Over the past several years, Alabamian Josh Butler climbed the FLW ladder from the BFLs to the Redcrest Championship. But he has always dreamed of fishing the Bassmaster Classic. This desire prompted him to change course in 2024 and compete in the Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifier series.
By winning the Open on Logan Martin Lake, he has already accomplished his dream of qualifying for the Classic. He also holds eighth place in the overall Opens EQ standings, which puts him on course for his other goal of becoming an esteemed Bassmaster Elite Series angler.
Butler has been hooked on fishing since he wielded a Snoopy rod at age 3.
“I’d be fishing on my grandparents’ dock on Logan Martin at daylight,” Butler said. “If I saw a mud puddle, I thought there would be fish in it.”
His grandfather Larry “Pop” Wise would take Butler creek fishing for bream, crappie and whatever would bite. They waded or fished from a flat-bottom boat on these adventures. David Keith, his other grandfather, also took him fishing.
During the summer months, Granddad Wise would also take Butler fishing a dozen or more times to the Gulf of Mexico where they fished from a 23-foot center-console rig. They would boat 15 to 20 miles offshore and fish for snapper and other saltwater species.
Although these outings continued through Butler’s high school years, fishing took a back seat when he became enamored with golf at age 12. He did well enough on Alabama’s Hayden High School golf team to earn an athletic scholarship to play golf for Wallace State Community College. In 2010 he graduated from University of Alabama with a degree in marketing.
After college, Butler began working full time with the family business, Butler Contractors. His parents established this successful asphalt paving enterprise in 1991. He began working there during the summer months at age 16.
After graduating from college, he bought a 17-foot bass boat and seriously focused on bass fishing for the first time in his life. He competed in his first bass tournament in the spring of 2011 as a member of the Highway 160 Bass Club.
“It was kind of a big learning curve,” Butler said of tournament fishing. “It was a lot different than wading creeks and fishing ponds.”
He shortened his learning curve by fishing as often as he could, by reading everything he could find on bass fishing and by constantly trying new techniques.
“I started progressing and became ate up with it,” Butler said.
The following year he invested in a 20-foot bass boat and began competing in larger tournaments, including the BFLs. He was soon fishing 30 to 40 tournaments a year. Many of these were team events.
“On multiple weekends I’d get up early to fish a Saturday tournament, then drive straight to a night tournament,” Butler said. “After fishing that, I’d a grab a few hours of sleep before fishing a tournament on Sunday.”
He marks 2020 as his breakout year. He won a major regional event that year which awarded him a new boat and $60,000. This gave him the funds and the confidence to step up to bigger events that took him across the country. There was another substantial learning curve.
“I had never fished north of Tennessee before,” Butler said. “Suddenly I was fishing for smallmouth bass in New York. All that was new to me.”
He credits his 30 “amazing” employees at Butler Contractors for taking care of the business whenever he’s away fishing a tournament.
By winning the EQ at Logan Martin this season, Butler has notched another breakout year. Should he keep pace the rest of the season, he will be an Elite Series pro, and as a result, one of the best of the best in our sport.
He feels confident he can adjust to whatever it takes to catch bass in the remaining EQs. Offshore ledge fishing with heavy reliance on electronics is his favorite way to catch bass. But he has confidence in his versatility.
“One of the things I take pride in is that I can go to the bank and catch bass if I can’t get anything going offshore,” Butler said.
He resides in Hayden, the town he grew up in, with his wife Lacey and 15-year-old daughter Jeslyn.
His sponsor’s include Phoenix Boats, Stateline Marine, Power-Pole, Sea Clear Power, Impulse Lithium, Lowrance Electronics, Driftwood Custom Baits, Waterland Sunglasses, Mercury Marine, Precision Sonar, Butler Contractors and Mill It Up, his mother’s asphalt milling company.
