Looking back at the month of October, it’s hard to put into words what it means to Jimmye Sue and I, as parents, to have watched our son achieve two career milestones — a 2017 Bassmaster Classic berth and qualification for the Elite Series. Anytime you see your children excel at something, it’s very gratifying, so we’re overjoyed with Little Alton’s achievements.
You always want your children to do well on their own terms and giving them space to grow is a big part of the process. What’s interesting is that, as my son’s career develops, it has actually brought us even closer. My hope is that his advancement to the Classic and the Elite Series will make our relationship as father and son stronger than ever.
Fishing provided a great opportunity to strengthen the bond for us because we spent lots of time together on the water as he was growing up. Now, that we’ll be competing side by side, my hope is that this will be another season of life for us to continue growing that bond.
I think the area in which we will grow closer over the next year will be communication, particularly in terms of our fishing discussions. Over the past few years, he’s told me about tournaments he has coming up and I’ve told him about tournaments I have coming up.
But recently, he came in and started talking to me about Lake Sam Rayburn and it was a completely different conversation. That’s because the tournament he has coming up and the tournament I have coming up are the same tournament.
For the first time ever, we were speaking as equal level competitors. Before, during a tournament’s off-limits period, we couldn’t seek one another’s advice on anything. But now that we’re both competitors on the Elites, the dynamics have changed.
In the past, I’ve had to walk on egg shells around him during off-limits periods because he’s such a good fishermen. I wouldn’t want to inadvertently ask a question I shouldn’t ask. Now, we can talk freely and that’s opening the door for some fun conversations.
It’s also providing some nostalgic reflections on how I’ve seen my son grow and develop into his own angler. One particular memory actually takes me back to 1973; I was 10 and my dad bought me a 14-foot Kingfisher bass boat with a 33-hp outboard.
I learned to fish out of that boat and every weekend, when we were in our east Texas lake house, I was in that boat fishing. When Little Alton turned 10, we replaced that old outboard with a new 25-hp Yamaha and gave it to him.
So, he had the boat in which I grew up fishing, and just like I had done from an early age, he spent every available moment out on the lake by himself. Whenever we were down at the lake, you couldn’t keep him off the water for anything.
I recall one particular day — actually his 12th birthday; April 15, 2002 — when he came running up to the cabin yelling “Dad, I did it! I did it! I caught my first 10-pounder!”
As a dad, I’m thinking he caught a good fish, but he probably big-eyed it a little bit. He probably caught a 7-pounder.
But I’ll never forget walking down to the boat house and he had the fish tied up on a stringer because the boat didn’t have a livewell. We weighed it on a certified scale and sure enough, it was 10 pounds, 1 ounce.
I think of that story often because it reminds me that, even at an early age, he was his own man. He caught his first 10-pounder on his own, doing his own thing.
Now, as an adult, my son continues to define his own way as an angler. That story was playing in my mind when he qualified for the Elites.
It’s memories like this one that make me excited to see him perform next year on his rookie Elite season. I think the schedule lays out well for him because there are several events that suit his style of fishing.
Certainly, Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn will be good fits because he has a lot of history on those lakes. My history on those lakes has been limited to when we had Elite Series events there. But for the last several years, before the Bassmaster Opens, he was fishing a lot of statewide circuits that would visit those lakes. So he was making multiple trips each year to those fisheries, and he’s done really well there.
Any event could be a tough one, but I don’t expect him to struggle anywhere. That’s because, unlike me in my early pro years, he’s been exposed to many different types of waters from tidal rivers to Great Lakes smallmouth. He proved in third-place finish in the Bassmaster Northern Open on Lake Champlain that he can go up north and catch smallmouth with the best of them.
I think the most substantial advantage that Little Alton will have next year is that he’s been around the Elites for years. He traveled the country with me as we home schooled him all the way through high school, so he knows the scene, he knows the guys.
He grew up around Kevin VanDam, Edwin, Hackney, so he’s not going to be star-struck. There will bumps along the road — there always are. But I think his life experiences will give him the solid footing he needs to take this next step.