A Visit Florida deal paid a TV fishing show producer $2.8 million in taxpayers' money — and gave him a boat and let him keep all the advertising revenue from the show.

TALLAHASSEE — When Visit Florida negotiated a contract with a Tallahassee producer, the tourism agency agreed to pay him to create a cable fishing show that would showcase the state's hundreds of miles of shorelines, lakes and rivers.

Since the first deal was made in 2012, Visit Florida paid Pat Roberts $2.8 million in taxpayer money for the show and allowed him to keep all of the advertising and sponsorship revenue. He even got a $175,000 boat out of the deal from one of the sponsors.

These are the type of contracts that make Visit Florida a target of critical legislative leaders who are cutting the amount of taxpayer money the agency receives and adding reporting requirements that give lawmakers more oversight of such contracts.

“Every time we look deeper into the spending at Visit Florida, new waste and abuse is uncovered,” House Speaker Richard Corcoran said of the TV show deal uncovered by the Naples Daily News. “Despite past outrageous stories, contracts, and spending, what we are looking into now might top them all.

Visit Florida agreed to pay Roberts $450,000 for the first season of “Bass 2 Billfish with Peter Miller,” including $10,000 for production of each of the 10 half-hour episodes and $10,000 to air each on the NBC Sports Network. The company also received money for re-airings, web articles and short videos, according to contracts provided by Visit Florida through a public records request.

Visit Florida paid $550,000 for the second season in 2014. The third and fourth seasons in 2015 and 2016 each cost $580,000, and this year's season cost $600,000, the contracts show.

“Are you kidding me?” said Ron Gauthier, who hosts another cable fishing show, “Captain Ron’s Ocean Explorer.” “I’ll do it for half,” Gauthier said. Roberts also received a 36-foot boat from Bradenton-based Yellowfin Yachts in the deal, according to an October 2012 bill of sale that identified the transaction as advertising credit for the show. The boat, valued at $175,000, sank seven months later during a storm in the Florida Keys. Roberts used the $50,000 he received from the salvaged vessel to purchase another 36-foot Yellowfin priced at $155,000.

Roberts also received $11.6 million from Visit Florida to produce a cooking show with celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse. And since the agency turned over all advertising and sponsorship to Roberts on that agreement, it’s also not clear how good a deal taxpayers received.