(Originally published May/Jun 2019)
Name Your Game
By Capt. Tred Barta
First, we’re all glad when the sun finally comes out, the temperature rises and the first hint of spring is definitely here and what do we all do? Think about the Northeast canyons. They call to us like the loons call across a northern lake at the end of the day.
Most canyon fishermen have saltwater running through their veins and the truth of the matter is if we’re not dreaming about going to the canyons, we are preparing to go to the canyons, working hard on our terminal tackle or on the very vessel the takes us there. It’s a wonderful affliction to have. Speaking personally, there’s not one day that goes buy in my life that I have not thought of the mysteries that I have not yet discovered in the wildest place on the earth.
I am not bragging when I say that I have literally traveled around the world three times. I have hunted and fished in some of the wildest imaginable places under the sun: the huge volcanoes of the Hawaiian trenches, the rugged shorelines of the Panamanian coast, and have walked where no man has walked in British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska. I have been to Africa nine times, and have not missed the beauty of the Amazon, nor have I missed the opportunity of the big five with a long bow, with homemade wooden arrows. I have flown a glider among the Swiss Alps and scuba-dived in most of the world’s blue holes. I have taken a grizzly bear at 8 yards with a longbow with homemade wooden arrows, and have had many a huge bugling elk within 10 yards of which I’ve taken the fine bulls in my time.
I’m telling you these things not to brag but merely point out this is not my first rodeo and now being 67 years old I would like to share some comments, techniques, and strategies that I think will work for you in this upcoming offshore season.
As I now sit in my wheelchair paralyzed from my chest down for the rest of my life and try my best to be a part of everything that I used to be, I can tell you there is absolutely nothing more wild, more calling, and more beautiful than the pure force of the Continental Shelf, the ebb and flow of life there is like nothing anywhere else in the world.
You think about the fact that all of the great whales, most of the North Atlantic seabirds, all of the tunas and the billfish, all of the great sharks including the mako, the great white, the thresher, and the tiger shark all migrate north from beyond the southern reaches of Florida and from as far east as Europe through the Straits of Gibraltar between Italy and North Africa. I ask you think for just one moment of the massive influx of life and death that comes to our Northeast canyons for their last great feed of summer leading into fall.
As the great Northeast canyons are fed nutrient-rich warm Gulfstream water through rivers fed by warmcore eddies, they collide with colder waters that are more indigenous to the continental shelf. It is here, the upwelling from the cliff walls of the canyons, that the crush of life is lit up with a blow torch. The microscopic life, the katrillons of millions and millions of krill, of white fish and squid, and hordes of mackerel entice and bring all of the great migrating gamefish that we dream about.
I want every canyon fisherman to just close your eyes for a moment and appreciate what an incredible privilege it is to actually point our boats toward a phenomena that in my opinion exists like this nowhere in the world. I have been 100 miles off the Guatemala coast to watch thousands of spinner dolphin travel as yellowfin tuna follow them. It’s a spectacular sight that will take your breath away, and yet my friends there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that compares to the Northeast canyons. Nothing.
To fish our canyons of the Northeast is a privilege. It’s a marvel of nature and God, it is a place that so few will ever get to experience. It is pure wildness. It is pure savagery. It is pure beauty.
I wanted to share with you as someone who has been so privileged to travel around the world hunting and fishing how I feel about the Northeast canyons. When you troll down the canyon wall keep in mind that trillions of gallons of water smash up against the wall itself and are driven upward toward the surface, pushing life and bait upward. It’s here where your lures and your spreader bars and your rigged ballyhoo are exposed to the magic of the canyons.
One of the most frustrating things about getting old and having so much knowledge that was earned over 50 years in bluewater is that today’s youth do not seek out those masters of the sport who could make them much better fishermen and create a quicker learning curve. The terrible truth is that by attrition of death, there are not too many men like myself still alive. There are several but our numbers are dwindling. Many people ask me why I still am an active outdoor writer, the answer is very simple: I truly believe I still have knowledge that I can teach those who want it. I still share stories of the deep that are very entertaining and relate knowledge as someone who definitely paid his dues. In closing I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Big Game Fishing Journal; it is our community and we are all lucky to have the magazine.
I wish all of you a great upcoming season.
Never give up, never say never!
Til next tide,
Tred’n Water
Capt. Tred Barta
