Back Story: Halbert Can Wait
Lancen Halbert is going pro this year in the ranks of the Walmart FLW Tour, but not for long. It’s not because Halbert isn’t a good fisherman, because he is. However, a recent change of plans will force the South Carolina angler to put his fishing career on hiatus after this season.
School beckons. Halbert, a Clemson University graduate from Simpsonville, S.C., recently learned he was accepted by the school of dentistry at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. By the time he earns his license to practice, Halbert will be four years older and able to fish the Walmart FLW Tour without worrying so much about cutting a check in every event.
In one way, Halbert is like other aspiring pros whose single-minded purpose is to fish as many tournaments as they can, for as long as they’re able. But what makes him different, and many other pros of the next generation different, is that the current economy and shrinking sponsor pool is forcing him to depend on his ability to make money outside of fishing in order to stay in fishing. Jake Gipson, the two-time defending National Guard FLW College Fishing National Champion, is another example. Having won a full scholarship to the University of Alabama Law School, the summa cum laude graduate of the University of Florida will forego his pro fishing career for now. But it doesn’t take many minutes of conversation with him to learn that he’s already champing at the bit to continue his passion for tournament fishing.
It’s the same for Halbert, and his game plan is just as measured.
“This year my family and some friends with local businesses are helping to sponsor me in the Tour,” says Halbert, one of the founders of the Clemson University Bass Fishing Club. “In the meantime, I hedged my bets by applying to medical school and I got in. If it had been up to me alone, I might have gone straight to fishing, but fortunately I had some good advice from people pushing me to have a backup plan. My dad’s a dentist, and it never stopped him from tournament fishing all he ever wanted to.”
Halbert, 23, has been nibbling around the edges of competition fishing for some time. He participated in a few college-level tournaments while pursuing a degree in wildlife and fisheries biology at Clemson, then switched to Bass Fishing League events as well as The Bass Federation tournaments. The highlight of his 2010 season – the last year he fished a national circuit – was a ninth-place finish in an FLW Series Eastern Division tournament at Lake Champlain.
Halbert’s fishing hero and fellow South Carolinian, Anthony Gagliardi, was runner-up in the same tournament (to Shin Fukae). Like Gagliardi, Halbert honed his fishing skills on the myriad lakes in his home state as well as the highland reservoirs of the southern Appalachians.
“Style-wise, though definitely not skill-wise, I fish a lot like Anthony Gagliardi,” he says. “I feel most comfortable fishing offshore structure and cover with jigs and soft plastics. I’m also the kind of guy who likes to fish where there’s nobody else around. I know that’s a weakness. The really good fishermen have the confidence and patience to fish behind and around other people when that’s where the winning stringer is. I’ve got to work on that.”
Not counting this season, Halbert will have four years to improve his fishing skills before he rejoins the tournament ranks. If he doesn’t succeed on the weigh-in stage, at least he’ll have a solid profession to fall back on.