By Capt. Tred Barta
This article first appeared in the Winter 1998/1999 issue of The Journal.
The No. 1 asset of all great captains is local knowledge. There are no secret lures, no secret techniques. As a matter of fact, the playing field of northeast canyon fishing is really very even — great boats, great captains, good anglers and more shared knowledge than ever before.
It took me five years to be a competitive live-bait sail fisherman out of Palm Beach and Jupiter, Florida. Why? Because it took me five years to accumulate solid local knowledge of the area. With this knowledge, it provided me with the right instincts and the inner sense of confidence, telling me when to move on, when to stay and where to fish. At the end of my five-year Florida residency, I was consistently winning and placing in tournaments.
I have spent a conservative 20 years between Veatch Canyon to the east and the Dip to the west on the 100-fathom curve. Let me share with you the unwritten truth about this stretch of real estate from my perspective and from the copious notes in my logbooks. Much of what I’ll tell you has never been published, much can’t be proven, except you have my word. This is gospel. One thing is certain, this article is packed with the local knowledge of the northern canyons I have accumulated over the years.
If you want to think like I do (that could be a very scary thought), foremost, you must understand the way I fish. I am a “zone troller.” I pick an area and work it to death. I keep all of my proverbial eggs in one basket. If conditions aren’t right, I move and zone troll another area.
