Part 3 Canadian BASS Elite Series Pro Jon Bondy Day One Results Toyota Texas Bass Classic April 13-15/07 By: Wil Wegman
Pre Tournament Coverage | The Evening Before | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

April 14th, 2007
Well the big Toyota Texas Bass Classic is underway and the 40 four person teams are off to an exciting start. Part of that excitement was the weather. In fact for awhile, there was a question as to whether the afternoon flight would occur as a storm front continued to move toward Lake Fork and officials considered shortening the day due to safety concerns.

Our own Canadian angler Jon Bondy and his team mates Matt Herren and Sam Swett were captained by Denny Brauer and did not fare as well as they had hoped. The first official press release that I received from organizers showed that they had weighed in a total of 25 pounds for 34th spot overall. But, after hearing word that the pending major storm at this huge “outdoor event” resulted in some computing issues and may have caused ‘some issues’ with that original release, I decided to hold off until I was certain the results were accurate.  Good thing too – waiting showed that Jon and his partners had moved up a few spots in the standings. So, at the start of day two we can now publish these day one results. 

Jon and his team mates are actually in 25th spot with 35.04 pounds.  Sitting in first is the team captained by Alton Jones with an awesome combined weight of 82 pounds. 

How the tournament works:
Each team member is responsible for a five-fish limit, and the four totals comprise the daily team total. So, a team may record a maximum of 20 fish each day. Interestingly enough, none of the 40 teams weighed in their complete 20 fish limit on day one.

Two anglers from each team share a boat in the morning, then check in at noon. On Day one Jon was paired with Denny and Sam and Matt fished together. Teams are momentarily free to converse on strategy, at the first weigh-in and then the remaining two team members share a boat for the balance of the day. A judge is in each boat to measure and weigh fish. Each bass over 14 inches will be recorded, counted toward an angler's limit, then immediately returned to the water.

His limit will be his best five fish. In many respects, this is what is known as a paper tournament.

However there’s a twist: An angler may keep one fish over 24 inches in the livewell, to be weighed onstage, and a ‘pretty nice” big-bass award will be given at the end of day three (a new Toyota Tundra truck). The Top 5 teams after day two advance to fish day three. Below are the official day one results:

TOYOTA TEXAS BASS CLASSIC PRESENTED BY ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
Tournament Daily Standings - Day 1 of 3

