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Texas Fest headed to Lake Fork

Texas Fest headed to Lake Fork

B.A.S.S. announced today that the third Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest will take place at Lake Fork.

The tournament, one of nine Bassmaster Elite Series regular-season events, will take place May 2-6. The total payout to the field will be $1 million and a Toyota Tundra pickup truck awarded to the angler who weighs in the heaviest bass of the event.

“Fishing could be off the charts at that time,” said Dave Terre, chief of Inland Fisheries Management and Research for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Terre noted that Texas Fest is being held at approximately the same time as the 2014 Toyota Texas Bass Classic event – a predecessor of Texas Fest – that established catch records for bass tournaments. Keith Combs of Huntington, Texas, won that event with a three-day, 15-bass total of 110 pounds.

“To get 100 pounds in four days is a major accomplishment, and to do it in three is unheard of,” said Combs. “It’s nothing about the angler, but it’s a testament to this lake.”

Stetson Blaylock, who, like Combs, is an Elite Series angler, also joined the Century Club in that event with 102-08. In addition, Combs weighed in a 42-pound limit of five bass one of the days, and his catch included a 10-14 largemouth.

“This outstanding bass fishery is the result of progressive fisheries management practices by TPWD and its partners over the past 38 years,” Terre added. “The opportunity to showcase this world-class bass fishery on the Bassmaster stage, with a special tournament format we helped create, is something really special.”

Lake Fork would not be suitable for a traditional bass tournament because of its restrictive slot limit, which requires anglers to release bass between 16 inches and 24 inches in length and limits them to only one bass per day more than 24 inches long.

“To comply with the slot limit regulation and to minimize handling stress on bass, TPWD will work with B.A.S.S. to use the ‘catch-weigh-immediate release’ tournament format that was originally born at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic at Lake Fork in 2007,” said Terre. “I think we could see record-setting catches of giant-size bass in 2019. These are the fish that have made Lake Fork a top destination for bass fishing for decades.”

Under the format, which was also used in previous Texas Fest events at Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Lake Travis, a judge in each competitor’s boat weighs and records the official weight of each bass caught. All bass are immediately released except for one fish over the slot, which can be taken back to the Texas Fest weigh-in stage to show off to fans.

“B.A.S.S. and the Bassmaster Elite Series anglers have long wanted to conduct an Elite event on Lake Fork, which is a bucket-list fishery for bass anglers worldwide,” said Bruce Akin, CEO of B.A.S.S.. “The innovative catch-weigh-release format – along with the support of Gulf States Toyota, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the family of B.A.S.S. sponsors – enables us to finally show what Lake Fork is capable of producing. We can’t wait to go there.”

Impounded in 1980, Fork surrendered the state bass record of 18.18 pounds, and it produced 30 of Texas’ top 50 largemouth bass and seven of the top 10. It dominates the list of Texas lakes that have produced 13-pound “Legacy” bass entered in the Toyota ShareLunker program. Including three giants this spring, Fork has yielded 260 “teen” bass over the years, or 45 percent of the total ShareLunker Legacy entries statewide.

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