BASS announces that, in 2009, the Women's Bassmaster Tour presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors will visit fisheries in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee for its four regular-season events. Building on its landmark announcement before this past season, the circuit will continue to provide a direct qualifying berth into bass fishing's premier event, the Bassmaster Classic.

The BoatU.S. Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water honored Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, NY with its 2007 Clean Water Grant Excellence Award as it announced over $50,000 in new grants to 19 groups across the country for its 2008 Clean Water Grant program.

BASS has pledged $15,000 to the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership, a new group whose top priority is the conservation of man-made U.S. lakes.

John True of Dallas kicked off the 2008-2009 Budweiser ShareLunker season October 3 with a 13.38-pound largemouth bass from a private lake in Rusk County.

The pros in the October 30-November 1 Bassmaster Central Open season finale on Lake Texoma out of Denison, Texas, will be fishing for points as well as for pounds.

With a Bassmaster Classic qualifying spot in the balance, Kim Bain brushed off her nerves Thursday and did at the Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors what she had done throughout the regular season. The 28-year-old from Alabaster, Albama, boated a limit weighing 5 pounds, 2 ounces, on Arkansas' Lake Hamilton, which put her in seventh place at the tournament and helped her maintain the lead in the Toyota Tundra Women's Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year standings -- at least through Day One.

Boat trouble in the morning lead to a productive afternoon for Terry Butcher of Talala, Oklahoma, as the Bassmaster Elite Series pro took a commanding lead Thursday on Day One of the Bassmaster Central Open, the final Central Open division event of the season, on Lake Texoma. Butcher's five-fish limit of 17 pounds, 1 ounce, topped his closest challenger, Paul Ferguson of White House, Texas, by more than 2 pounds.

Michael Burns of Plano, Texas, and Bassmaster Elite Series pros Rick Clunn of Ava, Missouri, and Jami Fralick of Martin, South Dajita, qualified Saturday for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic through the Bassmaster Central Open circuit.

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Terry Butcher of Talala, Okla., claimed a bittersweet victory Saturday at the Bassmaster Central Open on Lake Texoma, the final Central Open division event of the season, weighing in five fish at 15 pounds, 14 ounces for a three-day total of 46 pounds, 8 ounces.

The Budweiser ShareLunker program is looking for people willing to help care for big largemouth bass that anglers donate to the program.