A couple weeks ago at ICAST 2022 I had the opportunity to sit down with Bradley Hallman and talk about early Oklahoma bass stars and how that affected his bass fishing career. Hallman got started early fishing with his dad and watching Bassmaster TV. In his words, he was “ate up with bass fishing,” but he’d never fished a tournament. That was until he got a job out of high school at a plumbing company.
The guys that worked at the company ran a team circuit, Hawg Haven in central Oklahoma. Hallman fished his first event with them and never looked back.
At that point Hallman ventured into the Red Man circuit, which took him to the big lakes of the state like Grand and Eufaula. One of his first draws was an Oklahoma legend by the name of Ron Shaw. Those early Red Man events made him concentrate on the big lakes of the northeast part of the state.
Another thing that shaped his career were high-dollar team events put on by the local dealerships. These events paid $25,000 or a boat to the winner for a one-day event. At that time, Hallman was fishing against future pros like Jason Christie, Terry Butcher, and Edwin Evers. You had one day to put together a big bag or go home empty handed.
He was also groomed by two Oklahoma sticks by the name of Steve Williams and Larry Bryant. They helped Hallman learn offshore fishing and more advanced tournament tactics.
It was great to sit down with Bradley and hear his story. I hope you all like it too. Click on the link below to watch the video.
