Marshalls Replace Co-Anglers

Continuing with its firm commitment to provide opportunities for BASS members to learn from the best, BASS announced details today regarding its Bassmaster Elite Series Marshal program, which will allow BASS members to ride along with Bassmaster Elite Series pros during competition throughout the 11-event Elite Series season.

Upon registering for the exclusive ability to learn a lifetime of bass fishing tips and techniques from the best in the business, Marshals will be expected to become familiar with tournament rules and to help ensure the integrity of the highest level of professional fishing by reporting rules violations to BASS tournament officials. Thus, they will be required before each event to attend a registration and briefing by BASS officials, who will provide them with copies of BASS rules. During the briefings, Marshals may ask rules-related questions.

As an added bonus, Marshals will also have the opportunity while on the water to operate technological devices that will enhance the sport, including BASSTrak, a cell-phone based scoring technology, and BASSCast, an on-board camera developed by ESPN Technology, which will broadcast to http://www.Bassmaster.com so fans can see more up-to-the-minute action from the top bass fishing pros in the world.

Similar to the popular “Day on the Lake” feature in Bassmaster Magazine, Bassmaster Marshals will witness first-hand a full day of tournament fishing from the best seat in the house. In addition to the experience, Marshals will be provided with official Bassmaster Marshal apparel and will be allowed to attend exclusive social functions with the Elite pros. Marshals will also receive products from BASS sponsors.

“One of the main objectives of the Marshal program is to provide a unique, fun experience that will resonate with members,” said Tom Ricks, vice president and general manager, BASS. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to get up-close and personal to the only true professional fishing league.”

BASS members who are interested in becoming Marshals can register at http://www.Bassmaster.com. The enrollment fee is $100. Starting on Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. ET, BASS Federation Nation, BASS Insider and BASS Life members will be able to sign up at http://www.Bassmaster.com and on Nov. 18 beginning at 1 p.m., all other BASS members will be allowed to enroll in any of the 11 Elite Series events. The full schedule of 2009 Elite events can be found below.

Elite Series Marshals will only participate on the first three days of Elite Series competition. Elite pros will be joined by a cameraperson for the final day of competition. In instances where more marshals register than the number of Elite pros, BASS will keep an alternate list and spots will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

This will be the inaugural season for the Bassmaster Elite Series Marshal program, created to replace the co-angler division at Elite tournaments. Each day, Marshals will be randomly paired with Elite pros. Family members of Elite pros can participate but will be restricted to ride along with Elite pros to whom they are not related. Members must be at least 16 years of age to participate.

More details can be found at http://www.Bassmaster.com.

Butcher Takes Texoma

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Terry Butcher of Talala, Okla., claimed a bittersweet victory Saturday at the Bassmaster Central Open, the final Central Open division event of the season, weighing in five fish at 15 pounds, 14 ounces for a three-day total of 46 pounds, 8 ounces.

Along with chasing a victory in the Central Open tournament, the top pros among the 30 who made the cut for the final day were vying for a 2009 Bassmaster Classic berth and an invitation to compete in the 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series, the premier level of tournament fishing.

Butcher claimed the tournament’s top prize but missed out on qualifying for the Classic by just two points in the final Central Open division standings. Ironically, the Elite pro and good friend who loaned him a boat when motor problems plagued Butcher on the first day of the tournament, Jami Fralick of Martin, S.D., was the pro who squeaked past him to qualify for what will be Fralick’s second Classic. It would have been Butcher’s first.

Butcher said his key strategy in winning the event was fishing rocks early, in about 4 to 5 feet of water, and cranking a 4A Bomber in a foxy shad color. He switched in the afternoons to a fat free shad in a chartreuse sparkle color, fishing 8 to 10 feet around brush piles.

“I caught all my fish early in the day,” Butcher said. “My initial limit (on Day Two) I had in the first hour-and-a-half, weighed 13-9.”

The Elite pro, who previously won a BASS event on another Texas lake, Sam Rayburn, said he set out Saturday with the same idea but got plenty nervous when the morning bite around his favorite rocks disappeared. By 10 a.m., he still had no fish.

“I was starting to sweat, and then I backed out and started to fish the brush piles,” Butcher said, “and I got well in a hurry.”

Butcher said he soaked a Yum ribbon-tail worm in plum candy color in the brush piles. For his effort, he earned the $1,000 bonus Saturday for Purolator Big Bass with a 4-10 smallmouth.

Elite Series pro Bradley Hallman of Norman, Okla., jumped from sixth place to finish second Saturday with 34 pounds, 10 ounces, while Michael Burns of Plano, Texas, finished third with 33-9 overall. Rounding out the top five were Elite Series pro Brian Clark of Haltom City, Texas, with 32-15, and Andy Gaia of Tomball, Texas, with 32-9.

Burns’ tournament finish helped vault him to first place in the season-long Central Open division standings and qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. Joining Burns and Fralick in the top three in the standings was Elite pro Rick Clunn of Ava, Mo. The four-time Classic winner earned his BASS-record 32nd Classic berth.

