WEBVTT
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The house needs paint.
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The best needs morning.
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Lizzie.
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Hey, guess it's earl.
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Last show was stronger than the Sonic Moon.
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Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to Hank Parker Off the Water.
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I'm with my special co-host, Sarah Beth.
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Say hello, Sarah Beth.
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Hello, Sarah Beth.
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Hello, Sarah Beth.
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Well, we're here today and we're going to have some question and answers.
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You know, I made an appeal uh several weeks ago.
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If you've got a question, ask me.
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I go to a lot of seminars, and at the end of the seminar, people will walk up and say, Man, I wish you'd have talked about this, or I wish you would have addressed this or whatever.
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I said, Man, why in our question and answer session did you not ask me?
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So uh if you have questions and you think I know an answer, uh send them in and uh we'll be glad to try and answer them.
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So today I think Sarah Beth's got a list of questions for me.
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So let's see if we can get them answered, and hopefully uh this will be one of your questions and we'll answer it.
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And I'm sure a lot of people have the same question, so maybe everybody will benefit from this.
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We'll see how it goes.
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All right.
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First question somebody put in you talk about early days, like drawing partners in one of your previous podcasts.
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Um if you could pick anyone to refish a tournament with, who and what partner would that be?
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Wow, wow, well.
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Now that that is a tough one.
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I uh I fish with so many wonderful people and had such great experiences.
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Uh always did well when I drew Larry Nixon for a partner.
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He's one of my fishing heroes.
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And Larry and I always caught fish.
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When we fished together, we we both limit out.
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I think I drew him like three times, and every time uh he and I both had a limit to take to the scale, so that's pretty special.
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Nobody else uh I can think of of that or for that and being so successful.
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But if I could only fish one partner, you know, I never drew Forrest Wood until the last day of the last tournament he ever fished.
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I drew him as a partner.
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And that was so cool.
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And so if I was only able to pick one angler to come back and spend the day in my boat, of course, Forrest is in heaven, he's gone on to be with the Lord and not with us today.
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But if I could bring him back and go fishing one day, it would definitely be with my hero, my buddy, Forrest Wood.
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That's awesome.
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All right, second question.
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It says Murray won the classic in 78 and then retired.
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You won your second one in 89, then you retired at 36.
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Well, hold on.
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You were 36 at 19.
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I used to be 36.
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You forgot about that.
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Yeah, I couldn't imagine that.
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I used to be 20.
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Oh, yeah, yeah.
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Did his retirement have any effect on yours?
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You know, Bobby was such a hero.
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Bobby's, he's the man, and out of all the guys I followed, and I admired him for doing that.
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And uh Bobby had started a ripping business that was just on fire.
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They were doing awesome.
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And uh he felt like he needed to spend more time with his business.
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Me, I was an absentee dad.
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Uh at the time I retired, I had four children.
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Uh Timmy had not come along yet.
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Uh I had uh Hank Jr., Bill Ben, and Lucy.
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And you know, moms do a great job with kids till they get uh 10, 11, 12 years old, where my kids were at that time.
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I think Hank Jr.
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may have been 13 and the boys, uh Bill and Ben 11.
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And man, I tournament fishing, you gotta go.
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When Ray Scott says, hey, we're having a tournament on Beaver Lake on such and such dates, that's it.
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And uh you couldn't do anything about it.
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It didn't matter if it was graduation, didn't matter if it was birthdays, didn't matter what it what it was.
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I mean, you had to be there, and so it kind of took precedence over everything you did.
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And I wasn't there for my kids.
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And uh it was killing me, you know.
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You can't be an absentee dad or an absentee husband, and I was both.
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And uh I felt like, you know, I can't afford it's been my dream to make a living as a bass fisherman, and I was doing well, but no way was I doing well enough that I could just step aside.
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It would take something really big for me to be able to do that, like win the classic the second time.
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And so when I did, it was not even a decision for me.
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My mind had already been made up.
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If I ever got to the point that I could sustain my career uh without having to follow that schedule and be able to be home with my children, I was gonna do that.
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And so when I won the classic, it wasn't even a second thought for me.
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I wanted to retire on stage in uh in 89 right after the classic.
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And I told Ray that.
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I said, Ray, I'm gonna announce that I'm I'm I'm done, I'm retiring.
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And he said, No, please don't do that.
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Please, please don't do that.
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Uh he said, let's talk about it.
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And so um, because of Ray and my respect for Ray, I didn't do that.
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I waited and he said, Hey, why don't you fish?
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You're automatically qualified for the classic next year, and these guys are gonna resent you coming and just showing up for the classic if you don't fish a few tournaments next year.
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So he said, Why don't you pick out a handful of tournaments and uh and fish them next year, and then uh you will announce your retirement here a year from today.
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So that's what I did.
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I only fished like three tournaments in 1990, and I retired at the classic.
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But I did it because I wanted to go home.
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My boys wanted to race go-karts, my boys wanted to go hunting more, and they wanted to go out and a boat more, and I wasn't there.
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A lot of people don't realize when you're a tournament fisherman, people say to me from time to time, won't you go back and fish a few tournaments?
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No, no, no.
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That's not the way it works.
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If you're gonna fish a tournament, it'd be like saying to Tom Brady or to Peyton Manning, go to Peyton Manning and say, hey, why don't you go play a few uh NFL games?
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Man, you got to train.
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You gotta be mentally prepared, you've got to be physically prepared.
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You you it's a lot to tournament competition, and it it is very mental.
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And it takes a lot of uh discipline and mental exercise to be competitive.
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And I hate not being competitive.
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I am not a guy that is a casual tournament fisherman.
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Anyone that ever beat me in any tournament can say they beat me while I was trying my best.
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I always tried to win tournaments.
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And I didn't care if it was a club tournament.
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People say, boy, it must have been a lot of pressure on you when you was in that Super Bass tournament and you had a$200,000 prize to win.
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It wasn't a bit more pressure on me for the$200,000 uh than it was if I was fishing for a club trophy.
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Man, every tournament I ever fished, I fished a win.
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And so uh I'd gotten to the point I had my television show going, I had family demands that I wasn't living up to that should have been my top priority.
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And uh I I just didn't feel like it was fair for me once I got in that position that I could retire to not retire.
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So I retired to go home and raise my kids.
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Huh.
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Third question, and this is one of the top questions I believe you're asked all the time.
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What is your absolute favorite bait?
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Like if you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna go fishing, this is like one bait that you you're just excited to use.
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Yeah, you know, that is a question everybody asks, and everybody wants you to pull a bait out when you're doing a seminar and hold that bait up and say, all right, if you got this bait, the fish are gonna come out with their fins up.
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They can't stand it.
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This is the bait to win the tournament with.
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This is the bait to catch the most fish.
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It's a magic bait, like force gump shoes.
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Uh, it's a magic bait.
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Uh I've learned there is no magic bait.
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If you go, if you're privileged as I have been in the past, to watch these guys that take off to fish in the Bassmaster Classic or the Forestwood Cup Championship.
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If you really watch as they go out in the mornings, they all got the same lures.
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I mean, every one of them's got basically the same lures.
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Maybe a different brand, a different manufacturer, but they've all basically got the same thing.
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It's not the magic in the bait, it's where you put the bait and how you put it where you put it that makes the difference in catching a fish.
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So I tell people all the time a fishing lure is like a tool.
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Uh you can't uh you can't take a half-inch bolt loose with a one-inch socket.
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Uh you got to have a half-inch.
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It's got to fit on that bolt secure to be able to ratchet and take it off.
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So you've got to have the right tool to do the job.
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Fishing's the same way.
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A lure is nothing but a tool to do a job.
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When I go up to a piece of structure, I usually ask myself, self, what lure do you have that would most thoroughly fish this particular structure under these conditions?
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And that's when I choose what lure I'm going to use.
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That's why I got nine rods and reels, ten, eleven, twelve rods and reels sitting on the bow of my boat.
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Uh I have a lure that I use like a tool.
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And uh so I've tried and tried and tried not to have a favorite bait.
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But I will tell you I don't favor any bait that will take precedence over me selecting the right tool.
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But a spinnerbait is somewhat like an adjustable wrench.
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You can do a whole lot with it.
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You can fish it deep, shallow, in between, and cover a lot of different uh depths of the water column.
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So a spinnerbait is a very versatile bait in in a lot of ways.
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So if I was tagged with a certain method or technique that I uh uh depended on more often than any other, it would drop back and say a spinnerbait.
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So a lot of people say Hank Parker is a known spinnerbait fisherman.
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I don't like that title.
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Uh I like I like when they say Hank Parker is a versatile fisherman.
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He fishes with every kind of bait, and I do and I enjoy every bait.
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But I'm hung with that spinnerbait because it is such a uh versatile tool and I can do a lot of things.
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So let's let's leave it there.
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All right.
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Question number four What is your strangest fishing experience?
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Strangest fishing experience.
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I've had a bunch.
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I guess it was 1970 seven.
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I got a phone call and said, Hey, Hank, how would you like to go to Cuba and go bass fishing?
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Well, there was an old uh uh seminar circuit that went around, and uh I had attended a couple of them, and they showed pictures and a motion picture video, uh, all shut on film, look like it was in the 1800s, it was so ancient looking.
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But they showed all these bass in a place called Treasure Lake in Cuba.
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And I, man, they were bass jumping out of the water catching dragonflies.
