Captain Tred Barta Bio

Tred Barta is the modern-day Ernest Hemingway, an outdoor sportsman, blue water fisherman, rancher, hunter, television host and personality, and prolific author, holding world records in both light-tackle saltwater fishing and big game hunting.

Tred is both believable and credible; he is of the highest moral character and the voice of hard-working men and women across the world, who enjoy outdoor adventure, sport-fishing, wild game, and a love of the hunt.

Tred attended the University of Colorado where he raced Alpine and Nordic Combined. He is a fierce competitor and won the Junior Biathlon Championships, after which he trained with the U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team.

Tred chose and continues to live “the hard way . . . the barta way,” as seen on the VERSUS Network hit television show, The Best and Worst of Tred Barta. He took up longbow hunting and light tackle fishing, quickly becoming an expert in both. Tred has broken and now holds numerous world-records across disciplines.

Tred’s love of adventure isn’t limited to the wilderness, the rivers, the badlands, or the high seas; he is a turboprop and jet pilot having over 7500 hours as a pilot-in-command with 22 ocean crossings.

Tred holds a multitude of bow hunting records in Rowland Ward, his 382 lb. 16 – 16 ½ tusk wart hog shot in Africa with the bow defeated the great honorable Fred Bear’s record set in 1952 and still stands to this day.

Tred also holds records for Blesbok, Dik-Dik, Impala, Whitetail etc. A caribou harvested in Northern Ungava with a longbow scored 401 5/0, at one time a world record, now in the top 10.

Tred Barta is credited worldwide with catching more big eye tuna than any man alive on rod and reel.

Tred has been credited as the modern-day pioneer of canyon fishing, developing and perfecting many of the techniques now common in the sport. He is credited with early confirmation that warm core eddies existed and were key to blue water fishing success worldwide. Tred’s specific techniques on how to find and fish warm core eddies are the modern standard in the sport.

As an angler and captain, Tred Barta has probably spent more time in the North Atlantic Canyons than any other man alive.
Tred’s light tackle career is legendary, holding at one time or another double-digit International Game and Fishing Association (IGFA) world records on light line. Tred was the only man to ever hold the triple crown of light tackle tuna records – a 65 lb. yellowfin on 6 lb. line landed after 3 hours of solid effort, a 63 ½ lb. bluefin tuna on 12 lb. line, and a 215 lb. big eye tuna on 20 lb. line landed in 5 hours and 17 minutes – still unbroken after 20 years.
Tred is an expert fly-fisherman, period, having fly-fished all over the world. His 38.6 lb. dolphin is the existing world record on 6-lb. tippet.

Over the last ten years, Tred has become a teacher and educator; he is the unmitigated voice of blue water fishing. Tred made a decision a long time ago not to be short sighted when it comes to sponsors and money. He shuns any product or endorsement he refuses to use, and he will only promote a product he has personally “battle-tested” in the field.

Tred feels most television and outdoor celebrities are over endorsed, and as a result, have lost their credibility. To quote Tred, “If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing.”