Texan Brian Clark qualified for the 2015 Elite Series by finishing fourth in the Bassmaster Central Opens point standings in 2014. He also qualified to fish the Elite Series via the Central Opens in 2008 and 2009.
That is some serious consistency.
When Clark finished fourth in the Central Opens point standings in 2007 he was devastated. That year the top three point getters qualified for the Bassmaster Classic.
“I missed the Classic by one spot,” Clark lamented. “It was like when your first girlfriend breaks up with you. It took me weeks to get over that.”
Clark mustered enough sponsors to compete in the 2009 Elite Series. He had never fished anywhere other than in Texas and it showed.
“I didn’t know what a blueback herring was,” Clark said. “I had never caught a smallmouth.”
Clark did well enough in the Elites to qualify for the 2010 Series. However, he lacked the sponsorship backing needed to continue. Nor does he have the funds needed to join the Elite Series in 2015.
That doesn’t mean this 39-year-old angler won’t be fishing tournaments. Not by a long shot. Clark lives just north of Fort Worth, which is a hub for Texas bass tournament activity.
“I make a decent living fishing regionally,” Clark said. “I’m on the water fishing some kind of tournament over 200 days a year.”
Besides the Central Opens, Clark competes in various local weekend tournaments. He also competes in three to four weeknight tournaments each week.
During the winter offseason he installs ceramic tile. Clark has been doing this type of work since he was 15 years old.
He got hooked on bass fishing years before that. From third grade through eighth grade, Clark fished a 15-acre lake near home at every opportunity.
“I spent 90 percent of my childhood there chasing bank bass,” Clark said. “When I got in trouble, my parents disciplined me by taking away my fishing tackle. It was the most devastating thing they could have done to me.”
Clark’s stepfather James Ansley would also take Clark fishing in an old VIP bass boat.
“I used to drive him crazy about fishing,” Clark said of his stepfather. “He would launch the boat in the morning and lay down in the back for a few hours while I ran it.”
Those outings began when Clark was only 8 years old.
As fanatical as Clark was about bass fishing, he set it aside when he reached ninth grade. That’s when he began bull riding competitively. He stuck with it while attending Haltom High School and Tarrent County College. After that, he rode bulls professionally as a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the Professional Bull Riders (PBR).
A serious elbow injury in 2003 ended Clark’s bull riding career. Badly in need of something to satiate his competitive nature, he joined the B.A.S.S. Club of the West and embarked on his bass tournament career.
Clark’s experience of fishing Texas lakes as a youngster gave him a strong foundation. While competing in his first Bassmaster Central Open at Lake Texoma in 2007–which he won–Clark caught a 5-pound bass from a stump where he had caught another 5-pounder when he was 11 years old.
Clark has been blessed with his wife Heather and two boys, Rider, 9 and Brodie, 6. Rider is old enough to fish bass tournaments with his dad and they won their first major team event together last August.
Fishing shallow has always been Clark’s strong suite. He doesn’t fare as well when the primary bite is happening offshore in deep water.
Then again, junk fishing shallow cover has served Clark well.
“My main goal is to qualify again for the Elite Series and get the sponsorship I need to fish it,” Clark said.