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It was just, I mean, hundreds of them at one time in the frame of the film, and I'm thinking, would I die to go fish in that place?
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Well, we got a chance to go to Cuba in 1978, uh, and I went in uh late 1977, actually, I went uh to uh Treasure Island in Cuba.
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We were the first legal Americans, I believe this is correct, we were the first legal Americans to enter Cuba since the Bay of Pigs.
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Uh it was pretty wild.
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And of course, uh uh we we had a bass tournament, uh a January bass tournament uh back in uh on Lake Kissimmee.
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And so Roger Moore, Guy Aker, Bruce Cunigan, and myself charted an airplane.
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There had never been an airplane charted out of Havana Airport to fly to America, and we flew into Tampa, and when we flew in and landed, we flew over McDonald's, and we were starving to death.
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Cuban food was horrible.
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They put sugar, the chicken would be raw.
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Man, it would be you'd cut it open, blood would be coming out of the chicken, it'd be soaked in sugar.
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It was just horrible.
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So we're about to starve to death.
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So we never even thought about having to go through customs.
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So we landed, and as soon as we landed, we took off running, all four of us, to the McDonald's.
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And uh, of course, we got about halfway there, and we were we were surrounded by border patrol and secret service, and man, we were in a lot of trouble.
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They thought we were hauling drugs or something coming out of Cuba, but uh we told them we were starving to death and we were headed to the golden arches.
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And they they let us go.
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But that was the strangest trip to go to Cuba.
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Uh, couldn't speak any language.
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We fished a U.S.
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American uh U.S.
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uh Cuba bass tournament, and uh, of course we dominated and uh won the tournament and uh had a big time fishing in Cuba.
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But that was probably the strangest fishing event I've ever been involved in.
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All right.
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Next question.
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Going on 39 years of television, what is your take on future, like the future of television?
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Like where do you see television?
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Yeah, it's kind of uh it's kind of sad for me when you watch where television was, and and I was so involved in it, and it it's a part, uh such a big part of my life.
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This is our 39th year, and um the television audience is fading.
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Uh it's all going to streaming, handheld devices, people watch things on their on their phone.
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I think uh sports, maybe football, collegiate and professional football still doing well on television, but I think everything else is down, including uh outdoor shows.
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So uh my television career is uh is kind of being dictated by the change of uh the changing of guards on uh how people view things.
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So we're doing our uh uh YouTube show.
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Uh we're we're now doing the podcast and trying to change with the times and keep up.
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I'm not through.
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Uh I'm not finished telling my story, I'm not finished communicating.
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Uh I think there's a lot uh to be learned from old people, and I am one, and I've experienced a lot, and I got a lot to share, so I'm not ready to hang it up, but uh the future of television does not look very bright, to be completely honest.
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Right, right.
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A lot more competition for younger anglers now.
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What do you see in the professionals versus people trying to make it big?
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Well, you know, we we talk about that a lot and uh about the opportunities to be a professional fisherman and how lucrative it is.
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But I think if we really peel back all the peelings and look uh and be completely honest with uh with all the people that are aspiring to be a young pro fisherman to support their their lifestyle and to grow financially, it's a tough sport.
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And I think it's tougher now uh to make a living than it was early on, even though there's so much more money involved, prize money is much larger, but there's so many more people.
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And I think almost every sport, if you look at football or basketball or baseball, records get broken, athletes get better.
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I think today there is more great fishermen.
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When I fished, there would be 250 people in the tournament, and I would honestly say about 120 of them had a chance to win.
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Uh occasionally you'd get that out of left field winner, but most of the time, if you ask me to write down on a piece of paper, I could pick a out of a 250-man field, I could pick 120 guys, and one of those 120 is going to win.
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Today, it's not like that.
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Today, any one of these kids can win a tournament.
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Any one of them.
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I mean, they can win, come out of nowhere and win big.
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And they may win today, and they may not win again for five years.
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And it's hard to sustain influence on the consumer.
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You know, a lot of people ask me about getting started in fishing, and a lot of these high schools, I get involved, and a lot of these high school kids will say, Well, I need to get sponsors to be able to help me get out there and uh and and and compete.
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Well, that is not the way it works.
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The way you get a sponsor is you get your name and you get enough notoriety that you got influence on the public and you can have a positive influence for a product and you can help their sales.
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Uh for them to sponsor you to get you to the point that you can compete doesn't make sense for them.
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Economically, the only way you're a benefit and an asset to these companies is if you help them sell their product.
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And if you don't have notoriety and if you don't have influence on the consuming public, you're you're a liability.
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Right.
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So that's what you got to do.
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You got to get established in order to get those sponsors, and that's that's a big part uh of what it takes to sustain yourself.
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So, truthfully, out of all these guys that are out there competing trying to make a living, probably less than 10% are really making a living.
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A lot of guys got their credit cards maxed out, man, they got debt.
00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:03.680
It it's hard to make it, and it's always been that way.
00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:10.640
It's never been where you got a hundred guys out there out of a 200-man field making a living.
00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:17.039
You you might have 20 guys, 15 guys, and it's where it is still today.
00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:25.599
Well, while we're on that topic still, tell me a little bit about your involvement with high school teams, kind of like your passion towards that, you know, your involvement.
00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:27.920
Yeah, I I love high school fishing.
00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:34.799
And let me tell you, from the time I got involved in this sport, every year we would go to the big industry show.
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.400
It used to be called AFTMA, now it's called ICAS.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:51.359
We would go to the industry show and we'd get a printout on uh how many fishing licenses were sold, whatever year we were there, and it was always less than it was the year before.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:59.599
Fishing license sales had declined from the time I got involved in the sport and went to my first ICAF show in 1977.
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:02.160
Every year we get a report.
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.720
There were less fishing licenses sold last year.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:07.680
Well, then here comes high school and collegiate fishing.
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:15.039
All of a sudden, for the first time in my lifetime, license sales started to proceed the the previous year.
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:21.839
So it is the lifeblood and the future of the sport of fishing.
00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.359
Not only competitive fishing, fishing.
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.319
And so we need to recruit these kids.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:35.680
And it really is exciting to me to see how many girls, man, there are a lot of girls in high school fishing.
00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:39.839
And I tell these girls, I said, the male male male ego is pretty fragile.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.640
Girls are smarter, girls are prettier.
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:46.400
Let us win at something, don't go out there and catch the most fish.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.920
But uh man, these little girls, it's awesome.
00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.839
But it's great to see uh that kind of participation.
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.039
And I want to help them.
00:20:55.119 --> 00:21:03.440
I'm working on now a project uh with a good friend of mine that has a company called Huckleberry Apparel.
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:27.519
And uh Danny Bennett, he and I have been talking about how we can put together a catalog that will allow these high school fishermen to raise money to support what they're doing uh with their fishing team because they can't, in most cases, they can't take state money or county money out of their public schools, so they have to fund themselves.
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:40.960
So I've been working for two or three years trying to get some companies to get involved to raise money for these high school kids, give them an opportunity, and it doesn't look like anybody else is going to take the the reins and make that happen.
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:43.680
So uh I'm getting very much involved in that.
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:58.079
I've teamed up with Huckleberry Apparel, got Danny Bennett on board with me, and he and I are going to figure out a way that we can put a catalog together to help these uh high school teams raise enough money to support themselves.
00:21:59.039 --> 00:21:59.759
That's awesome.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.799
That's so awesome.
00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:01.759
Excited about that.
00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:02.640
Very excited.
00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.079
Absolutely.
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:04.799
All right.
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:12.400
Another question that came in: why were you so panicked in the 1989 Bass Masters Classic, trying to hurry up and put all your fish on the scale?
00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:13.599
What's the story behind that?
00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:14.960
That's a good word.
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:15.599
Panic.
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:17.200
I was panicked, man.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:27.039
Ray, Ray, we were in a tournament once, and Roland and Ricky Klun, Roland Martin and Rick Clone, they were arguing about who's the greatest bass fisherman of all times.
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:36.559
And Ray said, Let me tell you guys, who's going to go down in history is the greatest bass fisherman of all times, and that's going to be the guy that wins the grand slam.
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:39.920
And of course, I looked at Ray like he had two heads.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:41.119
I didn't even know what he was talking about.
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:43.680
I never heard that term, Grand Slam.
00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:46.799
I said, Ray, what in the world a grand slam?
00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:54.880
He said, Hank, that'd be somebody that wins a qualifying tournament, bass angle of the year, uh Bassmaster Classic, and a super tournament.
00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:56.640
That's our four events.
00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:58.079
Nobody's ever won them all.
00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:01.759
You were the first guy to ever win the classic and angle of the year.
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:10.160
Now, Mark Davis did it in the same year, but I won the classic in 1979, and then I won Angler of the Year in 83, four years later.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:14.559
So I was the first guy to ever win both the classic and angler of the year.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:18.720
But uh nobody had ever won every event.
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.519
Well, I thought, well, heck, I've won three of them.
00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:26.880
I've won Angler of the Year, I've won Bassmaster Classic, and I've won a qualifying tournament.
00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.279
I just never won the big Super Bass Tournament.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.119
Well, they only have one a year, so you only have a shot one time a year.
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.200
And so that particular year it was on Lake Lanier down in Georgia.
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:41.599
And Gary Klein, great friend of mine, great angler, awesome guy.