Along with the banner headlines among the pros Saturday, Kathy Crowder of Sherwood, Ark., made some news as one of the first women to win the co-angler division in a BASS series other than the Women’s Bassmaster Tour. With her three-day total of 20 pounds, 10 ounces of Texoma smallmouth, Crowder, who won Purolator Big Bass premiums Thursday and Friday, took home the trophy and a $32,000 Triton/Mercury rig.

“We threw a crankbait early and I had a few swat my buzzbait, I thought, ‘It worked yesterday, why not try it today?’ But they just swatted at it, wouldn’t take it,” Crowder said. “It was looking kind of bleak.”

She said at that point her pro, John Aber of Piedmont, Okla., boated his fifth keeper, then turned around the boat so Crowder could fish for a limit behind the docks near Highport Marina, where he’d caught his. Crowder used a twin-tail grub on a jig.

The 47-year-old said that to win at this event as a co-angler in the same year as Toyota Tundra Women’s Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year Kim Bain-Moore became the first woman in history to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic meant so much to her it was almost difficult to put into words.

“I’ve got to say I’ve read Bassmaster since I was young,” Crowder said. “I’m excited for Kim, because that’s always been my dream, to fish competitively. I’m excited for where the sport is going, there are more and more men getting comfortable with the idea of fishing with women.

“I think if you really want to build your skills it’s better if you go out and fish the Opens with the men because they will sharpen your skills. I hope to do the WBT next year and see if we can’t get another Classic spot, why not? It has been an incredible week.”

Trey Albright of Gordonville, Texas, finished second with 20-9 overall, and Frank Villa of Windsor, Colo., was third with 17-15 overall. WBT pro Debra Petrowski of Arlington, Texas, finished 29th.

The Denison Chamber of Commerce was the host of the Lake Texoma event. For information about the city — known as the birthplace of 34th United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower — visit http://www.denisontexas.us.

Bassmaster Open sponsors include Toyota Tundra, Advance Auto Parts, Berkley, Lowrance, Mercury, Purolator, Skeeter, Yamaha, Optima Batteries and Triton Boats.

[Editor’s note: Kathy Crowder has not previously competed on the Women’s Bassmaster Tour, as stated in the Oct. 31 news release.]

Texoma to Determine Qualifiers

The pros in the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 Bassmaster Central Open season finale on Lake Texoma out of Denison, Texas, will be fishing for points as well as for pounds.

The top prize of $45,000 is the goal of every pro in next week’s tournament. But several of the pros are within range of another big prize — one of three 2009 Bassmaster Classic berths up for grabs through the Central Open — and they’ll need points earned at Texoma to make that happen.

The top three finishers in the Central Open points standings, fashioned after the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, after the Texoma event will qualify for the Classic, Feb. 20-22 out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La. The Central Open pros will join 48 other anglers for the competition on the Red River.

To secure a ticket to the Classic, the current top three in the Central points race will have to fend off all comers. Points leader Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark., has a 65-point margin to ride on, thanks to a strong showing in the season’s first two Open events.

In second place is Aaron Johnson of Bossier City, who won the Kentucky Lake event in September. Johnson is only six points in front of Billy McCaghren Jr. of Mayflower, Ark., winner of the season-opener on the Red River.

“The Classic’s my goal,” said McCaghren. “I’m going to do the best I can to stay up there in points. I’ll just have to wait and see when I get to Texoma. I’ve been there once, so I have seen the lake. I’ve thought a lot about the Elite Series, but I’ll have to wait and see how this ends up.”

McCaghren’s thoughts on the Bassmaster Elite Series have to do with the fact that the 10 pros with the highest point totals from the Central Open season will get a coveted invitation to join the 2009 Elite circuit, which will kick off March 12-15 on another Texas fishery, Lake Amistad.

But no one has the points race in the bag. One of the anglers making a run at a Classic berth is Michael Burns of Plano, Texas, a 39-year-old financial manager competing in his second Open season. He sits sixth in the standings, just 10 points below McCaghren.

“Making it to the Classic was definitely a goal when I entered the Opens,” Burns said. “Fishing the Classic would be a once-in-a lifetime event.”

Perhaps in Burns’ favor is that he considers Texoma to be home water.

“It’s a time of the year I like to fish up there,” he said. “The question will be who can find the bigger fish. I think limits will be easy to find, but it will be harder to catch the big fish.

“It’s an interesting time of year. Usually the shad are into their normal fall migration and become shallower, and the bass will definitely follow them. The strong patterns that time of the year will depend on the weather — the bass will either be on the points, the rocks, or back in coves chasing shad. Brushpiles sometimes can become a factor, but that’s really dependent upon the weather. If we get clear and sunny conditions, the fish will pull back on any brushpiles, otherwise they’ll be out roaming, chasing the shad.”

Fans are invited to the Open’s Thursday-Saturday takeoffs and weigh-ins at Highport Resort and Marina, 120 Texoma Harbor Drive in Pottsboro, Texas. The pros will launch at 7:30 a.m. CT, and the weigh-ins are scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m. CT. All events are free and open to the public.

