Episode 102: Betsy Bullard - The "Swamp Witch"

Mill House Podcast

Mill House

Wilderness, Sports, Leisure, Education, Hobbies

5 • 973 Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Betsy Bullard has an amazing heart filled with the love of fishing, her friends, and the insatiable desire to save the Everglades. At a very young age, her father helped her catch her first fish that would eventually direct her empowering life in fishing. I first recognized her beauty when she worked many of the Key's Fly Tournaments as a weigh master. Before she found her footing in Islamorada, Fl she owned and operated the Golfito Sailfish Rancho in Costa Rica. But when she experienced sight fishing on the flats in the Florida Keys, she was “Toast." Betsy ran the Herman Lucerne tournament and also fished in many of the men’s tournaments against some of the best in the game. Her biggest competitive achievement might have been when her and Wesley Locke won the Sail Fly tournament in Guatemala. Bullard is relentless when it comes to conservation and restoring the Everglades. As an honorary board member of Bonefish Tarpon Trust and a tireless worker for Captains for Clean Water she was one of hundreds that showed up on the Senate floor demanding the destructive SB 2508 bill be vetoed by Governor DeSantis. They were eventually victorious. It takes a real ground force, a movement to do such things and Betsy is always up front leading these all important charges. Betsy Bullard, in our book, is true inspiration!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Whether on the boat, on the river, or in the woods, Yeti products are by our side.
0:08.0	There are many innovative first-class companies in the outdoor market today, but none more so than Yeti. In 2006, they took
0:16.6	the industry by storm when they produced their first roto-molded cooler that was
0:21.2	reliable and built for the wild. 17 years later with a
0:25.8	multitude of new products they continued to raise the bar and be the gold
0:30.3	standard for all outdoor brands. We couldn't be more proud to have them as a
0:35.2	millhouse sponsor and a family member.
0:39.4	Duck Camp makes outdoor goods so you can outdoor good.
0:45.0	From the shallow water flats to the Mallard Field Marshes,
0:49.0	Duck Camp is there to make you feel comfortable
0:52.0	and enhance the quality of your time and the elements.
0:55.2	Not only do they make some of the best outdoor apparel on the market, but they support many of the
1:00.3	organizations near and dear, fighting for a resource in the natural world.
1:05.8	Check them out at Duck Camp.com and tell them we sent you. Betsy Bullard is a person every fishery wants and needs. She has devoted her entire life to fishing
1:25.9	and at 70 years of age still fishes once a week. She has owned and operated a
1:31.9	bill fish lodge in Costa Rica, ran countless tournaments in the Florida Keys,
1:37.0	and holds the 16-pound world record snook.
1:40.0	Her love for the Everglades and the fish that swim there runs so deep that she calls herself the swamp witch.
1:48.0	Here's the lovely and animated Bessie Bullard.
2:08.0	We broke everything, we broke lines, we broke hooks, we broke rods, we broke our minds, we broke our minds, we broke marriages, we broke the whole thing. We came up with the idea of going out that night and chasing girls and whoever had the biggest pair of
2:13.7	pain he's won the pot. I knocked another arrow and he turned around the other
2:17.8	way and I shot him going through the other way so I double-lunged him both ways.
	...

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