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:43.759
Gary jumped out in the lead.
00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:52.720
Well, it was a four-day event, and every day we would go back and forth trying to catch Gary, and the last day I caught the biggest string of the tournament.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:54.559
So Ray was all pumped up.
00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:56.640
You know how Ray was such a great promoter.
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:05.680
He was such a great MC, and he'd get that crowd pumped up, and he'd screaming and hollering, Hank Parker, Denver, North Carolina, the biggest string of the tournament.
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:06.559
Come up here, boy.
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:08.480
Hold these fish up.
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:27.599
So at that time, Dewey Kendrick was Waymaster, and uh Ray, Ray took a couple of fish, and I took a couple of fish, and Dewey took a couple of fish, and we walked up and down the stage, and and uh we got a bunch of photographs made and we put them in the basket and we weighed them.
00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:30.720
And he said, All right, Hank, you've taken the lead.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.400
Uh you you got the lead by 10 pounds, nine ounces.
00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:36.319
Well, here comes Gary Klein.
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.640
Well, when Gary came in, Ray said, Okay, Gary, Hank Parker's taking the lead.
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.519
Uh, you got to have 1010 to win, 10-9 to tie, put them on the scales.
00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:48.319
They didn't hold them up, they put them on the scales.
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:52.319
As soon as they put them on the scales, Gary had 10-10.
00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:54.480
He beat me by one ounce.
00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:57.200
Oh man, he had like 59-12.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:02.640
I had 59-11 after four days, and it was just gut wrenching.
00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:07.759
But it's okay because the very next year, the Super Bass tournament was on the St.
00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:11.119
John's River in Florida, and I won by a bunch.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:15.920
I had uh I had a great time there, and I won by a pretty good margin.
00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:18.799
So I became the first angler to win the Grand Slam.
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:23.839
But here we go to the 1989 Bassmaster Classic, Deja Vu.
00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:29.920
Now, Jim Bitter from Orlando, Florida, great fisherman, great guy, Jim Bitter.
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.839
He jumps out into the lead.
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.680
Well, the last day, I come in, biggest string of the tournament.
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:36.799
Here we go again.
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:40.319
Hank Parker, Denver, North Carolina, the biggest string of the tournament.
00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:41.039
Let's hold them up.
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:42.559
Nope, I ain't holding them up.
00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:43.920
Put them on the scale.
00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.640
Ray put the mic down, grabbed me by the head, and he said, Hey boy, look here.
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.039
This thing's gonna be a lot more dramatic if you'll hold those fish up.
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.720
I said, Ray, it's enough drama in it for me, just like it is.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:58.000
Put them on the scale.
00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.599
He said, No, we need to, I said, no, put them on the scales.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:04.880
He said, Well, I thought I said no, put them on the scale.
00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.200
He said, All right, Dewey, put them on the scales.
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:09.279
I won by two ounces.
00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:18.079
Had I held those fish up, walked up and down that stage holding those fish up and let all them water drops drop off those fish, I think it'd have been just like with Gary Klein.
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:20.319
I think I'd have come up about an ounce short.
00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:23.200
So there was no way I was gonna hold those fish up.
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:28.799
I wanted every little water drop that was on them because I knew this thing was gonna come down to an ounce or two.
00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.200
And there wasn't any way I was gonna hold those fish up.
00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:32.960
So I wasn't really panicked.
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.480
I was emphatic about hey, I don't want to go through the lessons you learned the hard way, you don't forget.
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:44.160
And I thought, man, if I didn't hold those fish up at Lake Lanier, I would have won that tournament.
00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:49.599
And the difference between first and second in that tournament was about 50 grand, so that was a big deal.
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:51.519
Yeah, I'd say.
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:58.000
All right, next question: how in the world do you find fish on like an unknown lake?
00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:03.440
Like if you've never fished this lake before, what is your best tip on finding those fish?
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:09.519
That is a question that I am asked most often when you do a seminar.
00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:16.000
And I tell these guys, you know, that is the most difficult equation you can be faced with.
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:19.279
If you've never been on a body of water, you know nothing about it.
00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:31.200
Things have changed a great deal since I fished, and uh, there's a lot of maps now that you can just plug into your hummingbirds, and you got Lake Master maps, and they're so detailed, and you learn a lot.
00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:32.640
We didn't have any of that.
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.880
And when I I remember in 1979 I went to Lake Powell in Arizona.
00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:44.000
I had never been in a lake in my life that was more than 150 feet deep.
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:51.680
Well, Lake Powell, when we backed the boats in off the ramp before you could turn around and get to the boat dock, you're than 500 feet of water.
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:53.599
I've never seen anything like that.
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.519
And so here we are on a lake I knew nothing about.
00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:08.960
Uh they talked about how big this lake was, and I looked across the way and I could see the buoy markers uh on the other side of the lake before you got into the river, and I thought, well, it ain't that bad.
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:10.559
I can see the buoy markers.
00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:15.440
Well, I ran for about 40 minutes and I realized the buoy markers I were looking at were houseboats.
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.000
So it was a pretty good body of water.
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.799
And uh, so it's 600 feet deep.
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:29.839
You could actually put your hand, you could pull up to a canyon, a bluff wall, put your hand on that bluff wall, and it'd be 400 feet deep.
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:33.599
Uh I've never seen anything like that in my life.
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:37.440
And it started at the first day of practice.
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:38.960
I didn't catch anything.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.359
I was somewhat overwhelmed.
00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:44.559
Uh, and then I started putting it all in perspective.
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:45.920
I said, now wait a minute.
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.079
A bass is a bass is a bass.
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:54.480
It doesn't matter if you're in Cuba, Mexico, or Canada, or Lake Powell or Lake Wiley, it doesn't matter.
00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:56.240
They're looking for food and cover.
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:01.440
So let's figure out what they're feeding on uh and let's figure out what kind of cover is available.
00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.240
So I would go in these canyons and I'd look for these big rock slides.
00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:10.799
And uh, you know, rocks, if they fell off that canyon, they're on the bottom.
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:12.160
They don't float.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:14.960
So I knew that was some good structure.
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:19.839
Ended up finishing in the top ten in that tournament, caught the big fish, and I caught the big fish.
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.039
I know he was in at least 65 feet of water.
00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:36.480
Uh uh, he may have been deeper because I was just counting that big old one ounce jig down as it fell, but it was it was definitely over 65 feet deep, and it was seven pound two ounces, which was a big, big bath for Lake Powell at that time.
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:45.359
But that was a lake I knew nothing about, and I learned not to panic, uh, to think about what we're looking for: food and cover.
00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:46.240
Food and cover.
00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:50.720
Let's find the food, and then we'll find the cover and we'll catch the bath.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:53.519
So that's true anywhere and everywhere you go.
00:29:53.680 --> 00:30:08.559
So I always tell people, I I did a deal with Coca-Cola and Bass Pro Shops a couple of years ago, and it was in Beaver Lake in the summertime, and I hate fishing a hundred feet deep, and that's kind of what was going on in Beaver Lake.
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:15.359
And uh uh when we got to, and I'm thinking it, yeah, it's Beaver Lake.
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:17.119
I'm pretty sure it was Beaver Lake.
00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:21.359
But anyway, uh deep, deep clear lake, and I wasn't catching any fish.
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:36.720
And I asked the guy at the marine, I was at uh Big Cedar, and uh Johnny Mo, Johnny Marsh uh Bass Pros Lodge, Big Cedar, beautiful place, and we've staying there, and so I asked the guy at the boat dock, I said, What are you gonna do to catch these bass?
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:46.400
He said, The only bass are being caught are either caught at night or they're catching on live night crawlers, uh, catching spotted bass about 80 or 90 feet deep down by the dam.
00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:52.240
I thought, well, I can't fish at night, and I sure don't want to use live night crawlers, and I don't want to fish 80 or 90 feet deep.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:53.599
I said, What's my other option?
00:30:53.759 --> 00:31:05.279
He said, Well, it's poured down rain in up the river, and if you you have to have Arkansas license, but you can go up the river and uh you can catch fish because there's muddy water.
00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:06.640
I thought, man, that's awesome.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:09.039
That that uh that's right up my alley.
00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:16.960
So the next day I got my two partners in and who won the sweepstakes, and we we went about a 60-mile boat run.
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:33.359
And uh so we pulled in this bay and uh and it looked good, but I pulled out and went in another bay, and it looked good, and but I didn't fish, and I pulled in the third bay, and I said, All right, that this is our spot.
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:37.759
We started fishing, and luckily we started catching fish right off the bat.
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:43.920
And uh so one of my guys that won the sweepstakes, he looked and he said, Let me ask you a question.
00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:45.119
What in the world?
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:49.119
Don't you think we rode by about a million bass coming all this way up here?
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:49.920
I said, Yeah.
00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:52.079
He said, Well, why'd we come all the way up here?
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:54.319
I said, to find this off-colored water.
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:59.680
He said, Oh, I said, these fish are a whole lot shallower and a lot easier to trick in this off-colored water.
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:01.680
He said, Oh, I'll kill you, I get that.
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:05.599
Well, we pulled in one bay, it looked just like the bay we're in now.
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:09.039
We pulled in another bay and it looked like the bay we're in now.
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.240
And here we're in this third bay, and you said this is the place.
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:13.279
What was up with that?
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:17.200
I said, Well, we went in the first place and there were no birds.
