Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake will leave a lasting mark
Professional bass anglers prepare to launch at Grand Lake during the Sooner Run Elite Series tournament in 2007. Grand Lake will be the site of the top event in professional fishing in 2013, the Bassmaster Classic.
The Bassmaster Classic is coming to Oklahoma’s Grand Lake Feb. 22-24 and more than 70,000 people are expected to attend the tournament and the Outdoor Expo which is held in conjunction with it.
The event is expected to pump more than $24 million into the economy of Tulsa – where the weigh-ins are being held at the BOK Center – and Grove and the other communities around Grand Lake.
“It’s easily the biggest fishing event ever to come to Oklahoma,” said Gene Gilliland, fisheries chief for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Among the renovations underway for Grand Lake because of the upcoming Bassmaster Classic is the building of a six-lane boat ramp at Wolf Creek Park in Grove and a parking lot for 300.
Restrooms, pavilions, a drive-through weigh-in station and courtesy docks also are being built for the Bassmaster Classic, but it will all stay there after the Super Bowl of fishing has ended.
“This facility being built at Grand Lake is not just for the big level tournaments,” Gilliland said. “The City of Grove is trying to make something that the local fishermen can use so they have some nicer facilities to be able to do some of their weigh- ins.”
Over the course of the two-phase project, the Wildlife Department will contribute about $3 million, which will be combined with several million dollars provided by the City of Grove, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Grand River Dam Authority, which owns the lake.
“It’s a big deal,” Gilliland said. “I’m hoping that the folks at Lake Eufaula and at Lake Texoma and Fort Gibson and some of our other major reservoirs get really jealous about seeing all this, because we’d like to do this same kind of project at those lakes and put in some really first-class facilities at other places around the state.”
Thank you for joining our conversation on Outdoors. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment