"Captain" Mel Berman Dies

Even before 2003, when MidCurrent started as the first (or one of the first — you can never be sure) fly fishing blogs, I scoured the Web to see if anyone was producing reliable, well-vetted fishing information online. It seemed like wherever I looked, Captain Mel Berman’s CapMel.com Web site popped up. He was way ahead of the curve. Even as Florida’s fishing magazines struggled to figure out how to present content online, Berman was producing solid information on techniques, gear, and local fishing at an astonishing rate, and delivering it in a very popular radio show and online. He was one of those proving, I think, that it’s not about the platform, but about delivering information in whatever way your audience wants it. (They now call it “platform-agnostic.”)
Berman died on February 4 at the age of 81. Frank Sargeant wrote a tribute today for TampaBayOnline.com.
“Mel had done it all, from interviewing premiers and potentates to starring as a Top 40 disc jockey in New York. For 25 years he hosted what was by far the largest radio fishing show in Florida – and perhaps in the nation. He was a sort of rock star in his field, yet he treated every person he met with respect and a natural friendliness that was his greatest gift.”