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:24.000
There were no blue heron, there were no kingfishers, there were no gulls, there were nothing, there were no birds.
00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:29.759
We pulled in the second place, and there are a few birds, but we pull in here and there's birds sitting everywhere.
00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.720
He said, Well, we fishing or we bird watching.
00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:37.680
I said, Well, where the bait is, that's where the birds are.
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:42.960
They're gonna show you where the bait is, and where the bait is, that's where the fish are.
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:47.680
So the reason I stopped here is because these birds told me there were bait here.
00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:49.920
And I said, It's worked out pretty good, hadn't it?
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:51.680
He said, Yeah, I'm not complaining.
00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:53.119
He said, That's interesting.
00:32:53.359 --> 00:32:56.000
But that's how you find fish on a strange lake.
00:32:56.160 --> 00:33:01.119
You find the bait, uh, the food, and the cover in that order.
00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:02.000
There you go.
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:03.519
It's pretty smart.
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:11.680
Next question: What is the best time to go fishing besides days that end in my time of day?
00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:15.599
Every day is a better day to fish than to work.
00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:18.799
Uh uh said that I had a job one time, it messed me up.
00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:19.680
Oh my goodness.
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:23.599
People ask me, what is the one thing that I could do to improve my fishing?
00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:26.240
And it's without a doubt, get rid of that job.
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:28.000
That thing will mess you up.
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:30.559
So uh being on the water is a big deal.
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:45.440
People ask me all the time, he said, now you only have one day to fish, and you're sitting there looking at the Soluna table, and uh it says fishing's gonna be good on this particular day, is do you think that's the day I should take off and go fishing?
00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:49.440
And I will tell you, I honestly believe there's a whole lot to that.
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:50.480
I really do.
00:33:50.720 --> 00:34:04.640
Uh I don't follow it, and I never have, because I don't think that I want my mind to be discouraged if it's a bad day all day long and I gotta fish a tournament.
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:10.880
And so there are more than one way, more than one way to catch a bass.
00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:20.159
You can catch them out of getting them to react to a bait out of impulse just as good as you can catch them to entice them when they're biting.
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:30.239
So that that saloonar table, fisherman's table, whatever you call it, moon phase, whatever, uh, I think it has merit.
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:42.400
But uh I think if I'm sitting there trying to plan my week and uh we've got a rainy day, a warm rainy day on Wednesday, that's the day I'm gonna go fishing.
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.440
Fish love uh low pressure.
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:52.159
Fish are way more aggressive on a low pressure, cloudy day than they are a bluebird sky uh high pressure day.
00:34:52.480 --> 00:35:03.360
So I kind of I kind of pick my days to go fishing based on uh uh the weather uh more than I do the saloon or table.
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:07.360
If it's a low pressure day, I choose that over a high pressure.
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:11.039
But I tell people I like to go every day.
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:12.719
So it doesn't matter.
00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:19.679
I'm going fishing, and uh if it's a bluebird day or if it's a rainy day, I'm going fishing.
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:27.280
All right, and to wrap up the questions, last one, out of all the tournaments you fished, what was your favorite moment?
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:30.559
Oh well, that's a great question.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:32.320
I have a lot of moments.
00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:36.000
Uh a lot have a lot of memorable moments.
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:44.239
But the the, you know, I talked about earlier, Gary Klein went in that Super Bass tournament, beating me by one ounce.
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:48.800
They uh the Super Bass tournament that I won the following year was on the St.
00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:50.159
Johns River in Florida.
00:35:50.320 --> 00:36:06.079
And in practice, I had uh I had gone into this one little area where there was a boat dock on both sides of this little drain creek, and this little drainage creek had a cypress tree that sat right in the middle of it.
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:17.519
And I had a a Hank Parker classic spinnerbait with the hook bent shut, and uh I cast it up there in practice about the last day of practice.
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:24.239
I cast it up and it looked like you reversed your troll motor, the water and the current.
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:30.480
I knew it was a giant fish, and he wouldn't hardly let go of that spinnerbait, even though the hook was bent shut.
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:37.039
I mean, I I I saw probably about six or seven pounds of this fish.
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:46.960
So during the tournament, I was catching my fish in a place up there called Cooley Bay, and I was fishing the eelgrass on the outside, and the St.
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:51.039
John's River is a tidal lake, tidal river.
00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:53.920
It runs backwards, by the way, it flows north.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:55.519
Get that.
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.559
Uh and the tide uh it flows backwards.
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:05.039
But anyway, I was fishing that eelgrass on the tide, and I never went back to that big fish.
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:11.119
The last day of that tournament, uh, I had an eight-pound lead going into the last day.
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:12.079
But we're on the St.
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:18.239
John's River in Florida, and you can catch a 40 or 50 pound bag, all that's possible.
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:22.400
So you never have a big enough lead that you feel comfortable.
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:34.639
Uh it's just too risky to get comfortable because somebody could catch three 10-pounders uh and all of a sudden have 30 and then whatever they catch to go with it, and boom, you don't have enough weight to win.
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:41.840
So even though I had a nine or ten-pound lead going in the last day, I knew I needed to catch them.
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:47.920
And so by about 11 o'clock, I uh I had a really big bag of fish.
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:50.719
I had probably 20 couple pounds of fish.
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:54.719
And so now with a nine-pound lead, it's looking pretty good for me.
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:57.760
I'm I'm feeling better about it.
00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:06.320
But I told my partner, I said, I I got one place I'd like to go, and I said, it's it's off the beaten path, and I'm just going there for one fish.
00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:12.559
And uh, but I'd like to go there because I think if I could catch that fish, it'd put the nail in the coffin.
00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:15.440
And uh he said, All right, go for it, go for it.
00:38:15.599 --> 00:38:24.000
So I went and I pulled in there and I idled in and I put my troll motor and I went around and I uh I got just perfect.
00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:38.800
And I made the cast of that cypress tree and I ran that classic spinnerbait up there and I bumped that tree, and I mean it looked like you flushed a toilet, that thing, and that fish jumped as uh I think it was 9, 12 maybe.
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:46.880
And uh I caught that fish and put it in the boat, and I knew then I had won the Super Bass Tournament.
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:52.880
I knew I was the first Grand Slam winner, and that was the richest tournament, I think, at that time.
00:38:52.960 --> 00:39:03.360
It was like$135,000, plus a Choo-Choo custom suburban and a matching Ranger bass boat fully loaded.
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:11.280
So it was$200,000, and it was the Grand Slam title, and I screamed like a little schoolgirl, man.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:16.239
And there was a woman on the boat dock, she said, Oh my lord, son, do you get that excited when you catch a fish?
00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:19.440
I said, Ma'am, that fish just won me 200 grand.
00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:22.000
And she screamed louder than I did.
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:26.960
Well, that's all the questions we have for today.
00:39:27.280 --> 00:39:29.599
Well, that's that was good times and a lot of fun.
00:39:29.679 --> 00:39:35.920
And hey, I really enjoy answering these questions, and uh I appreciate you sending them in.
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:42.159
So if you got any questions and you think I can answer them, and you know I I never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:46.800
I'll embellish and I'll massage it, and I'll answer it somehow.
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:52.639
So uh uh send your questions in and Sarah Beth will read them off and I'll try to answer them.
00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:53.840
And we're having fun.
00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:55.840
So hope you're enjoying our podcast.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:57.840
Sarah Beth, tell everybody goodbye.
00:39:58.159 --> 00:39:58.719
Goodbye.
00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:02.960
Goodbye from Sarah Beth, and I say God bless you, and I'll see you next time.
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:06.159
Lindsay, yeah.
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:09.840
Hey, guess it's our last show was stronger than Sonic Money.
00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:03.040
The house needs paint.
00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:04.400
The best needs morning.
00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:05.360
Lizzie.
00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:06.959
Hey, guess it's earl.
00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.439
Last show was stronger than the Sonic Moon.
00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:14.320
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to Hank Parker Off the Water.
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:18.079
I'm with my special co-host, Sarah Beth.
00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:19.600
Say hello, Sarah Beth.
00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:20.640
Hello, Sarah Beth.
00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:22.000
Hello, Sarah Beth.
00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.760
Well, we're here today and we're going to have some question and answers.
00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:28.879
You know, I made an appeal uh several weeks ago.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.199
If you've got a question, ask me.
00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:42.640
I go to a lot of seminars, and at the end of the seminar, people will walk up and say, Man, I wish you'd have talked about this, or I wish you would have addressed this or whatever.
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:47.840
I said, Man, why in our question and answer session did you not ask me?
00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:56.000
So uh if you have questions and you think I know an answer, uh send them in and uh we'll be glad to try and answer them.
00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:59.280
So today I think Sarah Beth's got a list of questions for me.
00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:05.200
So let's see if we can get them answered, and hopefully uh this will be one of your questions and we'll answer it.
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:10.000
And I'm sure a lot of people have the same question, so maybe everybody will benefit from this.
00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:11.200
We'll see how it goes.
00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:11.920
All right.
00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:20.239
First question somebody put in you talk about early days, like drawing partners in one of your previous podcasts.
00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:25.359
Um if you could pick anyone to refish a tournament with, who and what partner would that be?
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:26.719
Wow, wow, well.
00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:29.760
Now that that is a tough one.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:35.840
I uh I fish with so many wonderful people and had such great experiences.
