Part 2 in a series. Hank Parker like you've never seen him before! Hank answers personal questions that you want to know in this revealing interview.
Visit Hank Parker's site: http://www.hankparker.com/
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Transcript:
Glenn: Hey, folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and I'm sitting here with none other than Hank Parker. Sitting here just relaxing after a day of fishing, and we have a bunch of questions that have been submitted on the forums, Hank, that people wanna know about you. You're open to answering some of those?
Hank: Oh, absolutely.
Glenn: All right then. Let's knock some of these out. Okay, let's check these out. Mark from Louisville, Kentucky. He says, "How did you get started in bass fishing and do you remember your first bass you ever caught?"
Hank: Well, obviously, my dad was a outdoorsman who loved to hunt and fish, and he took me as a kid. And he was from McRae, Georgia and they had the Ocmulgee River and a lot of blackwater rivers. And my grandfather, he loved fish, and so we'd go to Georgia on vacation from North Carolina, where I was raised, and it was all about fishing, about me fishing with my dad and my grandpa.
And redbreast was what my grandpa loved, redbreast. And those redbreasts were a lot like bassfishing, and he could sight fish and a lot of cool things. But my grandpa taught me really how to redbreast fish and my dad was a big fly rod fish man who loved popping bugs and catching bass on the fly rod. The first bass that... I didn't catch it. My dad caught it on fly rod, but he'd let me fight it in. I remember that, and that was in Georgia, and I was probably about three and a half...maybe four years old, and I remember how thrilled I was at catching that fish. But I was thrilled when I'd catch those little bitty bluegill and redbreasts. I'd just been fascinated with it since I was a kid, and my dad and my grandpa got me started and I've been hooked on it ever since.
Glenn: That's awesome. That's every kid's dream. That's how a lot of kids start, you know. It's just those great memories. That's what makes fishing so much fun.
Hank: It is. And I tell you, it's so vitally important to share that and to share a sport. Berkley, I had a campaign years ago, called Pass It On. If you got a neighborhood kid or somebody close to you that their dad don't fish to get an opportunity to be a participant in high school fishing where you can share and take some of these kids fishing. You got a boat. Be a captain and take some of these guys that don't have the opportunity with their dad. You introduce them and... That's important. I do a lot of that and enjoy every second of it, so...
Glenn: Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Hank: It is. It really is.
Glenn: Yeah, love it. Let's get on to our next question here. It comes from Jordan from Orange, Texas. He wants to know what's your favorite lure of all time, and he wants to know the size, the color, everything.
Hank: Well, here we go. You know, I've tried so hard not to have a favorite anything, but I'm gonna have to say a Chartreuse and white Hank Parker spinnerbait, three-quarter ounce with a gold Number 7 Indiana blade on the back, a Number 3 Colorado blade, nickel on the front with a white double-tail trailer. That would be for three reasons. One is I won more tournaments in the latter part of my career on that bait than anything. Two, it's a bait that I came up with on my own. And number three, I made more money off of that bait than any other bait that I ever endorsed. Add them all together, it works out to be my favorite bait of all time.
Glenn: Well, if you win two Classics on a bait and you gotta be...
Hank: I didn't win the first one. And the first one I won flipping a man's Jelly Worm and a Bill Norman Snatrix. Those two baits, I switch back and forth with in, but the last Classic, I have to attribute to the Classic spinnerbait.
[Crosstalk]
Glenn: Yeah, and several of the other ones you had just right toward before that, too. Well, if you win a lot of money on a certain bait, I can see how you have an affection for it.
Hank: It's been good to me. It's been good to my family. I appreciate that bait.
Glenn: Right. Let's get to the next one here. It's from Darren from Hampton Roads, Virginia, and he wants to know if you suffered from, and if so, how do you deal with fisherman's elbow?
Hank: Fisherman's elbow, I haven't had that big of an issue with. I did have one spell with it and it is, man, super painful, and it's hard to get around it. I mean, I had tendinitis in my right elbow for about three days at a tournament once, and I mean, it was so incredibly painful and I couldn't withdraw, it was a critical tournament for me qualifying for the Classics, so I had to fish. But if I wouldn't have had to fish, I wouldn't have fished. I'd have sat it out, and that's how I would have coped with it till I got it heal. But that's the only real issue I've had with it. Now, I got it in my shoulders, and I don't know what I'm gonna do about that, but it's painful, but not as bad as that tennis elbow or that fisherman's elbow. That's a bad deal.
Glenn: Yeah, I know of some guys that have like a band that they'll put up on their forearm and that kind of helps a little bit. Have you heard of that?
Hank: Larry struggled with that a lot. Larry Nixon had some trouble with his elbows.
Glenn: It’s an affliction we all have to deal with sometimes, guys. Next question here is from Danny from San Antonio, and he wants to know if you have a fishing-specific exercise and nutrition program that you stick to.
Hank: Well, I should. I should be a lot more nutrition minded. Those honey buns and Krispy Kreme donuts seem to be really...high up in my menu list that I pack in my boat, but really and truly, I think that the best form of preparation exercise for fishing is fishing. Don't quit because you're tired at the end of an eight-hour day. Stay an extra couple hours and stick with it.
I know people that go out and fish with a guy and maybe they're a non-boater on FLW Tournament or even a B.A.S.S., and they say, "I don't know how those guys to do it. I can't do it. That was the most demanding five days I ever fished in my life. I mean, it's crazy how hard that is.” Well, the more you fish, the more you get acclimated to what the stamina you need, but when I fished for years and competed, I like to run. I'd run an hour on average. For about 10 years, I'd run 30-35 miles a week and I enjoyed that. But it really didn't give me the stamina I needed in the boat. Being in the boat did. The more I fished, the better I handled the physical demands of fishing. So there's nothing like fishing to prepare yourself for longer days. And if you fishing eight hours, try nine. If you're fishing 10 hours, try 11. Increase it little by little and stay consistent, and I'm telling you, it's the best form of building stamina for long days in the boat, it's getting out there and doing it.
Glenn: Yeah, absolutely. Great tips, Hank. Very much appreciate it. And thanks, guys, for submitting those questions. For more tips and tricks like these, you guys gotta check out Hank's website: hankparker.com. There's lots of tips and tricks. There's lots of videos, and there's articles and a whole bunch of more information. The list goes on and on and on. It's a great site. You guys gotta check it out definitely for sure. Thanks for watching this and if you wanna be notified of any more videos that we post, just subscribe to our YouTube channel. Have a great day.
