Tredn’ Water #27

(Originally published May/Jun 2018)

God is my Copilot

By Capt. Tred Barta

This spring while visiting my girlfriend Sandy in Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, I went for a 5-mile bike ride. This is a bike that attaches to my wheelchair and allows me to make forward motion using my arms, since I am paralyzed from my chest down. My help dog, Pepper, a female black lab, was attached to the wheelchair by a harness and a leash. Pepper helps me when I’m tired.

I had finished my 2-1/2-mile loop and was on the way home when an old F150 in great disrepair came down the road at great speed. His right front tire hit the right wheel of my wheelchair, throwing me to the ground. Luckily my urine bag came free or it would’ve ripped a hole in my bowels and I would’ve been DOA. The actual wheelchair and Pepper went airborne and landed some 12 to 15 feet from where I was in the ditch. I don’t remember passing out – maybe I did, maybe I didn’t – but when I opened my eyes, my legs lay in a very unusual manner, and I was covered in sand and mud. My eyes found Pepper pulling my wheelchair through the mud on its side, desperately trying to get back to me which she did. I remember saying out loud to my Savior “please do not take me yet, I have much to give back.” As I straightened up and attempted to sit up nothing seemed to be broken. I could not believe it; the man who hit me sped away at full throttle. I am sure he thought he had killed me.

I was about to complete my prayer when three Marine pilots showed up on the scene. They all worked as if they were on the battlefield, and before I knew it I was in my wheelchair cleaned up and completed the way home. I almost made it; I was about a half-mile short I had nothing more in my tank, and Sandy met me and helped me the rest of the way.

If that truck had been 1 inch closer to me, however, I would be dead.

I asked myself many times lately why does God want to keep me alive? There is no reason why I am alive today. It defies every intelligent analysis of my illness and disability caused by a very, very rare blood cancer called Walden strums. Seven years ago they gave me three days to live literally three times, and yet after 10 years of my TV show “The Best and Worst of Tred Barta,” I’m still here. Two years ago I almost died in Guatemala on the fishing trip at the Casa Vieja Lodge. My digestive system stopped; I was completely dehydrated. After spending 10 days in the Guatemala hospital and being medevaced by Learjet to Miami, one cannot get any closer to losing their life on this planet. Twice in the ambulance I flatlined and opened my eyes to people beating on my chest to get my heart going again. Yes, it was quite an experience.

The fact remains that my Lord has been my copilot on many dangerous flights across the Atlantic, once landing in Reykjavík, Iceland, with 10 minutes of fuel left flying on one engine, after winding through canyons and cliffs. One miscalculation or a missed approach and you are dead, so are your seven passengers. My Lord is been with me on enhancing fishing trips all over the world, has jumped with me out of airplanes 17 times and stood ground with me at 8 yards holding a longbow shooting a homemade wooden arrow. My Lord sat with me on more trips than you can imagine leaving Shinnecock in the fog for the canyon? Yes everyone, my Lord is great, he is everywhere and he is wonderful. All you have to do is believe with all your heart.

As you read this and as I write this I’m saying to myself, “what does this have to do with fishing and why should it be in the Big Game Fishing Journal?” The answer is very simple: I been granted life for the purpose of helping others. The  Big Game Fishing Journal raised $75,000 in cash with all of its donors when I had hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills. To my knowledge I have never missed an issue. Do all of you know that the Big Game Fishing Journal is owned by its employees? That’s the way my dear friend Len Belcaro structured the deal of the sale of magazine. In so many ways the Big Game Fishing Journal is truly our magazine, the magazine of canyon fishermen and Northeast fishermen of all kinds. The articles are informative and from captains and mates who are not professional writers but are professional fishermen. The advertisers, which everyone appreciates, do not dictate the direction of the magazine or influence the writing of the magazine in any shape or form.

Big game bluewater fishing and inshore fishing is our passion. That fact cannot be negated. Life is so very, very perishable; it can never be forgotten, and therefore I want to end this article by thanking each and every one of you for contributing what you do to this great magazine I will continue to write monthly pages and also to continue in writing feature articles. For those of you who don’t believe in the Lord, that is your right; hundreds of thousands of Americans have given their life so that you can choose to believe or not to believe in anything you want and not be persecuted for it. For me it is very simple: I have been spared death I have been given life for one reason, to share everything I know everything I believe in everything which is in my heart concerning bluewater fishing to share with you in the future.

So whether you are a supporter of Tred Barta or a detractor of Tred Barta I came within 1 inch of losing my life on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. If you know me and you know I’ve done in my life, you can only come to one conclusion: God wants me alive to do what I’m best at and that is helping others that is what I will continue.

I thank all of you for the opportunity to serve.

Til next tide,

Tred’n Water
Capt. Tred Barta