 KC.com:
Your team has had some great success across the entire
Southeastern United States, but the South Florida area
seems to be one of your specialties. How did a West
Coast team become known as a group of East Coast gurus?
Kevin Barker: We love fishing on the East coast.
It starts off great with the first tournament always
being the Hog's Breath in Key West, where you can catch
a lot of big fish in the laid back atmosphere of Key
West. It is a blast!
We feel we can read the conditions better on the East
coast, and we love beach fishing. Our team knows when
the conditions on the beach are right, you just can't
beat that. We also don't have a problem with sitting
on the hook all day waiting for Godzilla to roll by.
The variety of fish you can catch on the East coast
(sailfish, dolphin, tuna and cobia) keep the days fun
and exciting.
What terminal tackle does the Hannon's Cannon team use
when fishing these productive waters? What reel, rod,
size line, etc. Does the color of the main monofilament
matter?
We use Shimano Trinidads and Dogfish Tackle Company
Custom Dogfish Sticks. We use 20 pound monofilament
with about 10 feet of 25 pound fluorocarbon leader.
We have also experimented with lighter line, going as
light as 12 pound when the conditions demand that. The
50 (pounder) we caught in the Naples tournament a couple
of years ago was caught on 12 pound main line, in fact.
So catching big fish on light line can be done, but
we stick to 20 pound test usually.
We use SPRO swivels and VMC hooks. Our hook size is
usually #4 when fishing on the East coast. Most of the
time we use #4 wire above the nose hook and #6 for the
stingers. As far as line color, ours is blue. We don't
really buy into the gimmicky kind of stuff as far as
line color goes, you won't see any red or pink line
on our reels.
If your fishing in a large group of boats how
do you differentiate what you are offering the fish?
If the bite slows down or the water
clarity is an issue will your team scale down the size
of your gear?
We feel that we are doing what 95% of the other teams
do as far as rigs go. One thing we may do differently
is how we frequently change our baits. We have found
that many times when we put a fresh bait out it will
run harder and could get hit quicker. Just that subtle
change in the spread can cause a fish to turn on. Kevin
(Hannon) is always checking baits, so we don't just
set the baits out and sit and wait. At least one bait
is always being reeling in or being let out. We stay
in the bait. We learned this strategy by watching Sandy
Smith up in NC one year. He didn't move more than 50
yards off of one spot and he was catching fish all day.
When we mark good bait we do our best to fish in and
around it. If the bite does slow we may reduce the size
of our wire trace above the nose hook. We've even been
known to use a single hook with no stinger late in the
day when we become desperate, but by that time we end
up with a result that is not favorable for us.
When you first hit a spot what will your spread look
like?
When we first hit a spot the amount of lines we fish
is determined by the weather. Obviously if we are fishing
in 4 - 6 foot seas it will be difficult to fish more
than three lines. In good seas, however, we will fish
5 and even 6 lines.
Our spread consists of one long line that we call "China
long". We put this rig on top of the t-top. We
then have one line about halfway between our long line
and the boat. This rod is placed in the kingfish outrigger.
We also have another couple of lines off the two downriggers.
The downrigger baits range in depth. One downrigger
bait will be bouncing the bottom, while the other is
15 feet below the surface. Finally we will put a bait
or two in the prop wash.
How does your team prepare for each tournament? How
much pre fishing do you do for each tournament? What
are you specifically looking for when you are prefishing?
From a preparation standpoint, we always check line
on all reels and replace line that looks worn or if
the reel capacity is low. We do a complete check of
the boat, from the pumps to the electronics. We check
all engine fluids and change them if needed. We will
check trim tab pump fluid levels. We check the props
to see if there are any knicks in the blades. We also
have jack plates on the boat, so we make sure all bolts
are tight. Finally, we check all electronics to confirm
they are in good working order. We usually do all of
this a couple of days before we leave in case there
is something other than the engines that needs repaired.
If there is an engine issue we call ahead to the Yamaha
trailer so they can expect us when we arrive to fix
the problem.
Regarding
prefishing, we try to prefish at least two days before
a tournament on the East coast. One day we actually
fish and another we try to concentrate more on finding
bait. If we feel confident on buying bait we will spend
more time looking for the right fishing conditions.
If we are on the East coast of Florida we will also
Goggle Eye fish at least one night.
When pre fishing we concentrate more on finding the
right conditions; water color and temperature, then
actually fishing. We have caught too many tournament
winning fish the day before, only to go back and not
catch that fish the next day. When fishing the beach
on the East coast bait is the key. We want to see it
on the surface and on our bottom machine. We want to
see gobs of it!
It is usually always great to have some variety
in your livewell, but if you could have one bait in
your livewell what would it be? Are you a big fan of
ribbonfish for South Florida king mackerel?
We like to have a large variety baits. But we love big
blue runners and spanish mackerel. We always try to
match the hatch and fish what the kingfish are feeding
on. But generally, if we had to pick one bait I think
we would want some live 3 pound blue runners in our
live well when fishing the East coast beaches.
We aren't big on fishing ribbonfish. We always have
them just in case that's all the fish are feeding on,
but we usually only fish one in our spread.
What factor do you think separates the great
king fisherman from the pack?
We think there are a couple of factors that separate
the great teams from the pack. The guys that keep great
records of all of their fishing trips. Recording water
temperatures, air temperatures, barometric pressure,
sea state, tide state, water color, water clarity, types
of baits used, depth, location, cloud cover and lunar
phases allow you to look back at what worked last year
or maybe even 4 years ago in a certain location. Kingfish
come back year after year to generally the same locations
as they migrate up either coastline. Having these records
will give you a good starting point as to where the
fish may be. But we all know that when conditions change
you can throw that book right out the window. Great
teams must be able to adapt to the changes in conditions.
Every year when we fish in Ft. Pierce the commercial
fleet is always in the same general location. In Key
West the bite is always happening somewhere on the reef-line.
Networking can definitely help, but over networking
can actually be detrimental. If we find good fish and
tell five teams, then they tell five teams and those
teams tell five teams and so on, I'm sure you get the
picture. Pretty soon we get to our spot and there are
75 boats there. We network with just a few teams that
we can totally trust. Networking will help you cover
more ground pre fishing and during tournament days when
the bite turns on we can call each other in to that
bite. We've actually had some teams contact us wanting
to network with us, but we just told them up front that
we only work with a couple of teams. We are still friends
with those teams today. We've found it is much easier
to be honest and up front about our intentions.
What area across the Southeastern United States is most
similar to the fishery in Southeast Florida? Do you
find this area to be more difficult for a newer team
to be competitive than other divisions?
The fishery in South Florida is pretty unique. You can't
fish too many places where you are close enough to see
bikinis on the beach without binoculars.
Which areas would you recommend an out of town
team look up to try to get into a good king mackerel
bite during these South Florida tournaments?
Good areas to fish any of the Southeast Florida tournaments
are The Zoo, The Loran Towers, North
Beach, South Beach, Pelican Flats,
The Pines and all long the beaches. Any out
of towner can come in and be competitive.
What role do temperature charts (i.e. Roff's
or Hilton's) play in determining where you will concentrate
most of your efforts during a tournament?
We use Hilton's exclusively when it comes to water temperature
charts. Steve is the computer guru on the team. He will
start looking at water temperatures a couple of weeks
before we head to an area to get a general idea of where
the right conditions may be when we get there.
Once you decide where you are going to fish
do you like to stick it out or run till you find a bite?
If an area looks right we will tend to stick it out.
However if we get a call from one of our networking
sources that there is a bite going on up the beach,
we will pick up and run.
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