Tuesday Tour Update: Who the heck is Drew Benton?

After a quick scan of the 2013 FLW Tour Angler of the Year standings race it’s readily apparent that the top of the leaderboard is currently dominated by plenty of the usual suspects – Brent Ehrler, Bryan Thrift, Andy Morgan, Jason Powroznik and Koby Kreiger. However, if you look closely, there is one name that seems to leap right off the page: Drew Benton, Panama City, Fla. – sixth place overall.

Drew Benton? Really?

A careful inspection of Benton’s stats page will reveal that the Florida native has fished the EverStart Series circuit since 2009, never winning more than $4,226 in any one single season. Further analysis will show that Benton is fishing in his very first year as a pro on the FLW Tour.

However, if you’ve been following Benton’s story carefully, you’ll quickly realize that 2013 could very well go down as the major turning point of his career. So far, after making the incredible leap to the pro side of the FLW Tour (without even so much as trying to first get his feet wet on the co-angler side), Benton’s stat line is nothing short of mind-blowing. During the first-ever FLW Tour event of his career, Benton walked away with the title on Lake Okeechobee as well as $125,000 in earnings. He logged a 15th-place finish in his very next event on Lewis Smith Lake, scored a 29th-place finish on Beaver Lake and came in at 68th place on Lake Eufaula.

The net result is that Benton now sits in sixth place overall in the AOY standings and appears to be one of the next bright stars in line to really make a name for himself on the Tour.

So how did this all come about? Believe it or not, the answer has to do with baseball, a willingness to gamble with his future, a great competitive spirit and, of course, a love of fishing.

“I played college baseball for the first two years of my college career. But I still managed to continue fishing at the same time – mostly team tournaments and stuff,” said Benton. “During the summer after my second year, I really started getting into fishing. In fact, my final two years of tuition at Florida State University was paid off – every single cent – by my tournament fishing winnings. So in the end, I decided to give up baseball to pursue my fishing career.”

After graduation, without baseball to fall back on, Benton longed for a serious competitive outlet. As such, he found it with the EverStart Series.

“When I graduated, I realized that I really need that competition back in my life. I’m a super competitive person, whether it’s fishing or playing dominos,” he said. “In 2009, I started fishing the EverStart Series because I love competition and the outdoors so much. That’s when I really got hooked. When I stopped playing baseball I really needed to maintain a competitive level in something and that turned out to be fishing.”

However, fishing tournaments is one thing. But deciding to jump on board as a pro on the FLW Tour is quite another.

“To be honest with you, the last couple of years I’ve gotten a check in every tournament but two. But I told myself that even though I was making a lot of checks, I wasn’t winning a lot of money. And a lot of times it was hard to just break even. So I decided that if I could pay a little higher entry fee on the FLW Tour and start fishing for $10,000 (top-50) checks, it’d be huge,” Benton said. “I basically made the decision that I could make a pretty good living fishing the FLW Tour just by being able to cash a check each tournament – and you really can’t do that on other tournament trails. I guess I liked my odds as far as getting those top-50 checks. So I decided to put on my chips on the table this year and fish as a pro on the FLW Tour. And so far, it’s worked out pretty well.”

It’s worked out so well that the 2013 season has exceeded nearly all expectations for Benton – and then some.

“I really didn’t expect to win the first Tour event of the season,” he said. “But I work extremely hard and it’s something I take a lot of pride in. I always give 100 percent of myself so it’s been so rewarding to come out my first year and achieve the amount of success I’ve had. It’s really nice seeing those long hours pay off on this level.”

Amazingly enough, Benton came very close to eschewing the FLW Tour this year – that is until fate intervened.

“It’s kind of a crazy story,” said Benton. “But last year I fished the BASS Opens and just fell short of qualifying for the Elite Series. So I made the decision to fish the FLW Tour instead. And had that not happened, I wouldn’t have won that Okeechobee tournament. So it’s really funny how things work out in the end.”

Now, Benton is on a roll. And even he has a hard time believing the amount of success he’s obtained in such a short time frame.

“I’ve followed a lot of these (FLW Tour pros) from the first time I started fishing. I’ve always thought about how great they are and to now be within striking distance of them (in the angler of the year race) is pretty amazing,” he said. “I really didn’t think I’d be this competitive to start out with being how it’s my first year. But it’s an honor to be listed on the same page with these guys that’s for sure.”

Although Benton is now ranked sixth overall in the AOY race, his competitive nature doesn’t permit him to be complacent. In fact, despite his stellar success during the first half of the 2013 FLW Tour season, Benton still finds time to dwell on some of the biggest obstacles he’s faced this year.

“I was really disappointed in my last tournament at Eufaula. I really felt that I knew the lake enough to finish in the top 20 (instead he finished 68th). But I never ran into a big bite and that really took the wind out of my sails,” he said. “So yeah, I was pretty disappointed.”

Benton also acknowledges that while he’d love to walk away with the AOY title in his rookie season, it won’t be easy.

“I’m only 34 points out of the lead in the AOY race, but I’m going to have to have a lot of things to go my way to get that award at the end of the year,” he said. “Those guys in front of me are great anglers and they’re really going to have to stumble for me to get back up there. I’ve also never fished (FLW Tour stop No. 5) Grand Lake and (FLW Tour stop No. 6) Lake Chickamauga before so that’s going to make it tough as well. I’m not totally out of it, but things are really going to have to go my way to finish first. But then again, anything can happen in fishing.”

While many FLW Tour pros have the luxury of numerous big-gun sponsorships to help pay the bills and the ability to concentrate on fishing full time, Benton is not as fortunate – at least not yet. Currently, when he’s not fishing a tournament, he’s logging some long, grueling and sweat-filled hours on a pier in Panama City, Fla.

“I really could see myself doing this full time as a career, but right now I don’t have any (major) sponsors so it’s hard. When I’m not fishing, I’m working as a longshoreman in Panama City unloading and loading cargo ships. And I can tell you that there are plenty of long, hot days on those shifts where I’m definitely thinking, `I really rather be fishing right now.’ So I’d definitely love to fish full time in the future.”

Overall, Benton said he has few has complaints. And why should he? After all, the sky appears to be the limit for the young angler from the Sunshine State.

“I won my very first FLW Tour event of the season,” said Benton. “Coming into this year, my main goal was to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup and I’m in pretty good shape for that now. Realistically, my first year on Tour is all I could have ever asked for.”