Benton, KY – The Professional Anglers Association (PAA) formally announced their 2009 tournament schedule and accompanying details on Wednesday. After two years of standalone events, the 2007 and 2008 Toyota Texas Bass Classics, in 2009 the PAA will have a three tournament series culminating in a TTBC event that will serve as a championship.

The trail will start off at Toho (FL) in January, then hit Neely Henry (AL) in April and conclude the regular season at Toledo Bend (TX/LA) in October. The TTBC, whose field will consist partially of regular-season points leaders and partially of the leaders of the ongoing PAA ranking system, will take place the week after the Toledo Bend on Lake Conroe, only a short drive away.

“This is meant to be a complementary trail,” PAA Board member John Crews said. “Some FLW guys and Elite Series guys are looking for a few more events and some of the FLW Series guys, (BASS) Open guys and Stren anglers are looking to move up. We’ve put something together that caters to a wide variety of interests.”

Entry fees will be $1,500 per event and TTBC qualifiers will not pay an entry fee for the Conroe tournament. Unlike past TTBCs, in which anglers have competed as part of four-man teams, this will be an individual tournament, with a top prize of $200,000. The total single-tournament payout will be $500,000.

“There’s nothing else out there where you can fish three events and then qualify for a half million dollar championship with no entry fee,” Crews added. 

While many pros have expressed a desire in recent years in favor of eliminating co-anglers, the three qualifiers will all have co-angler participants, for an entry fee of $300 per tournament. “That’s out of respect for what they’ve done,” said PAA President Tim Horton. “Some of the clientele enjoys just learning, and that’s where the marshals come in, but some of the clientele enjoys fishing too, so this will give them that opportunity.”

Horton offered substantial credit for locking in the sites to PAA Vice President Chad Morgenthaler, who likewise passed along credit to his fellow anglers, including Stacey King and Bud Strader. “We got some fortunate breaks,” Morgenthaler said. “We wanted to be in Florida at the beginning of the year and Kissimmee was open and Terry Segraves put that together.”

The main goal in developing a schedule, Morgenthaler added, was to make it fit everyone’s schedule. “When we selected the sites, we really tried to save travel time and some expenses. With the FLW Series and the Open going to Florida, it made sense to have one there a week and a half before. We’re a first time trail, but the neat thing that we tried to get across to everybody is that this is the anglers’ organization. If they speak up in a timely manner, we can make changes in just a couple of days. The only confusing part is that everybody seems to have great ideas.”

Asked which event he looked forward to most, Horton said Toledo Bend. “It’s been low for a couple of years so it should be really good.” Morgenthaler chose Toho, where he and Matt Herren recently earned first place in the Angling Against Cancer tournament.

Crews expressed no preference: “I don’t care where we go on any trail,” he said. “Somebody’s always going to come in first. Somebody’s always going to come in second. And somebody’s always going to come in third. But we’re going to three great places. I haven’t been to Neely Henry, but you can’t have more fun than a tournament at Disney World. Toledo Bend is such a big body of water that you can fish all day and not see another boat. They are three very different fisheries.”