Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

I met with Phil Durocher, Director of Inland Fisheries, on a day when a noisy construction crew was working outside his window. But the racket didn’t distract him from the topic of our interview – fishing in Texas.

Fishing is big business in Texas. And on the freshwater side alone, it’s estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of about a four billion dollar a year industry.

One fish that draws anglers to Texas from across the country is the large-mouthed bass.

The bass are the number one fish in fresh water. It’s estimated that over half of all the fishermen in Texas fish solely for bass. It’s a big part of our business, and it’s the most popular fish in the united states.

And Durocher isn’t shy when it comes to sharing what he’d like to see for bass angling in Texas.

It is big business, and we’d like to get all of it in Texas if we could.

He may get his wish after the first annual Toyota Texas Bass Classic takes place at Lake Fork next month.

It’s going to be a one million dollar tournament. I don’t know what they purse is going to be for individuals, but the total package is one million dollars.

We’ll learn about the tournament on tomorrow’s show.

We’ve been working with them and have developed a format where they’re going to actually weigh the fish on the boats as they catch them, and release them on the spot.

That’s our show…sponsored by the Sport Fish Restoration Program… funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuels.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Toyota Texas Bass Classic, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Events, Fishing, Freshwater, Podcasts, SFWR, Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.