The top professional bass anglers will take to the waters of Lewisville Lake this summer as the Bassmaster Elite 50 tournament series makes its first stop in the North Texas area. The event will be held June 1-4 and is being coordinated locally by the Lewisville Visitors Bureau and the City of Lewisville.
“We are thrilled to welcome the world’s top anglers and their fans to Lewisville Lake,” said Lewisville Mayor Gene Carey. “This is a terrific opportunity for people to come out with their families and have a great time, and for television viewers all over the world to admire the beauty of our lake.”
Tournament highlights will be broadcast June 11, from 10 to 11 a.m., and again June 18, from 10 to 11 a.m., on ESPN2. A full telecast schedule is provided below.
The Bassmaster Elite 50 tournament format brings a select field to a four-day “showdown” competition. After the second day, the top 12 anglers will be separated from the field. That group will be cut in half to form the final group of six anglers competing on the last day of the event. The field will share a $400,000 purse, with $100,000 being awarded to the event winner.
To qualify for the field, equal to about one-third the size of the full Tour’s, anglers must make it under the wire of very stringent criteria. The Elite 50 field is composed of 2004 Bassmaster Classic champion
Takahiro Omori, 2005 CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year Aaron Marten, 2005 Toyota Rookie of the Year David Wolak, the top 20 active anglers on the all-time BASS money list, and the 27 anglers with the best cumulative point totals during the past three Tour seasons.
Tour sponsors include CITGO Petroleum, Toyota, Busch Beer, Purolator, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Berkley, Lowrance Electronics, MotorGuide, Bass Pro Shops and Cialis (tadalafil).
Although Lake Lewisville has been the site of other fishing tournaments in the past, this will be the first time a BASS event has been held there. The most recent BASS event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was in 1996, when a Bassmaster Megabucks Tournament was held at Richland Chambers Reservoir near Corsicana and at White Rock Lake in Dallas.
The Bassmaster Elite 50 tournament will be based at the city’s Lewisville Lake Park, with boat launches at 10 a.m. each day from Sneaky Pete’s Marina and weigh-ins each evening at Eagle Point in the park. The Bassmaster Outdoor Expo will be held at Eagle Point on Friday and Saturday, and a Western-style country fair will be held in conjunction with tournament events.
Lewisville Lake is located 15 minutes north of downtown Dallas along Interstate 35E. Created in 1954 on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, the lake covers nearly 30,000 acres of surface area and reaches depths of up to 67 feet. Lewisville Lake is rated as ?excellent? by Texas Parks & Wildlife for catfish, crappie and white bass, and ?good? for largemouth bass and striped/hybrid bass.
Lake Park is situated on 350 acres of land leased by the city from the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Park features include overnight and day camping sites, picnic areas, swimming beaches, playgrounds and a state-rated disc golf course. Visitors to Lake Park from Interstate 35E will use the Valley Ridge exit east to Mill Street, then north on Mill to the park entrance.
BASS is the world’s largest fishing organization, sanctioning more than 20,000 tournaments worldwide through its Federation. The CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail, which includes the Bassmaster Elite 50 series, is the oldest and most prestigious pro bass fishing tournament circuit.
For event information, please call (972) 219-EVENT.
2005 Bassmaster Elite 50 tournament schedule:
Stop 1April 20-23 Smith Lake, Jasper, Ala.
Stop 2May 18-21Lake Dardanelle, Russellville, Ark.
Stop 3June 1-4Lewisville Lake, Lewisville, Texas
Stop 4June 15-18 Lake Wissota, Chippewa Falls, Wisc.
ESPN2 broadcast schedule:
Saturday June 1110 a.m.
MondayJune 13noon
FridayJune 176 a.m.
SaturdayJune 1810 a.m.
TuesdayJune 215 p.m.
FridayJune 246 a.m.
