Hank Parker, 2-time Bassmaster's Classic winner and host of "Hank Parker Outdoors" made a stop here in Indy at Ted's Open House. We caught up with him and captured his thoughts on some of the new technologies including Side Imaging, fluorocarbon and E-tech cranking sticks.
ON SIDE IMAGING UNITS:
There’s been a lot of changes in the 18 or 19 years since I retired from tournament fishing. There’s been a tremendous amount of change for the better. If you use the technology right, it could be a real benefit to you. About 3 years ago, Anthony Gagliardi from South Carolina won the Lake Murray tournament. And when he won that tournament… I fish that lake a lot, and I said, “Where did that kid win that tournament?”
“He won it in Clouds Cr. on the left hand side”, and I said, “No, he might of won it out of Clouds Cr., but he didn’t win it out of the left hand side cause that’s a bare nothing bank.” I’ve never caught fish on that bank, never seen anybody fish it.
There is no structure on that bank. And he said “I’m telling ya, that’s where he won it. Clouds Cr, left hand side, going in.”
OK, I knew better. So when I saw him about 3 or 4 weeks later, I said, “Anthony, did you win that tournament in Clouds Creek?”
He said “I did.”
I said, “Did you win it on the right hand side going in?”
He said, “Nope, I won it on the left hand side.”
I said “You’re kidding, there ain’t nothing there”.
He said “I know it, nothing there.”
I said, “How in the heck did you win that tournament then?”
He said, “I fished hard all week, and I established a pattern. I was catching my fish on a brown/black jig in 20-30’ of water on isolated rocks. If I could find a big rock, I could catch a fish.” And he said, “so I was fixin’ to go in Clouds Creek and fish a couple of points in there and on my way in I thought well I’ll go ahead and tie some baits on cause I had taken all my baits off. So I’m going to retie and put some baits on for when I go in.”
And he said, “I got my Hummingbird Side imaging unit …”
Never used a side imaging unit. I hate technology. I hate computers. I hate all that stuff. You know, so I’m very resistant on new innovative ideas. So he said, “I have my side imaging unit on and I’m going through there and ‘boom’ there’s a rock.”
And this is slick. You can take your little cursor and run it over there and mark that rock. Never go to it and you’ve got a waypoint. He said, “I just marked it as a waypoint.” He said, “I’m just going on up in there and again, in about 25 foot of water, there’s another rock.” ‘Boom’, mark it, went on. So he goes and goes and goes and ‘boom’, marks another rock. He marked 4 rocks. He won the tournament off those 4 rocks. He said when he got through he turned around and went back to that first waypoint and caught about a 9-pounder. Went to the next waypoint, dropped, caught about a 7-pounder and then shook off 3 or 4 and left. First day of the tournament he goes in there, going to fish those 4 rocks first, and he catches 2 off the first rock, biggest one about 8, smallest one about 6. To make a long story short, when he left there he had 5 bass weighed 33 pounds. Pretty sporty. There is no possible way he, or anyone else would have ever known those rocks were there without that side imaging unit. You wouldn’t have known.
So that changed the way I thought about side imaging. I said I’m going to get one. I’m going to get one. Now when I first got it, it wasn’t the miracle unit that I thought it would be. It wasn’t quit as simple to read as I thought it would be. But the more I played with it, and the more I started to understand it, the more I liked it. And the more simple it became and the more beneficial it became to me.
ON FLUOROCARBON:
When I fished, we didn’t know what fluorocarbon was. The only people who knew anything at all about fluorocarbon 25 years ago were people that fished for tarpon and bonefish. That’s how it kind of got evolved into freshwater. Let me tell you what I’ve learned about fluorocarbon.