00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:40.319
Uh always did well when I drew Larry Nixon for a partner.
00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:42.400
He's one of my fishing heroes.
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.359
And Larry and I always caught fish.
00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:48.560
When we fished together, we we both limit out.
00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:55.920
I think I drew him like three times, and every time uh he and I both had a limit to take to the scale, so that's pretty special.
00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:02.159
Nobody else uh I can think of of that or for that and being so successful.
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:14.639
But if I could only fish one partner, you know, I never drew Forrest Wood until the last day of the last tournament he ever fished.
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.400
I drew him as a partner.
00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:18.159
And that was so cool.
00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:31.360
And so if I was only able to pick one angler to come back and spend the day in my boat, of course, Forrest is in heaven, he's gone on to be with the Lord and not with us today.
00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:39.599
But if I could bring him back and go fishing one day, it would definitely be with my hero, my buddy, Forrest Wood.
00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:40.719
That's awesome.
00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:42.639
All right, second question.
00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.919
It says Murray won the classic in 78 and then retired.
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.360
You won your second one in 89, then you retired at 36.
00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:50.000
Well, hold on.
00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:51.199
You were 36 at 19.
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:52.960
I used to be 36.
00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:53.680
You forgot about that.
00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:55.039
Yeah, I couldn't imagine that.
00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:56.400
I used to be 20.
00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:58.159
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:01.919
Did his retirement have any effect on yours?
00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:05.039
You know, Bobby was such a hero.
00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:10.719
Bobby's, he's the man, and out of all the guys I followed, and I admired him for doing that.
00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:15.520
And uh Bobby had started a ripping business that was just on fire.
00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:17.039
They were doing awesome.
00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:21.199
And uh he felt like he needed to spend more time with his business.
00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:24.800
Me, I was an absentee dad.
00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:29.039
Uh at the time I retired, I had four children.
00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:31.919
Uh Timmy had not come along yet.
00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:36.479
Uh I had uh Hank Jr., Bill Ben, and Lucy.
00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:45.840
And you know, moms do a great job with kids till they get uh 10, 11, 12 years old, where my kids were at that time.
00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:46.800
I think Hank Jr.
00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:50.479
may have been 13 and the boys, uh Bill and Ben 11.
00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:54.479
And man, I tournament fishing, you gotta go.
00:03:54.639 --> 00:04:00.639
When Ray Scott says, hey, we're having a tournament on Beaver Lake on such and such dates, that's it.
00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.159
And uh you couldn't do anything about it.
00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:09.840
It didn't matter if it was graduation, didn't matter if it was birthdays, didn't matter what it what it was.
00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:15.520
I mean, you had to be there, and so it kind of took precedence over everything you did.
00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:17.519
And I wasn't there for my kids.
00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.959
And uh it was killing me, you know.
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:26.879
You can't be an absentee dad or an absentee husband, and I was both.
00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:41.279
And uh I felt like, you know, I can't afford it's been my dream to make a living as a bass fisherman, and I was doing well, but no way was I doing well enough that I could just step aside.
00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:47.279
It would take something really big for me to be able to do that, like win the classic the second time.
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:52.399
And so when I did, it was not even a decision for me.
00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.079
My mind had already been made up.
00:04:54.240 --> 00:05:04.319
If I ever got to the point that I could sustain my career uh without having to follow that schedule and be able to be home with my children, I was gonna do that.
00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.759
And so when I won the classic, it wasn't even a second thought for me.
00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:12.560
I wanted to retire on stage in uh in 89 right after the classic.
00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:13.519
And I told Ray that.
00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.879
I said, Ray, I'm gonna announce that I'm I'm I'm done, I'm retiring.
00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:18.560
And he said, No, please don't do that.
00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:20.079
Please, please don't do that.
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.720
Uh he said, let's talk about it.
00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:27.759
And so um, because of Ray and my respect for Ray, I didn't do that.
00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.399
I waited and he said, Hey, why don't you fish?
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:39.199
You're automatically qualified for the classic next year, and these guys are gonna resent you coming and just showing up for the classic if you don't fish a few tournaments next year.
00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:49.600
So he said, Why don't you pick out a handful of tournaments and uh and fish them next year, and then uh you will announce your retirement here a year from today.
00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:50.720
So that's what I did.
00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:55.519
I only fished like three tournaments in 1990, and I retired at the classic.
00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.319
But I did it because I wanted to go home.
00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:06.319
My boys wanted to race go-karts, my boys wanted to go hunting more, and they wanted to go out and a boat more, and I wasn't there.
00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:13.360
A lot of people don't realize when you're a tournament fisherman, people say to me from time to time, won't you go back and fish a few tournaments?
00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:14.399
No, no, no.
00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:15.920
That's not the way it works.
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:25.680
If you're gonna fish a tournament, it'd be like saying to Tom Brady or to Peyton Manning, go to Peyton Manning and say, hey, why don't you go play a few uh NFL games?
00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:27.680
Man, you got to train.
00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:32.000
You gotta be mentally prepared, you've got to be physically prepared.
00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:38.959
You you it's a lot to tournament competition, and it it is very mental.
00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:46.480
And it takes a lot of uh discipline and mental exercise to be competitive.
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:48.639
And I hate not being competitive.
00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:53.439
I am not a guy that is a casual tournament fisherman.
00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:00.720
Anyone that ever beat me in any tournament can say they beat me while I was trying my best.
00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.279
I always tried to win tournaments.
00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:06.160
And I didn't care if it was a club tournament.
00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:13.279
People say, boy, it must have been a lot of pressure on you when you was in that Super Bass tournament and you had a$200,000 prize to win.
00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:21.360
It wasn't a bit more pressure on me for the$200,000 uh than it was if I was fishing for a club trophy.
00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:25.120
Man, every tournament I ever fished, I fished a win.
00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:34.480
And so uh I'd gotten to the point I had my television show going, I had family demands that I wasn't living up to that should have been my top priority.
00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:43.920
And uh I I just didn't feel like it was fair for me once I got in that position that I could retire to not retire.
00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:46.800
So I retired to go home and raise my kids.
00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:47.439
Huh.
00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.920
Third question, and this is one of the top questions I believe you're asked all the time.
00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.560
What is your absolute favorite bait?
00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:59.040
Like if you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna go fishing, this is like one bait that you you're just excited to use.
00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:12.480
Yeah, you know, that is a question everybody asks, and everybody wants you to pull a bait out when you're doing a seminar and hold that bait up and say, all right, if you got this bait, the fish are gonna come out with their fins up.
00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:13.839
They can't stand it.
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.560
This is the bait to win the tournament with.
00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:18.720
This is the bait to catch the most fish.
00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.920
It's a magic bait, like force gump shoes.
00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.160
Uh, it's a magic bait.
00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:27.040
Uh I've learned there is no magic bait.
00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:38.159
If you go, if you're privileged as I have been in the past, to watch these guys that take off to fish in the Bassmaster Classic or the Forestwood Cup Championship.
00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:42.399
If you really watch as they go out in the mornings, they all got the same lures.
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.679
I mean, every one of them's got basically the same lures.
00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:50.960
Maybe a different brand, a different manufacturer, but they've all basically got the same thing.
00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:59.919
It's not the magic in the bait, it's where you put the bait and how you put it where you put it that makes the difference in catching a fish.
00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:04.240
So I tell people all the time a fishing lure is like a tool.
00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:11.600
Uh you can't uh you can't take a half-inch bolt loose with a one-inch socket.
00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.559
Uh you got to have a half-inch.
00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:19.200
It's got to fit on that bolt secure to be able to ratchet and take it off.
00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:22.879
So you've got to have the right tool to do the job.
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:24.559
Fishing's the same way.
00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.559
A lure is nothing but a tool to do a job.
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:39.279
When I go up to a piece of structure, I usually ask myself, self, what lure do you have that would most thoroughly fish this particular structure under these conditions?
00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:41.679
And that's when I choose what lure I'm going to use.
00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:47.519
That's why I got nine rods and reels, ten, eleven, twelve rods and reels sitting on the bow of my boat.
00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:51.919
Uh I have a lure that I use like a tool.
00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:58.960
And uh so I've tried and tried and tried not to have a favorite bait.
00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:11.759
But I will tell you I don't favor any bait that will take precedence over me selecting the right tool.
00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:15.919
But a spinnerbait is somewhat like an adjustable wrench.
00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:17.360
You can do a whole lot with it.
00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:23.200
You can fish it deep, shallow, in between, and cover a lot of different uh depths of the water column.
00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:27.440
So a spinnerbait is a very versatile bait in in a lot of ways.
00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:41.519
So if I was tagged with a certain method or technique that I uh uh depended on more often than any other, it would drop back and say a spinnerbait.
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:45.679
So a lot of people say Hank Parker is a known spinnerbait fisherman.
00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:47.519
I don't like that title.
00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:52.000
Uh I like I like when they say Hank Parker is a versatile fisherman.
00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:56.000
He fishes with every kind of bait, and I do and I enjoy every bait.
00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:02.559
But I'm hung with that spinnerbait because it is such a uh versatile tool and I can do a lot of things.
00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:04.799
So let's let's leave it there.
00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:05.679
All right.
00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:11.039
Question number four What is your strangest fishing experience?
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.039
Strangest fishing experience.
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:14.639
I've had a bunch.
00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:23.600
I guess it was 1970 seven.
