Tred Barta catches tailing sword

[Tuna Devil]

Sounds like some awesome fishing.

I have killed a couple myself.

Don't get me wrong I am not a fan or a Tred hater, we just know each other and fish the same waters (or used to fish the same waters, I think he lives in Colorado now).


I think a conservation minded person in the lime light is good for Sportfishing.

As they say any publicity is good publicity especially if it can help the plight.

Again he is everything anyone wants to think he is and none of it really matters to me.

I believe Hemingway was an arrogant SOB himself.

Again every sport needs it characters.

[mlutz95]

Originally Posted by SteveMras

I've got a funny story about Tred from last years Miami Boat Show.

First some background. A good buddy is a biologist for the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) down at Scripps. For five years running they went on 3-month long bigeye tuna tagging trips down near the Galapagos. They set a string of FADs and they'd work those amidst the Seiner fleet that's hammering the fish down there. They were surgically installing archival tags, plus the regular spaghetti tags. On one trip alone they tagged over 9,000 bigeye tuna (100 archival tags, as those get expensive). Most of those were caught using lift poles, but he was given a Tiburon Smartshift two speed reel to put through its paces. He finally broke the reel after 450 some odd fish. Keep in mind that this was just one of five of these trips. (One time I was between jobs and they invited me to come along. The wife said go ahead. I passed as I did not want to risk a gap in my resume. What a dope I was.)

Here's a link describing one trip:

Hasting Rod Manufacturing LLC - Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

So that established, my buddy made a passing comment about Tred in a phone conversation. I watch very little TV and do not get cable or dish. Apparently in the intro to his show, Tred claims to have caught more bigeye tuna than any man alive. So at the Miami Boat Show, I introduced myself to Tred and asked him about this claim. He said "yes Steve that is the case." So I asked him how many bigeye he had caught? Tred looked at me and said "approximately 400". I then proceeded to pull out my Blackberry which was already opened up to the link above and explained how my buddy had done 450 bigeye tuna on rod and reel on just one trip and they had done 5 of these trips for the IATTC. Tred looked at me and said "ok Steve you got me, but I'm still probably in the top two or three." Then he said "Steve, I can tell that you know that bullshit is deeper and thicker when you get to the top." We smiled, shook hands and went our separate ways. He will take his arrogance to his grave.

i have never been a big fan of tred...

[BillFish32]

The hunting episodes, where he's using the homemade bow & arrow - I think many folks tune in to root for the bear...

Originally Posted by SteveMras

Then he said "Steve, I can tell that you know that bullshit is deeper and thicker when you get to the top." We smiled, shook hands and went our separate ways. He will take his arrogance to his grave.

[CAPTINMITCH]

Originally Posted by Warrior

Most of us could outfish him every day!

Not hardly. He can be a real jackass but if there was money on the line, he'd be taking your cash 5 out of 7 days.
BTW, get him around kids and he's a whole different person.