If you’re using monofilament fishing line, and let’s just say you’re fishing a jig in 20 foot of water. And that ledge that you’re fishing is right out in front of you a ways. You cast and you let that jig fall to the bottom. When you start to fish it…monofilament line floats, so you’re going to have, if you could have an underwater camera, you’re going to have your line trying to float and its going to taper down to your jig. And that’s the way it’s going to look. And when you hop it, you’re stretching that line out and moving that jig and letting it fall back and immediately again it tries to float. If you set the hook, you have to get that loop out of your line. You’ve got to take up all of that slack from that line floating. If you get a bite, that signal has to be transferred through that slop in that line. People say, ‘man, fluorocarbon is a hundred times more sensitive than monofilament’. No doubt - That’s why. If you ‘re using fluorocarbon line, it sinks. It’s very dense, so you’ve got a direct link straight to your jig. You don’t have that loop, so you feel the bite more readily, and then you don’t have all that slack to take up and set the hook. So your hook-up ratio and your detection in feeling a bite has just improved about 100 percent. It’s going to make a lot of difference at the end of the day on how many fish you realize you have a bite on and how many you catch.
Now, what’s the trade-off? The trade-off is you feel that fish way more proficient than if you’re using monofilament, but he feels you way more than if you were using monofilament, too. So you have to be a little quicker on the hookset, or quicker to drop slack the second you feel that bite. You can’t be as slow and as deliberate as when using monofilament …you know, going on point…’there he is’ and let him pull your rod down. When you pull it up there with fluorocarbon and he hits it, you have to immediately drop some slack or he’s going to feel you. That’s why a lot of people miss fish with fluorocarbon, because that fish is in the process of spitting the bait out before you ever get the hook set. But if you’ll do it and use it to your advantage, you will be able to catch fish that you are not going to be able to catch on monofilament fishing line.
A lot of people say I don’t like to fish fluorocarbon exclusively because I like for my line to float when I’m fishing topwater. I do to. I definitely want my line to float when I’m fishing topwater. If you’re fishing fluorocarbon and you want your line to float while you’re fishing topwater, take about the last 20 feet, 25 feet and put some Chap Stick on it. It will float just as good as monofilament.
ON CRANKBAIT RODS:
On a crankbait, I don’t know, David Fritts has got the reputation as being one of the greatest crankbait fishermen ever, and he probably is. Ricky Clunn is another guy that has a great reputation as a crankbait fisherman. Both of those guys use fiberglass rods. Absolutely will not throw a crankbait on a graphite rod. Why?
Graphite responds about two or three times quicker than fiberglass. Fiberglass is real lazy to respond. Well, that’s bad if you’re fishing a shakey head or a jig. That’s good when you’re fishing a crankbait. Two things happen. It gives you a better hookup because it’s softer and you don’t have to jerk. You just keep winding and that fish doesn’t feel resistance until that rod is already loaded and then you just tug it and you’ve got a great hookup. He ate the bait. Whereas with a graphite rod it’s really easy to take that crankbait away from him. So that is a big benefit. But the biggest benefit of all is the fact that it is lazy to respond when that fish jumps.
I don’t know how many people in here fish lipless crankbaits, but if you’re a Christian that will really give you a test on how long you can fish it before you curse. I will lose about every third fish. It just won’t leave me. Drives me nuts. I hate losing fish, ya’ know. But a lipless crankbait is world famous for losing fish. You put it on a fiberglass rod you’ll cut that down and you’ll start losing one out of ten instead of every third fish. So you’ll greatly reduce the number of fish you’ll cull. That fish uses that fast reacting fishing rod to his advantage when he jumps. He will jump and load that rod up and make that bait shoot out of his mouth. That fiberglass rod won’t load up, it’s just lazy to respond.
You can take a fiberglass rod and you can’t hardly cast a big crankbait. It’s very difficult because the rod itself is too limber. It absorbs, it really…it takes a lot of talent, and if you watch Fritts and how he casts , it’s almost like he’s underhand casting. If you take a big crankbait and load your rod, your rod is going to absorb about ¾ of the energy and your crankbait is going to go about 40 feet instead of a hundred feet. So you want to take that rod, come all the way back here (behind you), and you want to heave it.
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