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:32.879
I got a phone call and said, Hey, Hank, how would you like to go to Cuba and go bass fishing?
00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:52.720
Well, there was an old uh uh seminar circuit that went around, and uh I had attended a couple of them, and they showed pictures and a motion picture video, uh, all shut on film, look like it was in the 1800s, it was so ancient looking.
00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:57.919
But they showed all these bass in a place called Treasure Lake in Cuba.
00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:03.519
And I, man, they were bass jumping out of the water catching dragonflies.
00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:12.000
It was just, I mean, hundreds of them at one time in the frame of the film, and I'm thinking, would I die to go fish in that place?
00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:25.840
Well, we got a chance to go to Cuba in 1978, uh, and I went in uh late 1977, actually, I went uh to uh Treasure Island in Cuba.
00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:34.080
We were the first legal Americans, I believe this is correct, we were the first legal Americans to enter Cuba since the Bay of Pigs.
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:36.159
Uh it was pretty wild.
00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:46.879
And of course, uh uh we we had a bass tournament, uh a January bass tournament uh back in uh on Lake Kissimmee.
00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:56.159
And so Roger Moore, Guy Aker, Bruce Cunigan, and myself charted an airplane.
00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:14.720
There had never been an airplane charted out of Havana Airport to fly to America, and we flew into Tampa, and when we flew in and landed, we flew over McDonald's, and we were starving to death.
00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.039
Cuban food was horrible.
00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.720
They put sugar, the chicken would be raw.
00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:27.679
Man, it would be you'd cut it open, blood would be coming out of the chicken, it'd be soaked in sugar.
00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:29.279
It was just horrible.
00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:31.440
So we're about to starve to death.
00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.840
So we never even thought about having to go through customs.
00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:42.960
So we landed, and as soon as we landed, we took off running, all four of us, to the McDonald's.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:52.080
And uh, of course, we got about halfway there, and we were we were surrounded by border patrol and secret service, and man, we were in a lot of trouble.
00:13:52.240 --> 00:14:01.840
They thought we were hauling drugs or something coming out of Cuba, but uh we told them we were starving to death and we were headed to the golden arches.
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:03.440
And they they let us go.
00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.480
But that was the strangest trip to go to Cuba.
00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:08.480
Uh, couldn't speak any language.
00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:09.519
We fished a U.S.
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:11.200
American uh U.S.
00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:21.440
uh Cuba bass tournament, and uh, of course we dominated and uh won the tournament and uh had a big time fishing in Cuba.
00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.360
But that was probably the strangest fishing event I've ever been involved in.
00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:26.399
All right.
00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:28.000
Next question.
00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:34.080
Going on 39 years of television, what is your take on future, like the future of television?
00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:35.360
Like where do you see television?
00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:47.600
Yeah, it's kind of uh it's kind of sad for me when you watch where television was, and and I was so involved in it, and it it's a part, uh such a big part of my life.
00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:52.879
This is our 39th year, and um the television audience is fading.
00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:58.559
Uh it's all going to streaming, handheld devices, people watch things on their on their phone.
00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:09.679
I think uh sports, maybe football, collegiate and professional football still doing well on television, but I think everything else is down, including uh outdoor shows.
00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:20.639
So uh my television career is uh is kind of being dictated by the change of uh the changing of guards on uh how people view things.
00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.720
So we're doing our uh uh YouTube show.
00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:30.720
Uh we're we're now doing the podcast and trying to change with the times and keep up.
00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:32.000
I'm not through.
00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:36.320
Uh I'm not finished telling my story, I'm not finished communicating.
00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:54.240
Uh I think there's a lot uh to be learned from old people, and I am one, and I've experienced a lot, and I got a lot to share, so I'm not ready to hang it up, but uh the future of television does not look very bright, to be completely honest.
00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:55.600
Right, right.
00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.279
A lot more competition for younger anglers now.
00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:04.399
What do you see in the professionals versus people trying to make it big?
00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:14.399
Well, you know, we we talk about that a lot and uh about the opportunities to be a professional fisherman and how lucrative it is.
00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:34.000
But I think if we really peel back all the peelings and look uh and be completely honest with uh with all the people that are aspiring to be a young pro fisherman to support their their lifestyle and to grow financially, it's a tough sport.
00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:47.519
And I think it's tougher now uh to make a living than it was early on, even though there's so much more money involved, prize money is much larger, but there's so many more people.
00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:59.279
And I think almost every sport, if you look at football or basketball or baseball, records get broken, athletes get better.
00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:02.879
I think today there is more great fishermen.
00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:11.839
When I fished, there would be 250 people in the tournament, and I would honestly say about 120 of them had a chance to win.
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:26.319
Uh occasionally you'd get that out of left field winner, but most of the time, if you ask me to write down on a piece of paper, I could pick a out of a 250-man field, I could pick 120 guys, and one of those 120 is going to win.
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:28.720
Today, it's not like that.
00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:32.160
Today, any one of these kids can win a tournament.
00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:33.039
Any one of them.
00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:36.720
I mean, they can win, come out of nowhere and win big.
00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:42.400
And they may win today, and they may not win again for five years.
00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:46.079
And it's hard to sustain influence on the consumer.
00:17:46.160 --> 00:18:00.640
You know, a lot of people ask me about getting started in fishing, and a lot of these high schools, I get involved, and a lot of these high school kids will say, Well, I need to get sponsors to be able to help me get out there and uh and and and compete.
00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.119
Well, that is not the way it works.
00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:15.119
The way you get a sponsor is you get your name and you get enough notoriety that you got influence on the public and you can have a positive influence for a product and you can help their sales.
00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:23.440
Uh for them to sponsor you to get you to the point that you can compete doesn't make sense for them.
00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:30.480
Economically, the only way you're a benefit and an asset to these companies is if you help them sell their product.
00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:37.119
And if you don't have notoriety and if you don't have influence on the consuming public, you're you're a liability.
00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:37.680
Right.
00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:39.359
So that's what you got to do.
00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:47.200
You got to get established in order to get those sponsors, and that's that's a big part uh of what it takes to sustain yourself.
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:55.839
So, truthfully, out of all these guys that are out there competing trying to make a living, probably less than 10% are really making a living.
00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:59.440
A lot of guys got their credit cards maxed out, man, they got debt.
00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:03.680
It it's hard to make it, and it's always been that way.
00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:10.640
It's never been where you got a hundred guys out there out of a 200-man field making a living.
00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:17.039
You you might have 20 guys, 15 guys, and it's where it is still today.
00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:25.599
Well, while we're on that topic still, tell me a little bit about your involvement with high school teams, kind of like your passion towards that, you know, your involvement.
00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:27.920
Yeah, I I love high school fishing.
00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:34.799
And let me tell you, from the time I got involved in this sport, every year we would go to the big industry show.
00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.400
It used to be called AFTMA, now it's called ICAS.
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:51.359
We would go to the industry show and we'd get a printout on uh how many fishing licenses were sold, whatever year we were there, and it was always less than it was the year before.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:59.599
Fishing license sales had declined from the time I got involved in the sport and went to my first ICAF show in 1977.
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:02.160
Every year we get a report.
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.720
There were less fishing licenses sold last year.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:07.680
Well, then here comes high school and collegiate fishing.
00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:15.039
All of a sudden, for the first time in my lifetime, license sales started to proceed the the previous year.
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:21.839
So it is the lifeblood and the future of the sport of fishing.
00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.359
Not only competitive fishing, fishing.
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.319
And so we need to recruit these kids.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:35.680
And it really is exciting to me to see how many girls, man, there are a lot of girls in high school fishing.
00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:39.839
And I tell these girls, I said, the male male male ego is pretty fragile.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.640
Girls are smarter, girls are prettier.
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:46.400
Let us win at something, don't go out there and catch the most fish.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.920
But uh man, these little girls, it's awesome.
00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.839
But it's great to see uh that kind of participation.
00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.039
And I want to help them.
00:20:55.119 --> 00:21:03.440
I'm working on now a project uh with a good friend of mine that has a company called Huckleberry Apparel.
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:27.519
And uh Danny Bennett, he and I have been talking about how we can put together a catalog that will allow these high school fishermen to raise money to support what they're doing uh with their fishing team because they can't, in most cases, they can't take state money or county money out of their public schools, so they have to fund themselves.
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:40.960
So I've been working for two or three years trying to get some companies to get involved to raise money for these high school kids, give them an opportunity, and it doesn't look like anybody else is going to take the the reins and make that happen.
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:43.680
So uh I'm getting very much involved in that.
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:58.079
I've teamed up with Huckleberry Apparel, got Danny Bennett on board with me, and he and I are going to figure out a way that we can put a catalog together to help these uh high school teams raise enough money to support themselves.
00:21:59.039 --> 00:21:59.759
That's awesome.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.799
That's so awesome.
00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:01.759
Excited about that.
00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:02.640
Very excited.
00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.079
Absolutely.
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:04.799
All right.
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:12.400
Another question that came in: why were you so panicked in the 1989 Bass Masters Classic, trying to hurry up and put all your fish on the scale?
00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:13.599
What's the story behind that?
00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:14.960
That's a good word.
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:15.599
Panic.
00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:17.200
I was panicked, man.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:27.039
Ray, Ray, we were in a tournament once, and Roland and Ricky Klun, Roland Martin and Rick Clone, they were arguing about who's the greatest bass fisherman of all times.
