Reel Time Florida Sportsman Season Five Set to Kick Off

It’s time to tune in and join host George Gozdz as he takes Reel Time Florida Sportsman on the road. Ride along as the RTFS crew goes from Miami to Amelia Island on the east coast and from Ft. Myers to Crystal River on the west coast as George hooks up with anglers, like you, to film the fifth season of the very popular television show.

George and Kevin Lacofano with a cobia off Fort Myers.

The premise of the show has always been to connect with anglers from around the state and fish their home waters, making them stars for a day. “It was a dream come true,” said Zach Truong, 16, of Orange City, Florida, when George Gozdz reached out to him as a result of his Instagram post. “I never thought I’d be picked to be on the show. I’ve been watching RTFS since it started online. It’s my favorite fishing show because it’s relevant; they do a lot of the same kind of fishing that I do with my parents.” You can catch Zach in action on episode five.

“When we started filming RTFS we exclusively used the Florida Sportsman Fishing Forums to find anglers who were on the bite,” Gozdz recalled. “Now I still use the Fishing Reports sections of the Forum to find guest hosts to fish with, but I’m also connecting with people via their posts on Florida Sportsman’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

“Unfortunately, lining up anglers isn’t as easy as you may think. Our goal is to fish with regular people, real anglers, but in some cases we end up fishing with guides. When I reach out to people a lot of the time they’re afraid of not coming off like a pro, and are reluctant to participate. But, if you watch the shows, including the bloopers, you’ll see we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Our goal is to have a good time. We do our best to make our guest hosts feel like it’s just another day on the water.”

Clay Shidler shows off a grouper they were able to catch casting topwater and subsurface plugs off Crystal River.

“Once I was able to forget about the cameras, the day turned into a regular fishing trip,” said Mark Lamacchia, a 28-year-old roofer from Sarasota who will be in episode four. “George was awesome. He was funny and great to be around. There was never a dull moment. We caught snook, jacks, tripletail and sheepshead. It was a great day.”

According to Florida Sportsman Publisher Blair Wickstrom, the goal this year with RTFS was to maintain the grassroots,

local flavor, while adding some new storytelling dimensions. “We wanted to highlight and expand on one of three storylines in each episode,” said Wickstrom. “One being a personality-focused show, the second being a technique-driven show, and finally a destination show. Going in, the crew may not know what focus a particular episode is going to take, but it doesn’t take long to sort itself out.”

“I’m becoming more and more a writer and storyteller than fishing guide or host,” Gozdz commented. “To keep our shows improving, we want to bring more to the picture than simply recalling our day’s fishing. We want to teach you something you didn’t already know with our technique shows, make you want to fish an area with our destination shows and introduce you to an interesting person with our personality shows.

“As I say in each show, post a report or give me a shoutout—I want to fish with you next.”