Hooked
n a recent afternoon in Wimauma, Florida, Leiza Fitzgerald is reeling them in like the fishing legend she is, hooking one after the next in rapid-fire succession. But on this day, she isn’t landing redfish, the pursuit that helped propel her into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame — the only angler ever to receive that recognition. She is not standing aboard her boat, the Screaming Reels & High Heels, but on the linoleum floor of the Balm Recreation Center. Without missing a beat, the 1984 USF marketing and public relations graduate tackles a flurry of questions from some 80 children attending a Hillsborough County summer program.
What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught?
“It was a 900-pound marlin.”
How many fish have you caught?
“Well, I’m an old person, so I bet I’ve caught over 75,000 fish!”
WOOOO!
For 30 minutes, small hands fly up and children call out to the Sarasota resident, who speaks to youth groups as part of her mission to raise awareness about fishing and promote a humane, environmentally sensitive approach to the sport. That, and her storied career with longtime fishing partner Capt. Merrily Dunn, has made Fitzgerald one of the 30 most influential female anglers in North America, according to Wildlife Enthusiast magazine.
How many species of fish have you caught?
“Well, I participate in the International Women’s Fishing Association competition, and last year they said I caught 56 different species!”
WOOOO!
Fitzgerald’s resumé includes numerous Top 10 fishing titles, such as the ESPN Redfish Cup and the Fishing League Worldwide Redfish Tour, and honors such as Top Angler for Redfish, Snook and Sheepshead from the International Women’s Fishing Association. She is a champion who has helped attract more women than ever before to the male-dominated sport — females now comprise 37% of U.S. anglers, up more than 26% in just over a decade.
Are any fish endangered?
“A very important question,” Fitzgerald responds.
“There are many fish that are in peril, which means we’re wiping them out by keeping them. So, the more fish we protect, and the better we are about the way we catch our fish, the more fish we will have.”
Eventually, Fitzgerald makes her way to the door amid applause and cheers and with a cluster of new fans in tow. For today, her work is done. One more step in a career that almost never happened.
When Fitzgerald was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2022, Brian Gorski, executive director of Coastal Conservation Association Florida, put her accomplishments in context. Fitzgerald runs the association’s Statewide Tournament and Angler’s Rodeo (STAR), Florida’s largest, family-friendly saltwater fishing competition.
“From leading the STAR competition to restocking fish and hooking grand slams in between, Leiza’s love for sportfishing and Florida’s fisheries is unmatched,” he said. “Leiza is more deserving of this award than anyone I know.”
She got hooked as a kid. She and her little brother grew up in a military household, with their father, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Washburn Wear, often based in seaside locales like Jacksonville and Key West, Florida. An avid outdoorsman, he brought Leiza along to fish or hunt.
“My mother, Elizabeth, also loved the outdoors,” she says, “but my dad’s true passion was saltwater fishing, and it rubbed off on me.”
While other children manned lemonade stands, 9-year-old Leiza and her brother caught pinfish to sell as bait. When they eventually moved to Central Florida, Fitzgerald turned to bass fishing in the lakes. She graduated from Lake Weir High School in 1979, excelling in tennis and softball but with her heart set on the water.
“After I’d get home from school, the first thing I did was run down to the lake, push the boat out and go fishing,” she recalls. “Fishing with my dad became a Friday night ritual, even when I went off to college.”
At USF, Fitzgerald planned to major in marine biology and minor in music, secretly dreaming of becoming a country singer. But a heart-to-heart with her dad changed her direction. “He said, ‘Honey, you’ll love being a marine biologist, but you might want to think about a field that pays better,’ and so I took his advice,” she says. She switched to marketing and public relations and made a good living for 17 years.
I thought, ‘If these two gals can do this, I can do this, too.”
– Leiza Fitzgerald
She took a job with a sports marketing company, working on baseball and soccer accounts. When the opportunity arose, she pitched the idea of sponsoring a charity sailfish tournament.
Enlisting the help of the late Gulf War hero Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, a philanthropist whose charitable work was largely devoted to children, she boldly dubbed the event the World Sailfish Tournament. With Schwarzkopf’s foundation as the beneficiary, the tournament was a smashing success, raising more than $300,000. It continues today.
Next, she persuaded Merrily Dunn, a seasoned Sarasota fishing guide, to team up, dubbing them Screaming Reels & High Heels. They entered their first redfish competition in 2001.
“We heard a lot of ‘Look out! Here come the girls,’” Fitzgerald says. “None of them believed that we could stick with it.”
By 2003, they were the first women to qualify for the national Inshore Fishing Association’s redfish championship.
Fitzgerald found creative ways to put conservation front and center in her career. After competing in some big-money tarpon tournaments, she and her team refused to drag the fish ashore for weigh-ins.
“We chose just to compete for the most ‘leader’ releases,” she says, meaning the angler can score a catch by simply touching a 15-foot leader attached to the line, after which the fish is released.
“Eventually, through our efforts and other angler pressure, we got the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series to change to that system,” she says.
Her many fish-tagging initiatives include tagging the one-millionth redfish in Tampa Bay alongside former Gov. Jeb Bush to prove that vital restocking efforts were successful.
“When they called to let me know I was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, you have the wrong person, there are so many other anglers who have won more out there,’” Fitzgerald says.
“And they said, ‘It’s not what you’ve won, it’s what you’ve done. This is also about what you give back.’”
And what Fitzgerald gives back — from the fish she hooks to the conservation message she imparts — is a legacy that runs deep, like the Florida waters she loves so much.
-by Dave Scheiber
