Okie cousins combine techniques for Bass Pro win
Bartons, aged 62 and 25, win $50,000, and qualify for $1 million national championship
The older hand dragged a ball and chain, the kid used finesse. That’s how it worked out.
The pair brought home $50,000 from Texas’s Lake Ray Roberts, along with a chance at $1 million in the Bass Pro Shops U.S. Open National Bass Fishing Amateur Team Championships in November.
Ten days after the win Alan Barton, a 62-year-old Stillwater roofing and restoration contractor, said he and his cousin/employee Tanner Barton, 25, still can’t believe they came out on top of a field of 250 Texas and Oklahoma and Louisiana sticks on a big-fish producing lake like Ray Roberts.
But they sure did. The Top 10 teams all were from Texas, and the second-place team was only 2 ounces behind them.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for those Texas fishermen. On any Texas lake especially but anywhere you go if you’re up against Texas or Oklahoma fishermen you’ve got your hands full,” Alan Barton said.
Alan and Tanner landed 22.64 pounds to top the field and, in addition to the $50,000, they are among 40 out of this second of eight qualifying events who will be among 350 amateur teams in the national championship, set for Nov. 19-21 at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. That event, with a $1 million cash prize, will be broadcast internationally.
The Bartons’ story starts and ends with a guy that deserves more than an honorable mention, Tanner’s brother Zakary. He’s the one who told them about Bass Pro Shops Founder Johnny Morris’ tournament idea to reward customers by offering up this chance to land a huge prize.
One of the eight championship-qualifying events is set for Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees on Oct. 16, and even though Alan Barton owns a home on Grand the Bartons decided to hedge their bets and register for the earlier Ray Roberts event as well.
“The Grand tournament is only a month before the championship so that doesn’t give you a lot of time, plus a lot of people want in so it’s almost like a lottery. We decided we would put in for Ray Roberts and if we didn’t get into that we could still try for Grand,” Alan Barton said.
Zakary Barton also fished Ray Roberts with a friend. Their boat landed 42nd place and missed the 40-boat cut for the championship by less than one pound.
The Stillwater-Edmond team of Alan and Tanner credits early success in scouting, cool April weather and a mix of tactics old and new for their success. But during the tournament and even after weigh-in they only expected to do well, not to win.
They hit the water in Barton’s Ranger Z521 with a fair amount of experience. Long family fishing traditions, a few jackpot victories here and there, Alan’s time tagging along with friend and longtime Oklahoma Bassmaster pro David Smith of Edmond, fishing some of the Red Man tournaments back in the 1980s, and some FLW contests in the early 2000s played in their favor.
Alan said the team looked at maps to pick “80 or 100 spots” and made a first trip in late March to poke around and narrow the list. They took one more trip after that and then hit the lake during official practice, he said.
“We had one practice day with five fish over 30 pounds,” he said. “We were thinking if the weather stayed cool and looking at weights in past tourneys we could get into the top 15 or top 20.”
Through scouting trips, practice and on tournament Sunday (delayed from Saturday due to fierce and cold 30 mph north winds) their techniques remained the same.
“We were catching them on submerged (house) slabs and old gravel road beds,” Barton said. “I was catching them on a Carolina rig and Tanner used a little old Ned rig.”
A typical day saw them only catch eight to 10 fish, but they were all in the 5-pound range. The catch between the two techniques was evenly split and over all their time fishing they only lost two fish—one of which was a monster that slipped the Ned rig right at the boat on tournament day and nearly cost them the win. They pulled off a margin of just 2 ounces over the second-place team with 22.45 pounds.
Their first sign of luck came on the Sunday morning trip to the lake as they listened to televangelist Joel Osteen on the radio.
“His message for the day was ‘the odds are in your favor’ and I thought, ‘Hey! This might be for us.’ I took that as a good start to the day,” Alan said.
A house slab that produced during practice gave them two fish for them right away but the fish only weighed about 2 pounds each, the two smallest fish they’d caught so far.
“We were a little worried,” Barton said.
But they didn’t worry for long. After a half hour they moved to another slab and a 6-pounder and two four-pound fish.
“So before 8:30 in the morning we had a limit, but we had those two small fish,” he said.
Mid-morning they culled one of the smaller fish for one in the 4-pound range and at noon a real monster swallowed that Ned rig—the one that got off at the boat.
After trying some other spots they returned to the place the big one got away at 2 p.m.
“We had about 30 minutes left to fish when we got there and at 2:10 we caught another 4 (pounder) and replaced that smaller one,” he said. “We bumped knuckles and felt pretty good. We were thinking maybe we did good enough to make the championship. That’s all we wanted, or maybe we might make the Top 10 and get a check to cover some gas money.”
Unknown to the Barton team, their cool-water pattern with slow repeated presentations to fish 5- to 7-feet deep beat a field with a large number of competitors who ran to the banks to look for spawning and pre-spawn fish—as most would expect in Texas in late April. The Bartons slow-dragged baits across the slabs and gravel roads, Alan with a green pumpkin Zoom Baby Brush Hawg on a 5-ought Gamakatsu hook and Tanner with a 3-inch Ned worm of the same color on a ¼-ounce Ned jighead.
Bites sometimes came after dozens of casts into the same spot. “I don’t know if they would move up and you’d finally catch one or you just had to keep casting until you put it right in front of their face,” Barton said. “But that was the thing and like I said we never had more than eight or nine bites in a day.”
They were among the first 30 boats to weigh in so they left to make room for others. They were on the other side of the lake when Zakary the newsman completed his role for the tourney.
“Zak had unloaded in the same place we were and he came up to us and said, ‘Do you guys know what you’ve done? It’s official, you just won it!’ We just said, ‘you’ve got to be kidding.’”
Barton said he still gets a little emotional about the dream come true for an angler in his 60s and that his time on stage with Roland Martin, Kevin VanDam and Morris is “a little bit of a blur.”
For now the Barton team is ready to sit back and relax while other anglers hit Grand Lake for the qualifier in October, and to prepare for Table Rock.
“I think we are a good team, a good combo,” Alan Barton said. “I’m kind of older and set in my ways and Tanner has a newer way of thinking with the new-fangled stuff. I think that gives us a good chance going into Table Rock.”
About the US Open National Bass Fishing Amateur Team Championships
Noted conservationist and Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris had a dream to create "the ultimate owner's appreciation event" while benefitting conservation. The first-of-its-kind tournament invites owners of Tracker, Ranger, Nitro, Triton, Sun Tracker, Tahoe and MAKO brand boats to compete in two-person teams. With proceeds benefitting conservation and the future of fishing, the event is exclusively for amateurs including serious weekend tournament anglers, parents, grandparents, and youngsters, giving everyday anglers, friends, and families the chance to win big.
Coming to Grand Lake
The next close opportunity for Oklahoma-region anglers comes with the Grand Lake tournament, set for Oct. 16, with registration opening on July 14.
Locals might also look toward the Bull Shoals event, Nov. 17 (just before the national championship). Registration for that event is not yet scheduled.
Details about the rules, who qualifies as an amateur and how to enter can be found at basspro.com/shop/en/usopen
Remaining Regional Qualifying Events
April 24 – Lake Mead, Nevada (registration closed)
July 17 – Chesapeake Bay, Maryland (registration opens May 12)
Aug. 21 – Lake St. Clair, Michigan (registration opens May 12)
Sept. 11 – Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee (registration opens July 14)
Oct. 16 – Grand Lake, Oklahoma (registration opens July 14)
Nov. 17 – Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas (registration date TBA)