Wild guess propels Boisean to TV fishing stardom

Mindie Whitten of Boise was just doing a little clothes shopping on the Internet, but she ended up on a television fishing show with a famous guide in the Bahamas.

Not bad for clicking a mouse and taking a wild guess in a contest sponsored by Columbia Sportswear.

Whitten will get more than her 15 minutes of fame when she stars on an episode of "George Poveromo's World of Saltwater Fishing."

The episode will air at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, and repeat at 4:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14.

Whitten, a 32-year-old Boise native, was on Columbia's Web site last spring and saw the "Reel Stories" contest, which challenged people to guess the "tall tale" among four fishing video clips.

Her name was put in a drawing with others who guessed correctly, and she was drawn as the grand prize winner.

Whitten received an e-mail about two months after entering. At first she was skeptical that someone wanted to send her on a free fishing trip to the Bahamas with a head-to-toe fishing wardrobe provided by Columbia.

"I thought, who wins these kind of trips?" Whitten said. "Nobody believed that I won it."

Columbia paid for her sister and brother-in-law, Shellie and Charles Martin of Boise, to go with her, and Poveromo invited Whitten to star in an episode of his show.

"This had the makings of a great episode right from the very beginning," Poveromo said. "Here's a woman who has never fished in saltwater, and she's from Boise, Idaho, no less. What a great story line!"

The trip was postponed twice due to hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The third time was nearly canceled at the last minute in October when a cold front brought 25-knot winds and rough seas.

"I was sick to my stomach," Poveromo said. "Mindie flew to Bimini, and I was home (in Florida), looking at very rough seas. By one incredible stroke of luck, the weather forecast called for those winds and seas to drop out by the afternoon on the day we were scheduled to cross - and lay down completely for the following two days."

He brought two boats, his 28-foot Mako, and another to serve as the camera boat.

Shellie Martin landed the first fish, a big barracuda, but soon after, something hit Whitten's rod and started taking line, Poveromo said.

"I wasn't quite sure who was more excited at this point, Mindie or me," Poveromo said. "Here she was, battling her first-ever saltwater fish - and on national TV! ...

"Her facial expressions were priceless, but her perseverance showed, and we soon netted an 11-pound Cero mackerel. And for a Cero mackerel, that's big."

Whitten said the Cero mackerel were her favorite fish.

"They had quite a lot of fight to them, nothing like what we have in Idaho," she said.

Fishing with Poveromo was also a special treat.

"I enjoyed every moment of it, and George was so much fun to fish with. We were laughing every moment," she said. "I never had to take a fish off a hook; that really spoils a girl from Idaho."

Back at the dock, the fish were cleaned and brought to a restaurant at Bimini Sands, where they were cooked for dinner.

On the second day, the group caught more fish and watched three large bull sharks try to steal every fish the team hooked. Many times the sharks were successful.

"With the sharks around, you had to muscle and reel in a fish as quickly as humanly possible if you didn't want the sharks to steal your catch," Poveromo said.

A cold front blew in on the third day, so Poveromo took Whitten and the Martins on a tour of North Bimini and the Bimini Sands Nature Center on South Bimini, where she saw wildlife native to the island, including the Bimini boa.

"This couldn't have been a more enjoyable trip," Poveromo said.