Odds are fair that a Texan or a former Texan will leave Lake Conroe a week from today with $100,000-plus more than when he arrived and with the knowledge he bested 49 of the world's best professional bass anglers over a three-day contest.
It's a cinch Texas' urban anglers will walk away from the Sept. 28-30 Toyota Texas Bass Classic as winners, with $250,000 donated by the contest's sponsor going to fund programs aimed at providing fishing opportunities in and around the state's major population centers.
Nine of the 50 anglers participating in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, headquartered at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center in Conroe and considered a world championship matchup of the nation's top professional bass fishers, are Texans.
That group includes Keith Combs, the Huntington resident who won the 2011 Texas Bass Classic on Conroe in a sudden-death fish-off against Mike Ioconelli, a New Jersey angler considered one of the best competitive bass fishers in the nation.
The field also includes a handful of former Texas residents, chief among them Rick Clunn. Clunn, who now lives in Missouri and is one of professional bass fishing's most successful anglers (he has four Bassmaster Classic titles), grew up in the Houston area and guided anglers on Lake Conroe before beginning his professional career more than three decades ago.
The 2012 Texas Bass Classic, held on Lake Conroe for the fourth consecutive year, is promoted by the Professional Anglers Association as the group's world championship. The top 15 finishers in "angler of the year" standings of three professional bass fishing circuits - Walmart FLW Tour, Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops PAA Tournament Series - qualify to fish the invitation-only, no-entry-fee tournament. The other five competitors are the winner of the most recent Texas Bass Classic and four top professional anglers invited by the contest's sponsor. Three of those four "sponsor exemptions" are Texans (Takahiro Omori and Kelly Jordon) or a former Texan (Clunn).
Moves to Lake Conroe
While the Texas Bass Classic has evolved into a matchup of world-class bass anglers, the focus of the tournament is much broader. The contest originated as a cooperative effort with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to spotlight the agency's inland fisheries division's considerable successes managing the state's freshwater fisheries, especially its largemouth bass fisheries, and generate interest in recreational fishing.
The first Texas Bass Classics were held on Lake Fork, arguably the best trophy-bass fishery in the nation. The site was moved to Lake Conroe to show how Texas' innovative fisheries management has helped create a fine largemouth bass fishery on a reservoir facing the challenges of intense fishing pressure, heavy shoreline development and habitat issues tied to invasive plants such as hydrilla and giant salvinia.
The tournament employes a unique scoring system in which a trained volunteer marshal accompanies each angler, records the weight of landed bass, then immediately releases all but very large bass, which are picked up by on-the-water TPWD crews and kept alive for on-stage weighing.
Field reduced for final
After two days of competition, the field is reduced to 10 anglers who have the highest total weight (five bass per day) over those rounds. Only those anglers fish Sunday's final round.
The fishing tournament is only a part of the Texas Bass Classic. The three-day event includes an outdoor recreation-themed exposition festival with exhibits and hands-on demonstrations. Also, nightly live music concerts, this year including performances by Dierks Bentley, Gary Allen and Jake Owen. The expo, concerts and daily tournament weigh-ins will be held at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center at FM 3083 and FM 1484 in Conroe.
Tickets are required, but at no charge. Check www.toyotatexasbassclassic.com for event schedules and tickets.
The event plays a large role in supporting TPWD's efforts to get the state's urban residents interested in recreational fishing and educated about the importance of healthy aquatic systems. The agency's Neighborhood Fishin' program, which stocks catfish in urban ponds open to public fishing is largely funded through a $250,000 donation from Toyota, main sponsor of the classic. Over the past five years at Texas Bass Classics, Toyota has donated more than $1.25 million to help fund TPWD fisheries projects aimed mostly at urban and young anglers.
shannon.tompkins@chron.com
November 30, 2011 by Jonathon Marshall 
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