Fabulous Florida fishing trip for Algonquin couple

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Updated: January 26, 2012 5:17PM

There’s this about shooting a show on Florida waters.

“Sometimes you forget you have microphones on,’’ Mike Atkocaitis said.

That’s a plus or a minus on a reality television show.

Atkocaitis and his wife, Chrissy, did something right when they were selected for the chance of lifetime to do a “Bass 2 Billfish” show. It was good enough to lead the show’s third season at 12:30 p.m. Friday on Versus (which becomes NBC Sports on Jan. 2). It will be rebroadcast at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

“I still can’t believe it,’’ said Atkocaitis, who does CNC programming.

In late spring, he and Chrissy, an office manager for dental offices, submitted a YouTube video to “B2B.” They didn’t have much hope.

“Not even two weeks later, they contacted us,’’ Atkocaitis said.

In June, the couple from Algonquin had an all-expenses-paid fishing trip for four days. The timing was perfect. Host Peter Miller, a three-time world sailfish champion with the “Get Lit’’ fishing team, said they caught lemon sharks up to 200 pounds and a trophy bonefish.

“We caught a ton of sharks, estimated one even a hair over 200 pounds: big boys for us, for the ocean probably still small,’’ Atkocaitis said.

“I selected this episode as the premiere episode because this is a Miami episode and I’m from Miami and all my fishing friends and fans of the show are amped up to see the great fishing that took place during the shoot,’’ Miller said.

Even half a year later, Atkocaitis said, “It was a whole another world, it was so cool.’’

It wasn’t just the fishing. They went to the Miami Dolphins Fins Weekend banquet, of which Miller is a committee member. They met Dolphins players, the team president and pro wrestler Ted DiBiase. They hung out on the 60-foot boat the “Get Lit’’ team uses in sailfish tournaments.

Pretty cool for a guy who grew up loving to fish on local waters.

“I watch all the fishing shows on all the channels,’’ Atkocaitis said. “This is one of the shows that is different than all the others.’’

He is active on the B2B Facebook page, so maybe that helped. Or maybe it was that his and Chrissy’s enthusiasm came through on the homemade video they submitted on YouTube.

“It wasn’t much, two minutes of us basically saying,’ ‘Please, we love to fish,’ ’’ he said.

His wife is a good fisherman in her own right.

“I can sit in a bathtub of bass and she can fish a retention pond and she can catch the biggest fish,’’ Atkocaitis said. “But she doesn’t put the bait on or take the fish off.’’

Two weeks after submitting the video, they were selected. Then they were on their way to Florida in June. They fished channels, flats, Coral Gables and Key Biscayne.

“We were two miles off Miami and we are in two feet of water,’’ said Atkocaitis, who normally fishes Lake Michigan, the Chain O’Lakes and the Fox River.

“What we would love to catch in this area — 2, 3, 4 pounds — is bait down there,’’ he said.

One of their catches in Florida, a nice bonefish, made such a good image that it became a billboard in Tampa for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission advertising their five-year license.

“Pretty cool, that you got two Chicago people on a billboard telling people in Florida,’’ Atkocaitis said.

For “B2B,” go to bass2billfish.com.