Before Ben Milliken began competing in the Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifiers, one of his YouTube videos made a cannonball splash into the bass fishing world. It has garnered nearly 400,000 views and shows the Texan boating five largemouth from O.H. Ivie Lake that total 60 pounds.
The video also reveals Milliken’s mastery with forward-facing sonar. However, in the first two EQs of 2023, he caught the majority of his springtime bass without this sonar technology.
He much prefers bass fishing in the summer and winter, which is when he hammers offshore heavyweights with the help of Garmin Livescope.
“Spring fishing is really inconsistent for me,” he said.
Given that Milliken nabbed fifth place at the first EQ on Lake Eufaula and clinched the victor’s trophy at the second event of the series on Toledo Bend, it’s frightening to think what he might do in upcoming postspawn EQs. He already sits in the top five of EQ standings.
The 33-year-old’s route to the EQs began while growing up in Omaha, Neb. His father, Scott, and grandfather, Moe, introduced him to fishing early in life, but not for bass. They fished crawlers under bobbers and behind bell weights for walleye, white bass, bluegill and whatever else would bite.
When he watched Michael Iaconelli win the 2003 Bassmaster Classic on television, tournament fishing appealed to his competitive nature. He was soon fishing for bass from the bank at waters around his home in Omaha.
A 16-foot aluminum boat got Milliken off the bank when he was 17. It had no electronics, a 12-volt trolling motor and an outboard that started only when it was in the right mood. He built a front deck on the rig so he could cast like a bass pro.
He and his father towed the little craft to small lakes near Omaha and began competing in local bass derbies.
In high school Milliken competed in four sports, which left little time for bass fishing. Even so, he and his father fished one division of a national tournament organization that allowed them to compete close to home. They continued to participate in these events after he enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
College bound
“I decided not to play sports in college because bass fishing filled my competitive itch,” Milliken said.
At the university, he joined the bass fishing team and partnered with Tony Cimino Jr. That year they competed in only one collegiate tournament, which took place at Lake Dardanelle on the Arkansas River.
“It went very poorly,” Milliken said. “I loved bass fishing, but I was unprepared for serious tournament competition. I had to decide if I was going to go all-in or not fish tournaments anymore.”
Over the next two years, Milliken took classes at Iowa Western Community College where he played baseball. He limited his tournament fishing to a few local derbies.
The following year he enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Omaha where he started a collegiate team. He and his partner Ben Kroeger qualified for an FLW college regional and finished in the top 10 at the championship.
While in school, Milliken waited tables, worked landscaping and had other jobs to pay bills and purchase a 20-foot, tournament-worthy bass boat.
A real job
After graduating with a bachelors’ degree in environmental biology, Milliken got what he calls a “real job” in Omaha. He inspected commercial buildings for asbestos and lead paint and supervised the removal of these hazardous materials.
“It was a stable, Monday-through-Friday job,” Milliken said. “But I realized my dream of becoming a professional fisherman was not feasible with that kind of schedule.”
While working there he married his wife, Rebecca. He also honed his bass fishing skills by competing in 15 to 20 local and regional bass tournaments a year.
YouTube
His life took a dramatic turn eight years ago when he discovered that people were making a living posting videos on YouTube. Rebecca encouraged him to give it a shot buying him a GoPro video camera.
“I used the GoPro to film a couple of fishing tip videos that I posted on YouTube,” Milliken said. “Four months later I learned those videos had gotten 40,000 to 50,000 views. I didn’t know what views and subscribers meant.”
Encouraged by the response, he began posting one or two “Milliken Fishing” videos a week about fishing in Nebraska. He attracted more subscribers by taking weekend trips to Texas and other states and posting fishing videos from those excursions.
His traveling partner on those initial adventures was Joe McKay, a bass nut that he continues to fish tournaments with.
Although Milliken’s videos were making money, it wasn’t enough to support his family. He calculated that he could equal the income from his job by posting more videos.
He left his job in June of 2017 and posted six or seven videos a week for the next 10 months.
“I was basically throwing things at the wall and finding out what would generate the most traction,” Milliken said.
Within one month the income from his videos surpassed what he had been making at his previous job. Since then, he has posted three to five videos a week. To help maintain this level of output, he hired Cole Thomas to be his cameraman and edit the videos.
One of his biggest supporters has been 6th Sense Fishing. This relationship has evolved to the point that Milliken is partial owner of the company.
Two years ago Milliken moved from Nebraska to New Caney, Texas, where he lives with Rebecca, 11-year-old Max and 3-year-old Osborne. A third Milliken child is on the way.
“I pulled the reins back on tournament fishing, but still fished some jackpots,” Milliken said.
However, he believed he was hitting his stride as a bass angler, which prompted him to fish the 2023 EQs. He had never fished a Bassmaster open prior to this.
He has posted YouTube videos about his practice and tournament days for the Eufaula and Toledo Bend EQs. Some of them have attracted more than 200,000 views.
“People love tournament videos, and I love competing in tournaments,” Milliken said.
Milliken is ecstatic about qualifying for the 2024 Bassmaster Classic. If he continues to do well in the EQs, he will fulfill his dream of becoming a Bassmaster Elite Series angler.
His sponsors include 6th Sense Fishing, Waterland Sunglasses, Powerhouse Lithium and Mystic Mountain Distillery.
