in a quiet residential neighborhood closer to the Everglades than the Atlantic Ocean has many of his readers, viewers and social media followers wondering why.

“I was asked that question a lot, and I’m still occasionally asked that question: ‘What are you doing in Parkland? You’re a saltwater guy. You’re an ocean guy,’” said Poveromo, who keeps his 33-foot Mako fishing boat Marc VI at Garnett Storage in Coral Springs. “When we came up to Parkland, it was like a little bit more of a country kind of atmosphere here. I said, ‘This is a nice place, and I think it’s perfect.’

“I trailer a boat, so one day I could go out of Hillsboro (Inlet in Pompano Beach), the next day I might want to go out of Haulover (Inlet in North Miami Beach) or I might go down to the Keys or go to Palm Beach, so I’m still as flexible as I always was. I think moving to Parkland was a very good choice. And when you do it as much as I do it, it’s sometimes good just to catch a break away from the saltwater environment.”

Poveromo, 62, got hooked on saltwater fishing more than
five and a half decades ago. His father, Mel, a dentist in Bay Harbor Islands, used to take him after work to the nearby Broad Causeway to fish in Biscayne Bay from the seawall. Using a kid-sized rod and reel and a small hook baited with pieces of shrimp, Poveromo caught tiny snappers and grunts.

“I used to love to do that. I think I have Biscayne Bay water going through my veins,” Poveromo said. “My dad was the only one in the family that had the crazy fishing passion, and no one else inherited that except for me.”

When Poveromo was old enough to fish with his father in his boat, they’d fish off Miami or trailer the 23-foot vessel to Key West and run about 30 miles west to the Marquesas. They’d catch snappers and groupers around shallow rock piles, anchor, cook fish for dinner, sleep on the boat and fish the next day before heading back.

“To this day I still try to get down there at least once a year to fish the Marquesas because of all the fond memories,” Poveromo said.

He pursued his passion for fishing while a student at The University of Miami, where he majored in broadcast journalism. Not because he wanted to host a TV fishing show, but because his classes were fairly easy and he could schedule all of them on Tuesday and Thursday, which gave him the opportunity to fish Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Little did Poveromo know how that education at sea would pay off.

Through his success fishing in Mako owner tournaments, he caught the attention of Mako Marine’s marketing director Bill Munro. While a senior at UM, Poveromo was invited by Munro to fish in the Mako Outdoor Writers tournament, an informal gathering that featured editors of the country’s most prestigious fishing magazines. That led to Poveromo writing articles for Outdoor Life and Salt Water Sportsman magazines, and he was hired as a full-time staff writer for the latter publication in 1983.

“So if it wasn’t for Bill Munro and Mako,” Poveromo said with a smile, “I might’ve been forced to become a dentist like my dad wanted me to be.”

Poveromo stayed busy fishing, writing and organizing the seminar series out of North Miami for 10 years, where Edie gave birth to Lindsay. When close friends moved to Broward County, Edie entertained the idea of following their friends north and having Lindsay attend some of Broward’s excellent public schools.

One day, a gentleman from Parkland called Edie to order a seminar ticket, and as Poveromo related, she said, “Parkland, where is that? He said, ‘Oh, I don’t want to tell you, it’s one of the best-kept secrets around.’ She goes, ‘I’m a native Floridian, I’ve never heard of Parkland.’ And he told her, ‘It’s the most magnificent area. It’s just starting to grow. There’s space; you can breathe out here, the school system’s superb. You need to go up and just look at the area.’

“So we took a drive up and looked at the area and then Edie did her research of the school systems. We were fairly close to our friends, and Edie said, ‘That’s the place we’re going to. We’re going to Parkland.’ And that’s what led us here from North Miami.

“I can never see myself moving anywhere else.”

HIGHLIGHTS

During his storied career, George Poveromo has had some amazing fishing experiences. Among the highlights:

• Produced a TV show fishing on his boat with members of the military at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• Caught a 143-pound wahoo fishing in San Salvador, Bahamas, and caught a 113-pounder there three years later.
• Caught a 701-pound giant bluefin tuna out of Prince Edward Island, Canada.
• Released a blue marlin estimated to weigh between 700- 800 pounds in Costa Rica.
• Had a swordfish yank him overboard while fishing in Islamorada when a passing boat’s wake caused him to lose his balance. With help from his cameraman Kevin Tierney, who jumped in the water, Poveromo got back in the boat and, 30 minutes later, landed the 256-pound swordfish.

 

FISHING TIPS

TV show host, seminar organizer, and writer, George Poveromo shared these secrets for saltwater fishing success in South Florida:

Use fresh line: “One of the simplest tips, and I even hate to say it because it just sounds so simple but you’d be shocked at how many people don’t adhere to it except the really good anglers, always make sure your fishing line is new and fresh. When you fight a good fish like a sailfish on a 20-pound test (line), even though that line looks good, the line’s been compromised. It might start off at 20 pounds, but then the breaking strength might fall to 15, 14 pounds, depending on how much it was compromised,” Poveromo said. “What’s going to happen, eventually, is you’re going to hook that trophy fish and if you’re using worn line, chances are that fish could probably go right through it. Line is one of the cheapest things to put on your fishing reel. So change out line religiously, especially after any quality fish you catch.”

Finding fish: “The Gulf Stream is the lifeblood, and it’s essential to know where the true western edge of the Stream is because it meanders. It moves close, it moves farther off,” said Poveromo, who recommended subscribing to SiriusXM Marine fish mapping or ROFFS fishing forecasts. “That warm water current flowing north, you want to find the edge where it meets that nearshore cooler water.
It creates upwellings, and all the upwellings bring these tiny microorganisms in; then the fish that feed on them come in. When you have baitfish along these zones, the bigger gamefish shouldn’t be far behind. If the true western edge is in 600 feet, that’s a good time to troll for dolphin. If it’s in 90 feet, that’s going to be a good edge to fish for sailfish.”

Fish around baitfish: “Always look for bait and signs like working birds,” said Poveromo, who also studies his electronic fish finder for pockets of bait. “If you see flying fish pushing, shut down the boat and fish. There has to be some dolphin around.”

Fish deep: Especially during the heat of a summer day. Poveromo said that if you find a weedline, fish some live baits on the surface and put at least one live goggle-eye down 250-300 feet. Bigger dolphins often hang out below schools of smaller dolphins. “We caught a 34-pound bull dolphin doing that in Islamorada,” he said. “A lot of those big dolphins are down in that cooler water. It makes a big difference.”

By Steve Waters