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:36.559
And Ray said, Let me tell you guys, who's going to go down in history is the greatest bass fisherman of all times, and that's going to be the guy that wins the grand slam.
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:39.920
And of course, I looked at Ray like he had two heads.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:41.119
I didn't even know what he was talking about.
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:43.680
I never heard that term, Grand Slam.
00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:46.799
I said, Ray, what in the world a grand slam?
00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:54.880
He said, Hank, that'd be somebody that wins a qualifying tournament, bass angle of the year, uh Bassmaster Classic, and a super tournament.
00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:56.640
That's our four events.
00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:58.079
Nobody's ever won them all.
00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:01.759
You were the first guy to ever win the classic and angle of the year.
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:10.160
Now, Mark Davis did it in the same year, but I won the classic in 1979, and then I won Angler of the Year in 83, four years later.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:14.559
So I was the first guy to ever win both the classic and angler of the year.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:18.720
But uh nobody had ever won every event.
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.519
Well, I thought, well, heck, I've won three of them.
00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:26.880
I've won Angler of the Year, I've won Bassmaster Classic, and I've won a qualifying tournament.
00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.279
I just never won the big Super Bass Tournament.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.119
Well, they only have one a year, so you only have a shot one time a year.
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:37.200
And so that particular year it was on Lake Lanier down in Georgia.
00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:41.599
And Gary Klein, great friend of mine, great angler, awesome guy.
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:43.759
Gary jumped out in the lead.
00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:52.720
Well, it was a four-day event, and every day we would go back and forth trying to catch Gary, and the last day I caught the biggest string of the tournament.
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:54.559
So Ray was all pumped up.
00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:56.640
You know how Ray was such a great promoter.
00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:05.680
He was such a great MC, and he'd get that crowd pumped up, and he'd screaming and hollering, Hank Parker, Denver, North Carolina, the biggest string of the tournament.
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:06.559
Come up here, boy.
00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:08.480
Hold these fish up.
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:27.599
So at that time, Dewey Kendrick was Waymaster, and uh Ray, Ray took a couple of fish, and I took a couple of fish, and Dewey took a couple of fish, and we walked up and down the stage, and and uh we got a bunch of photographs made and we put them in the basket and we weighed them.
00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:30.720
And he said, All right, Hank, you've taken the lead.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.400
Uh you you got the lead by 10 pounds, nine ounces.
00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:36.319
Well, here comes Gary Klein.
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.640
Well, when Gary came in, Ray said, Okay, Gary, Hank Parker's taking the lead.
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.519
Uh, you got to have 1010 to win, 10-9 to tie, put them on the scales.
00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:48.319
They didn't hold them up, they put them on the scales.
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:52.319
As soon as they put them on the scales, Gary had 10-10.
00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:54.480
He beat me by one ounce.
00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:57.200
Oh man, he had like 59-12.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:02.640
I had 59-11 after four days, and it was just gut wrenching.
00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:07.759
But it's okay because the very next year, the Super Bass tournament was on the St.
00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:11.119
John's River in Florida, and I won by a bunch.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:15.920
I had uh I had a great time there, and I won by a pretty good margin.
00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:18.799
So I became the first angler to win the Grand Slam.
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:23.839
But here we go to the 1989 Bassmaster Classic, Deja Vu.
00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:29.920
Now, Jim Bitter from Orlando, Florida, great fisherman, great guy, Jim Bitter.
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.839
He jumps out into the lead.
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.680
Well, the last day, I come in, biggest string of the tournament.
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:36.799
Here we go again.
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:40.319
Hank Parker, Denver, North Carolina, the biggest string of the tournament.
00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:41.039
Let's hold them up.
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:42.559
Nope, I ain't holding them up.
00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:43.920
Put them on the scale.
00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.640
Ray put the mic down, grabbed me by the head, and he said, Hey boy, look here.
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.039
This thing's gonna be a lot more dramatic if you'll hold those fish up.
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.720
I said, Ray, it's enough drama in it for me, just like it is.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:58.000
Put them on the scale.
00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.599
He said, No, we need to, I said, no, put them on the scales.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:04.880
He said, Well, I thought I said no, put them on the scale.
00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.200
He said, All right, Dewey, put them on the scales.
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:09.279
I won by two ounces.
00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:18.079
Had I held those fish up, walked up and down that stage holding those fish up and let all them water drops drop off those fish, I think it'd have been just like with Gary Klein.
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:20.319
I think I'd have come up about an ounce short.
00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:23.200
So there was no way I was gonna hold those fish up.
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:28.799
I wanted every little water drop that was on them because I knew this thing was gonna come down to an ounce or two.
00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.200
And there wasn't any way I was gonna hold those fish up.
00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:32.960
So I wasn't really panicked.
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.480
I was emphatic about hey, I don't want to go through the lessons you learned the hard way, you don't forget.
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:44.160
And I thought, man, if I didn't hold those fish up at Lake Lanier, I would have won that tournament.
00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:49.599
And the difference between first and second in that tournament was about 50 grand, so that was a big deal.
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:51.519
Yeah, I'd say.
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:58.000
All right, next question: how in the world do you find fish on like an unknown lake?
00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:03.440
Like if you've never fished this lake before, what is your best tip on finding those fish?
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:09.519
That is a question that I am asked most often when you do a seminar.
00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:16.000
And I tell these guys, you know, that is the most difficult equation you can be faced with.
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:19.279
If you've never been on a body of water, you know nothing about it.
00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:31.200
Things have changed a great deal since I fished, and uh, there's a lot of maps now that you can just plug into your hummingbirds, and you got Lake Master maps, and they're so detailed, and you learn a lot.
00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:32.640
We didn't have any of that.
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.880
And when I I remember in 1979 I went to Lake Powell in Arizona.
00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:44.000
I had never been in a lake in my life that was more than 150 feet deep.
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:51.680
Well, Lake Powell, when we backed the boats in off the ramp before you could turn around and get to the boat dock, you're than 500 feet of water.
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:53.599
I've never seen anything like that.
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.519
And so here we are on a lake I knew nothing about.
00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:08.960
Uh they talked about how big this lake was, and I looked across the way and I could see the buoy markers uh on the other side of the lake before you got into the river, and I thought, well, it ain't that bad.
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:10.559
I can see the buoy markers.
00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:15.440
Well, I ran for about 40 minutes and I realized the buoy markers I were looking at were houseboats.
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.000
So it was a pretty good body of water.
00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.799
And uh, so it's 600 feet deep.
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:29.839
You could actually put your hand, you could pull up to a canyon, a bluff wall, put your hand on that bluff wall, and it'd be 400 feet deep.
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:33.599
Uh I've never seen anything like that in my life.
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:37.440
And it started at the first day of practice.
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:38.960
I didn't catch anything.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.359
I was somewhat overwhelmed.
00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:44.559
Uh, and then I started putting it all in perspective.
00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:45.920
I said, now wait a minute.
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:48.079
A bass is a bass is a bass.
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:54.480
It doesn't matter if you're in Cuba, Mexico, or Canada, or Lake Powell or Lake Wiley, it doesn't matter.
00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:56.240
They're looking for food and cover.
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:01.440
So let's figure out what they're feeding on uh and let's figure out what kind of cover is available.
00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:06.240
So I would go in these canyons and I'd look for these big rock slides.
00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:10.799
And uh, you know, rocks, if they fell off that canyon, they're on the bottom.
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:12.160
They don't float.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:14.960
So I knew that was some good structure.
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:19.839
Ended up finishing in the top ten in that tournament, caught the big fish, and I caught the big fish.
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.039
I know he was in at least 65 feet of water.
00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:36.480
Uh uh, he may have been deeper because I was just counting that big old one ounce jig down as it fell, but it was it was definitely over 65 feet deep, and it was seven pound two ounces, which was a big, big bath for Lake Powell at that time.
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:45.359
But that was a lake I knew nothing about, and I learned not to panic, uh, to think about what we're looking for: food and cover.
00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:46.240
Food and cover.
00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:50.720
Let's find the food, and then we'll find the cover and we'll catch the bath.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:53.519
So that's true anywhere and everywhere you go.
00:29:53.680 --> 00:30:08.559
So I always tell people, I I did a deal with Coca-Cola and Bass Pro Shops a couple of years ago, and it was in Beaver Lake in the summertime, and I hate fishing a hundred feet deep, and that's kind of what was going on in Beaver Lake.
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:15.359
And uh uh when we got to, and I'm thinking it, yeah, it's Beaver Lake.
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:17.119
I'm pretty sure it was Beaver Lake.
00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:21.359
But anyway, uh deep, deep clear lake, and I wasn't catching any fish.
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:36.720
And I asked the guy at the marine, I was at uh Big Cedar, and uh Johnny Mo, Johnny Marsh uh Bass Pros Lodge, Big Cedar, beautiful place, and we've staying there, and so I asked the guy at the boat dock, I said, What are you gonna do to catch these bass?
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:46.400
He said, The only bass are being caught are either caught at night or they're catching on live night crawlers, uh, catching spotted bass about 80 or 90 feet deep down by the dam.
00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:52.240
I thought, well, I can't fish at night, and I sure don't want to use live night crawlers, and I don't want to fish 80 or 90 feet deep.
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:53.599
I said, What's my other option?
