Passport to Texas

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This is Passport to Texas

For a decade, The Toyota Texas Bass Classic shined a light on Texas’ world-class bass fisheries while raising funds for youth fishing programs. But that changes this year—sort of.

The Toyota Texas Bass Classic, merged with a longstanding event called Bass Fest become the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest.

Dave Terre, with Inland Fisheries coordinates the event for the agency. He says despite the name change, the goal remains the same.

This is a benefit event for Texas Parks and Wildlife at its very core. We expect the event will generate about $250-thousand dollars this year to support Texas Parks and Wildlife—and specifically youth outreach programs tied to fishing.

While The Bass Classic took place at Lake Fork with about 45 professional bass anglers, Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest heads to Lake Sam Rayburn, and more than doubles the number of participants.

This new event is special in that it is going to be down at Sam Rayburn with 109 of the best bass anglers of the world. It is going to showcase our catch, weigh and immediately release format that was born at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic in 2007. And, it’s going to be an exciting thing to see.

The Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest is a free event, May 17th through 21st at Lake Sam Rayburn, east of Lufkin. And we have more about the event coming up tomorrow.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.