More than a year ago, outdoors television personality Tred Barta was struck with a rare form of blood cancer and a spinal stroke that left him paralyzed from the chest down just before his annual charity billfish tournament in Beaufort.
The tournament, which benefits the Boys & Girls Club of Coastal North Carolina, still went on without him, but this year, Barta, a resident of Colorado, will be on hand.
His cancer is in remission, but he doubts he will ever walk again. Though still in a wheelchair, Barta has continued to film his TV show, "The Best and Worst of Tred Barta," which is shown on Versus.
Barta has always espoused pursuing game by primitive methods, and that hasn't changed. That was one of several topics Barta touched on in a recent phone interview with Carolina Outdoors staff writer Javier Serna.
Q: I understand this tournament has been going on for a while.
A: This is the sixth year of the tournament. ... I think we've raised some $560,000 in cash for the Boys & Girls Club of Coastal North Carolina. Both my wife, Annie, and myself are extremely passionate about the tournament. ... One of the problems I have with big game fishing today is, and I have always spoken my mind, I've always stood my ground, is that you get a bunch of people together and you have a million dollar calcutta [a type of high-stakes tournament in which the big money payouts require the dead fish as proof] and we know that we should release our billfish. We know that it's the right thing to do. We know that our billfish cannot be sold in restaurants. We know that they're being killed all over the world. And yet, if there's a million dollars in a brown paper bag, we've got no problem throwing three gaffs in them and saying, 'Oh, by the way, we gave money to charity.' ... The unique thing about our tournament is that, No. 1, it's honor-system scoring. No. 2, there is no calcutta. No. 3, there is no lie detector test. No. 4, your word is your bond.
Q: Will you fish the tournament this year?
A: Yes, I'm coming. Annie is coming this year. ... I will need a little help throwing the kids in the water. But I will be there.
Q: When was the last time you fished the tournament?
A: The year before last. It's been one year and two months since I was struck down. I missed one year, and Annie went in my place. I just celebrated the one-year anniversary, and I left for the same hunt that I was leaving on, to British Columbia. With the help of 12 volunteers, I got within 25 yards of a black bear. Crossed a muskeg swamp where people were literally up to their thighs in mud. They wouldn't give up. I made a 25-yard shot. The show was perfect. Homemade wooden arrow. Long bow. A special harness. And the black bear was dead on its feet. It measured 6.2 feet and weighed 340 pounds. It was just a magnificent black bear. And, you know, what an accomplishment.
Q: You've always reveled in doing things the hard way, not using tree stands, technological advancements.
A: I don't use cameras. I don't use scents in the woods. I don't hunt over bait. I don't have computers attached to my cameras. I don't hunt out of ATVs. I don't hunt in box blinds with electric heaters. Because ... you are hunting one of God's creatures. If you ... put your wits against an animal, you all of the sudden have a new appreciation for that animal. If you're shooting a whitetail at 300 yards in Texas ... out of a box blind, what have you really accomplished except pull the trigger? If you creep up on that animal with a long bow and a homemade wooden arrow and a stone point and you kill that deer with the wind in your face, outsmarting him in a natural situation, you have ... accomplished something.
Q: So becoming ill didn't change anything for you, as far as your philosophy?
A: It's made me appreciate life more. It's made me understand how perishable life is. One stick from a wooden arrow kills you. It makes me appreciate what a great wife and friends that I have. It makes me appreciate where there's a will, there's a way. And it makes me appreciate more than ever, that life is worth fighting for. The fact that you shoot an 8x8 royal elk or you shoot a cow, to me makes no difference. A doe shot by a young boy and his grandfather with a 20-gauge shotgun is just as valuable as one that scores 220 points.
Q: What do you mean by "the hard way"?
A: The hard way is a way of saying, the moral way. The hard way may be different for everybody. ... I don't think that everybody should hunt with a longbow. But everybody should be able to look in the mirror and say they did their best. It's a hard thing to describe. What I mean by the hard way is doing things the right way and challenging yourself and pushing yourself all the time. Life got much harder. When I did my first TV show [after the illness] I went down to Casa Vieja Lodge [a Guatemalan fishing lodge that sponsors the tournament] and Versus said to me, 'Tred, just catch a fish on 20- or 30-[pound test]. My sponsor said, 'Tred, don't go light tackle. Just catch the damn fish, show people you're doing it.' And I went down there with four 2-pound rods, and that's all. And I refused to fish with anything else. We had four days of unsuccessful fishing. It was just terrible. And on the last day, I caught two fish on 2-pound test.