Bassmaster.com will provide coverage that includes live, streaming video of the daily weigh-ins and real-time leaderboards beginning at 4:45 p.m. ET each day. Photo galleries and daily results also will be available at Bassmaster.com.

Competing from the back of the pros’ boats will be co-anglers vying for their division’s top award, a $32,000 Triton/Mercury rig.

The Lake Texoma event is hosted by the Denison Chamber of Commerce. Information about the city — known as the birthplace of 34th U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower — is at http://www.denisontexas.us. The host hotels are Comfort Inn & Suites and Holiday Inn Express in Denison.

Bassmaster Open sponsors include Toyota Tundra, Advance Auto Parts, Berkley, Lowrance, Mercury, Purolator, Skeeter, Yamaha, Optima Batteries and Triton Boats.

Southern Open Qualifiers

Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., and Bassmaster Elite Series pro Bobby Lane of Lakeland, Fla., qualified Saturday for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic through the Bassmaster Southern Open circuit.

The three pros also led the list of 10 anglers who earned this season’s Southern Open invitations to compete in the 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series.

Herren, Pugh and Lane punched their tickets for the Classic after scoring the top three places in the 2008 Bassmaster Southern Open points race, which reached the finish line Saturday on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville.

Herren had come into the Guntersville event sitting fourth in points — strong enough to be a realistic Elite hopeful but shaky enough to view a Classic slot as slightly out of reach. Now he’s set to compete in his first Classic.

“I came here with a specific goal, to make the Elites. That was priority one, but now the Classic is right here in my hands too,” said Herren, an experienced pro who has competed in various circuits for about 20 years.

Herren said he will join the 2009 Elite Series.

Pugh is also a first-time Classic qualifier.

“Making the Classic this season was my top goal,” said Pugh. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years, but I hadn’t been able to fish the Opens like I wanted to. Everybody always dreams of going to the Bassmaster Classic, and I finally made it. I’m very excited.”

Lane’s 2009 Classic berth will be his second; his first was last year, also obtained through the Southern Open circuit.

Lane, the 2008 Advance Auto Parts Bassmaster Rookie of the Year, had already secured a 2009 Classic spot by finishing 15th in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, which is the Bassmaster Elite Series points competition. Lane, however, now takes his Classic qualification through the Southern Open.

The double-qualifier situation opens the Classic door to Elite pro Rick Clunn of Ava., Mo., who is now in after being the first man out in the Elite’s points race to the Classic. Clunn will be competing in his 32nd Classic, more than any other angler in Classic history.

Clunn might not end up taking the back-door entry. He’s said he’d “rather make it on my own.” He has a good shot at that through the Bassmaster Central Open division, which wraps up Nov. 1.

A total of 51 anglers will compete Feb. 20-22 on the Red River out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La., for the Classic’s top prize of $500,000 and the prestigious title.

The three Southern Open pros are the most recent additions to the Classic field. They join 37 previous qualifiers: the defending champion — Alton Jones of Waco, Texas — and 36 other Elite pros.

Another Classic berth will be filled Oct. 25, when the Toyota Women’s Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year winner will be named in Hot Springs, Ark., at the Women’s Bassmaster Tour Championship presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors. She will make history as the first woman to qualify for a Classic.

Three more berths will be filled Nov. 1 through the Bassmaster Central Open, and six more Nov. 7 through the BASS Federation Nation National Championship.

The final 2009 Classic competitor will be known Nov. 15. That person will be the winner of the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship operated by American Bass Anglers.

While a Classic entry can fire-up a new fishing career or validate an established one, first-time Elite Series qualification means stepping up into the sport’s most prestigious fishing circuit. Besides Herren and Pugh, Greg Vinson of Wetumpka, Ala., and Luke Gritter of Kalamazoo, Mich., became first-time Elite Series qualifiers Saturday.

Vinson, 31, was 18th in the points standings before the Oct. 16-18 Lake Guntersville event. His second-place finish in Alabama on Saturday ran up his points tally to land fifth place in the points race, easily making the top 10.

He began his trek to the Elite level in 2004, when he competed as a co-angler in Elite events.

“Fishing beside the best of the best gave me the inspiration to try to achieve that level,” Vinson said. “I’m tickled to death. My goal coming into the Guntersville tournament was to qualify for the Elite Series.”

Six pros who earned Elite spots Saturday had already qualified through the 2008 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race: Lane; Preston Clark of Palatka., Fla.; Terry Scroggins of San Mateo, Fla., Peter Thliveros of St. Augustine, Fla.; Aaron Martens of Leeds, Ala., and Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C.

As with dual-tour Classic qualifiers, the six must take their 2009 Elite spots through the Southern Open. BASS will work down the AOY points standings to award the six spots to pros who competed on the Elite level in the 2008 season, but who did not requalify.

The 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series season will kick off March 12-15 on Lake Amistad out of Del Rio, Texas.

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