(Editor's note: Industry rep Alan McGuckin filed this piece from the Grand Lake Elite Series about Casey Ashley's recent engagement to longtime girlfriend Kenzi Hartman.)
The limestone, sandstone and dolomite beds that cradle Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees yielded a disappointing 11-pound limit for Casey Ashley on Thursday as the second Bassmaster Elite Series tournament of the season got under way.
But the diamond he presented to longtime girlfriend Kenzi Hartman in front of her friends and family at her parent’s home just down Interstate 44 in Broken Arrow last weekend provided the emotional equivalent of his 2015 Bassmaster Classic win.
Grand Lake holds special significance to Ashley and Hartman. The first time they met one another was when the South Carolina pro traveled to the 2013 Classic on Grand Lake to work for sponsors such as Triton, Costa and Quantum at the Classic Outdoor Expo.
It was one of the few Classics he failed to qualify for, but he netted a first date during the visit when Bob Bagby, a longtime marketing leader at Quantum, arranged for Ashley to meet Hartman, whom Bagby knew through her former part-time job at a local golf course.
To say the first date went well would be like saying Casey ain’t half bad at pitching a jig. Six months after they met, Ashley asked Hartman to move from northeast Oklahoma to South Carolina, and to travel the Elite Series tour with him.
The Oklahoma State grad resigned a great job she had in sales, said a gut-wrenching goodbye to her parents and many close friends, and has been with Ashley in South Carolina ever since.
For the last five years, romantic trips to the mountains, beaches and many other significant destinations passed without the marriage proposal every girl dreams of.
“All those great times came and went, and he never proposed, so I really had no clue he would ask me to marry him at my parents last weekend, but it was absolutely perfect,” Hartman said.
“Rule number one before any serious bass angler gives a girl a diamond ring is that she has to be a good cook, and she has to be able to back a boat trailer down a ramp," Ashley said. "Kenzi can do both, and not only can she cook, but she’s a dang good cook."
Hartman's chicken alfredo, Popeye’s spinach, some Wheaties – whatever it takes to get Casey back in the hunt on the leaderboard – should probably be on the menu to make up for Casey’s small limit on Day 1.
“Back home, you don’t even start to think about looking for bass on spawning beds until the water temp hits 60 degrees," Ashley said. "So with the water being in the high 50s and dingy here, I went shallow crankin’ until late in the afternoon on Thursday when I saw two 3-pounders on a spawning bed, and I knew right then I had missed out on how they were catchin ‘em here."
He might have missed Grand Lake’s largemouth, but he’ll head east to the next Elite Series event at Kentucky Lake with one heckuva catch – and a diamond on her finger.
