Brett Fitzgerald

Born in upstate New York in the 1960s, Fitzgerald was brought into a house full of outdoors folk. Dad hunted and fished recreationally, and mom tended the small horse farm. She also planned family excursions to Lake Ontario or local creeks and ponds via horse, dirt bike, snowmobiles or just plain old hiking in and out throughout Brett’s entire childhood.  

The Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts only fueled his fire to experience and protect the wonders of nature. Ducking chores to chase trout and bass up the creeks from the lake to the local farms helped him understand the complexity and interconnectedness of aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and the importance of all of the critters that live throughout them. Further, he realized at a young age that the only people who weren’t as excited about nature as he was were folks who never experienced it for themselves. Brett knew early on that access was key to generational protection of the wild outdoors that he loved. 

A few days after high school, Fitzgerald joined the Army, and after completing the morse code and intelligence schools shipped out to Asia for a couple of years. Fortune smiled on him as I was able to then attend Airborne and other schools and became a paratrooper with the 1st Special Forces in Ft. Lewis, WA. The military afforded him the opportunity to experience the outdoors around a good chunk of the world, which only increased a knowledge and passion for the outdoors. 

After the Army he attended college in Tampa FL at the University of South Florida, completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Most off time was spent between fishing the bay area and acting as player/coach of the USF rugby team. A teammate passed along half of his fly-tying supplies and a vice one year on Brett’s birthday, and he was hooked – 35 years later he still ties flies on that same vice. After matches on the weekend he’d head to his grandmother’s house in Sebring, and fished the lakes in the area in the same rowboat his grandfather bought when he moved to Florida in the 1950s. 

Work brought Fitzgerald to Palm Beach County, and when his first child was born he started writing (in between naps with her), and a second “semi-career” in writing was born. During the course of writing several hundred articles (mostly with my favorite magazine, Florida Sportsman, a dream come true) and penning one of their Sportsman’s Best books (Snook), he met many incredible people and organizations who were fighting to protect Florida’s precious habitats and our right to access them. One of them was the Snook Foundation, for whom he began volunteering as a writer/editor of their newsletter. 

Some 20 years later, the Foundation has come to define a big part of who he is. Brett served as a volunteer, then board member, then Chairman and now Executive Director, surviving two name changes along the way [now the Angler Action Foundation]. The mission of protecting habitats, educating anglers and fishery/land managers, and helping to manage various gamefish stocks with the state and federal entities has been enriching and fulfilling beyond his wildest dreams. A true labor of love. 

The relationships forged through the Foundation led Brett to the Cypress Chapter of the IWLA, where he plans to provide any assistance he can can in support of the important mission and vision. With a focus on clean water, healthy soil, climate solutions and wildlife protection, Brett knows he will be surrounded by like-minded people who will teach him more about Florida and help me be the best steward he can be.