About WWO

Bryce Poyer

President/Owner

Due to his extensive experience in all types of saltwater fishing, Long Island native Bryce Poyer has earned his reputation today as one of the most knowledgeable tackle professionals in the world. Bryce began fishing the Great South Bay at five years old under the guidance of his grandfather, and by the age of seven he began fishing offshore routinely. Since high school, he has called the waters of Shinnecock Bay his home.

Prior to establishing our store, Bryce was the manager of a Florida-based fishing tackle company for ten years. In founding White Water Outfitters, his goal was to create the best bait and tackle store on the East End. Throughout his life, he has crewed & captained on boats in South America, the Caribbean, and up the New England Coast to Maine accruing a vast knowledge of fishing in many different parts of the world along the way. He has experience on an 85 ft. Gulfcraft, a 78 ft. Gilliken, and a series of Merritts ranging from 55 to 72 feet. In his years of working on boats, he had numerous billfish & tuna tournament wins and placings. Not just an offshore fisherman, Bryce has traveled all over the world and has acquired extensive fishing experience on Indo-Pacific atolls, with a heavy emphasis on jig & pop, and fly fishing for several different species from GT’s to bonefish.

Bryce holds a U.S. Coast Guard 200 ton Masters License and currently runs charters on his 2022 Conch 27' center console, and 2021 Maverick 18' HPX-V. His charters cover everything from light tackle/fly fishing to big game tuna fishing. Bryce has also been very active in international fisheries management, and was a technical advisor for the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) for several years. Bryce and his wife, Lisa have a great love for all things outdoors, including all types of fishing and hunting. On any given day they can usually be found fishing our local waters in Shinnecock and Montauk drifting the rips for striped bass, on their skiff poling the flats, or spending time on the water with their Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.

Rich Parisen

Custom Rod Builder & Fishing Tech/Tackle Consultant

Rich is a Shinnecock local who has a huge amount of fishing and rod building experience under his belt. He is very well known on the East End, and has been building custom fishing rods for over 30 years now. Rich earned his reputation as a master rod builder at the old Altenkirch’s shop back in the day. The majority of the rods coming out of there were built by Rich, who became known for his custom ground cork and wood grip work. Any rod that Rich crafts is done with extreme care to not only look beautiful, but perform well and stand the test of time.

Crafting a purpose-built tool for fishing requires not only experience at the rod bench, but fishing knowledge to know what has to go into it. Rich has immeasurable amounts of experience on the water in just about every style of fishing which shows in every rod he builds. Throughout his life, he has spent his time time trolling, plugging, and live-bait fishing for stripers, and prior to that, surf fishing on the east end on both the North and South Fork. Rich also has spent a great deal of time fishing offshore, with a high degree of success in fishing for tuna and white marlin. His fishing has not been limited to the Northeast too, and has a great deal of experience fishing the salt in North Carolina and Florida for various species. To further add to his fishing resumé, for years he also fished in semi-pro largemouth bass tournaments around the country. As they say, “with age comes wisdom”… and Rich has plenty of both!

Lisa Poyer

Operations Manager

Lisa has lived on Long Island for many years now, however she actually grew up in the midwest, which isn’t something you’d assume if you met her today. By the time she graduated high school, she couldn’t resist the call of the sea. Lisa made her move east to attend college at LIU Southampton, where she acquired degrees in Marine Biology, and Business Management & Marketing. Lisa fishes primarily inshore with her husband, Bryce and enjoys light tackle/fly fishing the most. She also does some big game fishing on occasion. In recent years, Lisa has become heavily involved in fisheries management. She is currently a technical advisor for the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICATT). She is also on the board for the New York Sportfishing Federation, and serves as a technical advisor for the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Advisory Council. Aside from the water, Lisa also has a love for the woods and the field, where she can often be found in a tree stand bowhunting during deer season and upland hunting with her Chessies.

Jeff Lomonaco

E-Commerce/Media Coordinator & Fishing Tech/Tackle Consultant

Jeff grew up fishing all over Long Island starting in 1994 at three years old. Over the years, he developed an exceptional passion for this lifestyle and has devoted himself to fishing as one of the most important aspects of his life. Though he holds a masters in teaching for Earth & Space Sciences, he decided to follow his greatest passion in life. A career based in teaching people about fishing, rather than science in a classroom was the answer for Jeff.

With roots in freshwater, Jeff spent a lot of his time as a kid fishing in lakes for largemouth bass and fly fishing in rivers for trout. As he grew up, his interests turned towards the salt, where he now spends the majority of his time. During the season you can usually expect to find him on our local waters pursuing striped bass, false albacore, and bluefish. Though he still does all kinds of fishing from trout to tuna, he has earned a reputation as the Fly Fishing specialist in the shop. He currently runs a Hewes Bayfisher, a classic 18' flats skiff for fly/light tackle fishing. He is a USCG Licensed Captain, and New York State Licensed Guide that enjoys teaching people how to fish our local waters.

Although Jeff spends the majority of his time on our local waters, he loves to travel and fish as well. He enjoys going on trips to fly fish for steelhead, trout in the mountains, and has spent some time fishing offshore and inshore in Costa Rica, and Australia. Jeff’s bucket list of future trips is never-ending, and he will continue to travel and fish the world as time goes on. He also writes for some fishing magazines, and shares a lot of his experiences and through photos and videos. Jeff lives and breathes fishing, and his passion for this way of life shines through in everything that he does. 

Ethan Ostrander

Tackle Technician/Rigging Specialist

Ethan grew up fishing on Long Island, and has put an absurd amount of time and patience into learning how to catch fish of basically all species in our local waters since he was very young. He is extremely accomplished as a surfcaster, with numerous large bass to his name caught from rock perches in the middle of the night. However, his fishing experience certainly doesn't stop there. Ethan is just as much at home in the surf as he is on the bow of a flats boat with a light tackle spin setup, or beefy conventional gear for bottom species like blackfish and fluke which he loves to pursue. Not only does he fish with a rods and reels, Ethan is also an avid free diver.

In the shop, Ethan is very skilled when it comes to specialized offshore rigging and tackle tech work. He can create almost any type of rig for pelagic species like tuna, swordfish, marlin, as well as all of our inshore species. His patience and mechanical knowledge is a huge virtue as well when it comes to servicing tackle. Diagnosing problems with reels, and making them like new again is something that he does very often.