Day 1 Standings
1. Alton Jones, Russ Lane, Steve Daniel, Kyle Mabry (Team 4) -- 82-00
2. David Walker, Dan Morehead, Joe Thomas, Johnny Lesesne (Team 20) -- 81-08
3. Terry Scroggins, Chris Daves, Frank Ippoliti, James Niggemeyer (Team 40) -- 68-12
4. Gary Klein, Chad Brauer, Sandy Melvin, Clay Dyer (Team 36) -- 62-00
5. Luke Clausen, Shaw Grigsby, Sean Hoernke, Tim Dungan (Team 27) -- 56-12
6. Chris Baumgardner, Terry Segraves, Ray Sedgwick, Mark Rose (Team 14) -- 55-08
7. Takahiro Omori, Charlie Weyer, Glen Chappelear, Gerry Gostenik (Team 29) -- 54-00
8. Chad Morgenthaler, Mike Hawkes, David Dudley, Darryl Burkhardt (Team 28) -- 52-08
9. Morizo Shimizu, Cliff Pace, Brad Wall, Rick Ash (Team 10) -- 50-12
10. Kevin VanDam, Matt Reed, Dave Lefebre, Theron Caldwell (Team 24) -- 50-08
10. Jeff Reynolds, Bobby Lane, Keith Williams, Jason Reyes (Team 25) -- 50-08
12. Mike Wurm, Mark Tyler, Pete Gluszek, Travis Loyd (Team 16) -- 50-04
13. Andy Morgan, Bradley Stringer, Danny Correia, Mark Burgess (Team 18) -- 50-00
14. Peter Thliveros, Scott Suggs, Tim Carroll, Randy Alexander (Team 7) -- 49-12
15. Kelly Jordon, Ray Scheide, Woo Daves, Ben Matsubu (Team 32) -- 49-04
16. Dean Rojas, Yuzuke Miyazaki, Elton Luce Jr., Chuck Economou (Team 15) -- 48-08
17. Jay Yelas, Randy Blaukat, Jimmy Mason, Shawn Hagler (Team 11) -- 46-12
18. Randy Howell, Mike O'Shea, Bud Pruitt, Chip Hawkins (Team 17) -- 46-08
19. Bernie Schultz, Terry Butcher, Marcel Veenstra, Mark Rizk (Team 23) -- 46-00
20. Charlie Hartley, Tom Mann Jr., Doug Garrett, Robert Collett (Team 3) -- 43-00
21. Tommy Biffle, Clark Wendlandt, David Fritts, Randy Dearman (Team 22) -- 42-12
22. Larry Nixon, Paul Elias, Randy Yarnall, Dalton Bobo (Team 13) -- 42-04
23. Zell Rowland, Mark Davis, Wes Thomas, Chris Bielert (Team 26) -- 40-08
24. Aaron Martens, Pete Ponds, Todd Auten, Glen Delong II (Team 12) -- 39-04
25. Denny Brauer, Matt Herren, Jon Bondy, Sam Swett (Team 33) -- 35-04
26. Dave Wolak, Gary Yamamoto, Les Phelps, Mary DeVincenti (Team 1) -- 33-12
27. John Crews Jr., Kevin Short, John Sappington, O. T. Fears III (Team 34) -- 32-12
28. Todd Faircloth, Anthony Gagliardi, Jeff Connella, Vince Hurtado (Team 21) -- 31-04
29. Edwin Evers, Ron Shuffield, Brooks Rogers, Tommy Stiles (Team 30) -- 31-00
30. Art Ferguson III, David Wharton, Jonathan Newton, Cody Bird (Team 37) -- 30-12
31. Mike Iaconelli, Mark Menendez, Dave Mansue, Frank Lannom (Team 2) -- 29-08
32. Mike McCelland, Rick Morris, Dave Smith, Micah Sepko (Team 5) -- 29-00
32. Guy Eaker, Ish Monroe, Tommy Martin, Tim Loper (Team 35) -- 29-00
34. Kevin Wirth, Frank Scalish, Kurt Dove, Rich Tauber (Team 6) -- 28-00
34. Jeff Kriet, Jimmy Mize, Darren Schwenkbeck, Tony DaDante (Team 19) -- 28-00
36. Brian Snowden, Curt Lytle, Luke Estel, Tony Chachere (Team 31) -- 21-12
37. Tim Horton, Mark Tucker, Jerry Williams, Brian Penso (Team 38) -- 16-00
38. Lee Bailey Jr., Terry Baksay, Roger Boler, Charlie Ingram (Team 9) -- 20-04
39. Jason Quinn, Ken Cook, Kevin Lasyone, Homer Humphreys (Team 39) -- 15-12
40. Brent Chapman, Paul Hirosky, Jack Wade, Harold Allen (Team 8) -- 13-08

As mentioned the field will be cut to the Top 5 teams after day two’s weigh-in, and all 20 remaining anglers will fish both flights on Sunday. A this point it looks doubtful that Jon and his teammates will be able to make the dramatic jump up to a top five position.

The Toyota Texas Bass Classic is an event spearheaded by the Professional Anglers Association (PAA) that Jon Bondy and most other pro anglers fishing the big tournaments in the US belong to. The PAA qualified their anglers for this event through its internal points system.  So, anglers were drawn from various levels of competition, based on the PAA own points and accumulations system.

As soon as we hear more news from the Toyota Texas Bass Classic we will be sure to report right here on bigfatbass so stay tuned!

Wil Wegman is an award winning outdoor writer who has covered major fishing tournaments since 1991. As an accredited BASS/ESPN press observer, Wil has attended and covered more Bassmasters Classic’s in the US then another Canadian. He is also an avid tournament competitor and has been teaching bass fishing courses at SenecaCollege for over 20 years.