00:30:53.759 --> 00:31:05.279
He said, Well, it's poured down rain in up the river, and if you you have to have Arkansas license, but you can go up the river and uh you can catch fish because there's muddy water.
00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:06.640
I thought, man, that's awesome.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:09.039
That that uh that's right up my alley.
00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:16.960
So the next day I got my two partners in and who won the sweepstakes, and we we went about a 60-mile boat run.
00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:33.359
And uh so we pulled in this bay and uh and it looked good, but I pulled out and went in another bay, and it looked good, and but I didn't fish, and I pulled in the third bay, and I said, All right, that this is our spot.
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:37.759
We started fishing, and luckily we started catching fish right off the bat.
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:43.920
And uh so one of my guys that won the sweepstakes, he looked and he said, Let me ask you a question.
00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:45.119
What in the world?
00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:49.119
Don't you think we rode by about a million bass coming all this way up here?
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:49.920
I said, Yeah.
00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:52.079
He said, Well, why'd we come all the way up here?
00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:54.319
I said, to find this off-colored water.
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:59.680
He said, Oh, I said, these fish are a whole lot shallower and a lot easier to trick in this off-colored water.
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:01.680
He said, Oh, I'll kill you, I get that.
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:05.599
Well, we pulled in one bay, it looked just like the bay we're in now.
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:09.039
We pulled in another bay and it looked like the bay we're in now.
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:12.240
And here we're in this third bay, and you said this is the place.
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:13.279
What was up with that?
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:17.200
I said, Well, we went in the first place and there were no birds.
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:24.000
There were no blue heron, there were no kingfishers, there were no gulls, there were nothing, there were no birds.
00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:29.759
We pulled in the second place, and there are a few birds, but we pull in here and there's birds sitting everywhere.
00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.720
He said, Well, we fishing or we bird watching.
00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:37.680
I said, Well, where the bait is, that's where the birds are.
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:42.960
They're gonna show you where the bait is, and where the bait is, that's where the fish are.
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:47.680
So the reason I stopped here is because these birds told me there were bait here.
00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:49.920
And I said, It's worked out pretty good, hadn't it?
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:51.680
He said, Yeah, I'm not complaining.
00:32:51.759 --> 00:32:53.119
He said, That's interesting.
00:32:53.359 --> 00:32:56.000
But that's how you find fish on a strange lake.
00:32:56.160 --> 00:33:01.119
You find the bait, uh, the food, and the cover in that order.
00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:02.000
There you go.
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:03.519
It's pretty smart.
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:11.680
Next question: What is the best time to go fishing besides days that end in my time of day?
00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:15.599
Every day is a better day to fish than to work.
00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:18.799
Uh uh said that I had a job one time, it messed me up.
00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:19.680
Oh my goodness.
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:23.599
People ask me, what is the one thing that I could do to improve my fishing?
00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:26.240
And it's without a doubt, get rid of that job.
00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:28.000
That thing will mess you up.
00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:30.559
So uh being on the water is a big deal.
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:45.440
People ask me all the time, he said, now you only have one day to fish, and you're sitting there looking at the Soluna table, and uh it says fishing's gonna be good on this particular day, is do you think that's the day I should take off and go fishing?
00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:49.440
And I will tell you, I honestly believe there's a whole lot to that.
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:50.480
I really do.
00:33:50.720 --> 00:34:04.640
Uh I don't follow it, and I never have, because I don't think that I want my mind to be discouraged if it's a bad day all day long and I gotta fish a tournament.
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:10.880
And so there are more than one way, more than one way to catch a bass.
00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:20.159
You can catch them out of getting them to react to a bait out of impulse just as good as you can catch them to entice them when they're biting.
00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:30.239
So that that saloonar table, fisherman's table, whatever you call it, moon phase, whatever, uh, I think it has merit.
00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:42.400
But uh I think if I'm sitting there trying to plan my week and uh we've got a rainy day, a warm rainy day on Wednesday, that's the day I'm gonna go fishing.
00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.440
Fish love uh low pressure.
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:52.159
Fish are way more aggressive on a low pressure, cloudy day than they are a bluebird sky uh high pressure day.
00:34:52.480 --> 00:35:03.360
So I kind of I kind of pick my days to go fishing based on uh uh the weather uh more than I do the saloon or table.
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:07.360
If it's a low pressure day, I choose that over a high pressure.
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:11.039
But I tell people I like to go every day.
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:12.719
So it doesn't matter.
00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:19.679
I'm going fishing, and uh if it's a bluebird day or if it's a rainy day, I'm going fishing.
00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:27.280
All right, and to wrap up the questions, last one, out of all the tournaments you fished, what was your favorite moment?
00:35:27.760 --> 00:35:30.559
Oh well, that's a great question.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:32.320
I have a lot of moments.
00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:36.000
Uh a lot have a lot of memorable moments.
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:44.239
But the the, you know, I talked about earlier, Gary Klein went in that Super Bass tournament, beating me by one ounce.
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:48.800
They uh the Super Bass tournament that I won the following year was on the St.
00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:50.159
Johns River in Florida.
00:35:50.320 --> 00:36:06.079
And in practice, I had uh I had gone into this one little area where there was a boat dock on both sides of this little drain creek, and this little drainage creek had a cypress tree that sat right in the middle of it.
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:17.519
And I had a a Hank Parker classic spinnerbait with the hook bent shut, and uh I cast it up there in practice about the last day of practice.
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:24.239
I cast it up and it looked like you reversed your troll motor, the water and the current.
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:30.480
I knew it was a giant fish, and he wouldn't hardly let go of that spinnerbait, even though the hook was bent shut.
00:36:30.639 --> 00:36:37.039
I mean, I I I saw probably about six or seven pounds of this fish.
00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:46.960
So during the tournament, I was catching my fish in a place up there called Cooley Bay, and I was fishing the eelgrass on the outside, and the St.
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:51.039
John's River is a tidal lake, tidal river.
00:36:51.199 --> 00:36:53.920
It runs backwards, by the way, it flows north.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:55.519
Get that.
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.559
Uh and the tide uh it flows backwards.
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:05.039
But anyway, I was fishing that eelgrass on the tide, and I never went back to that big fish.
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:11.119
The last day of that tournament, uh, I had an eight-pound lead going into the last day.
00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:12.079
But we're on the St.
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:18.239
John's River in Florida, and you can catch a 40 or 50 pound bag, all that's possible.
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:22.400
So you never have a big enough lead that you feel comfortable.
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:34.639
Uh it's just too risky to get comfortable because somebody could catch three 10-pounders uh and all of a sudden have 30 and then whatever they catch to go with it, and boom, you don't have enough weight to win.
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:41.840
So even though I had a nine or ten-pound lead going in the last day, I knew I needed to catch them.
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:47.920
And so by about 11 o'clock, I uh I had a really big bag of fish.
00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:50.719
I had probably 20 couple pounds of fish.
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:54.719
And so now with a nine-pound lead, it's looking pretty good for me.
00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:57.760
I'm I'm feeling better about it.
00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:06.320
But I told my partner, I said, I I got one place I'd like to go, and I said, it's it's off the beaten path, and I'm just going there for one fish.
00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:12.559
And uh, but I'd like to go there because I think if I could catch that fish, it'd put the nail in the coffin.
00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:15.440
And uh he said, All right, go for it, go for it.
00:38:15.599 --> 00:38:24.000
So I went and I pulled in there and I idled in and I put my troll motor and I went around and I uh I got just perfect.
00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:38.800
And I made the cast of that cypress tree and I ran that classic spinnerbait up there and I bumped that tree, and I mean it looked like you flushed a toilet, that thing, and that fish jumped as uh I think it was 9, 12 maybe.
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:46.880
And uh I caught that fish and put it in the boat, and I knew then I had won the Super Bass Tournament.
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:52.880
I knew I was the first Grand Slam winner, and that was the richest tournament, I think, at that time.
00:38:52.960 --> 00:39:03.360
It was like$135,000, plus a Choo-Choo custom suburban and a matching Ranger bass boat fully loaded.
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:11.280
So it was$200,000, and it was the Grand Slam title, and I screamed like a little schoolgirl, man.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:16.239
And there was a woman on the boat dock, she said, Oh my lord, son, do you get that excited when you catch a fish?
00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:19.440
I said, Ma'am, that fish just won me 200 grand.
00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:22.000
And she screamed louder than I did.
00:39:24.800 --> 00:39:26.960
Well, that's all the questions we have for today.
00:39:27.280 --> 00:39:29.599
Well, that's that was good times and a lot of fun.
00:39:29.679 --> 00:39:35.920
And hey, I really enjoy answering these questions, and uh I appreciate you sending them in.
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:42.159
So if you got any questions and you think I can answer them, and you know I I never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:46.800
I'll embellish and I'll massage it, and I'll answer it somehow.
00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:52.639
So uh uh send your questions in and Sarah Beth will read them off and I'll try to answer them.
00:39:52.719 --> 00:39:53.840
And we're having fun.
00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:55.840
So hope you're enjoying our podcast.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:57.840
Sarah Beth, tell everybody goodbye.
00:39:58.159 --> 00:39:58.719
Goodbye.
00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:02.960
Goodbye from Sarah Beth, and I say God bless you, and I'll see you next time.
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:06.159
Lindsay, yeah.
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:09.840
Hey, guess it's our last show was stronger than Sonic Money.
