Bigs Only founder Joe Vaulton has been chosen as a new member of the prestigious Bassmaster High School All-American Fishing Team. Only twelve of the top high school anglers in the country have been selected for this honor.
Bassmaster wrote this about Joe:
Joe Vaulton, a senior on the Alcoa Fishing Team, has an impressive eight wins from the spring of 2023 through 2024, as well as two Angler of the Year titles — the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Trail Angler of the Year and the 2023 Tennessee B.A.S.S. Nation Angler of the Year, the latter of which was out of a field of 500 anglers. Vaulton also has eight Top 5 finishes, including a second-place finish at the 2023 Mountain Music Kids Tournament on Douglas Lake out of 275 teams and a fourth-place finish at the 2023 Tennessee B.A.S.S. Nation State Championship against a field of 200 teams. He also has 10 Top 20 finishes to his name, with a 15th-place finish at the 2024 15th Annual High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship against a field of 437 teams.
“Joe began fishing with our club as an eighth grader and has been competitive in bass fishing since the team’s inception,” said Alcoa Fishing Team coach JJ LaRue. “Joe has honed his craft and has mastered multiple modalities to not only catch fish, but to also teach those in the community about fishing.”
When Vaulton is not excelling on the water, he spends his time helping out in his community, including fundraising for the Children’s Miracle Network, organizing a casting competition for youth anglers and working with the Mountain Music Kids Tournaments. He has spent countless hours working on conservation projects, including many lake cleanups, some through the Tennessee B.A.S.S. Nation and some that he organized himself. Vaulton maintains a webpage dedicated to fishing and conservation and also works hard on his lifestyle brand Bigs Only, a clothing brand that he established and that he uses as a way to give back to charities within his community. Vaulton has done all of this while maintaining a 4.2 GPA.
