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Qualifying for the Major League Fishing organization's Bass Pro Tour has been a lifelong goal for Roaring Spring resident Ken Thompson.
It's a goal that he has taken a major step toward achieving this year.
Thompson, 35, has now qualified for the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals in 2024. The MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals is a pro-level series of six tournaments that is held at various locations throughout the United States.
Finishing among the top eight in the points standings after the Invitational series earns a fisherman a spot on the MLF Bass Pro Tour.
Thompson qualified for the Fishing Tackle Warehouse Invitationals by finishing fourth in the points standings among the country's Southern Division fishermen in the Toyota Series, which involved three different competitions on various lakes earlier this year.
Thompson was one of just five fishermen in his division of 260 initial competitors to earn a qualifying spot in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals.
"They only take the top five from each division,'' Thompson said. "My whole goal when I entered the Toyota Series at the beginning of this year was to eventually qualify for the Bass Pro Tour, and next year, I'll be in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, which will be a series of events held all over the country.''
Thompson has also qualified for this fall's prestigious Toyota Series Championship, in which established Bass Pro Tour fishermen are among the competitors. That event will be held at Table Rock Lake in Missouri this November, with the overall winner earning $235,000.
"That's kind of like Major League Fishing's version of the Super Bowl,'' Thompson said of the Toyota Series Championship. "All the pros from the Pro Tour and the Tackle Warehouse Invitational series compete in it.
"I'll be competing against the top bass fishermen from several different geographical locations from all across the country,'' Thompson added. "It's the best of the best -- the biggest names in bass fishing.''
The winner of the Toyota Series Championship event will qualify for the Redcrest tournament next March on Lake Guntersville in Huntsville, Ala. The Redcrest tournament is Major League Fishing's Bass Pro Tour championship.
Thompson placed seventh in the points standings in his first Toyota Series event that was held on the Harris Chain Lakes in Leesburg, Fla. last Feb. 1-3, when he caught 13 bass in three days that weighed in at a total of 55 pounds, 10 ounces.
He followed that up with a 16th place finish in an event held March 30-April 1 at Lake Okeechobee in Okeechobee City, Fla., in which he caught 15 fish that weighed in at a total of 37 pounds, 10 ounces.
At his third Toyota Series event held May 11-13 at Lake Eufala in Eufala, Ala., Thompson finished in 33rd place via a tiebreaker after catching 10 fish over two days that weighed in at a total of 20 pounds, 13 ounces.
The fishing wasn't particularly good at either Okeechobee or Eufala, Thompson said.
"The fish weren't hitting well at either place,'' said Thompson, a Northern Bedford High School graduate who is employed locally as a bridge builder. "The fishing was pretty tough, but you're going to have that from time to time. You can't catch (an abundance of) them at every event.''
Matt Becker, 30, a native of suburban Pittsburgh who now lives in Tennessee and has qualified for Major League Fishing's Bass Pro Tour, has been fishing with Thompson for over a decade. Becker has no doubt that Thompson has what it takes to eventually qualify for the Bass Pro Tour out of the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals, which offer the winner of each of their events a payout of between 80 and 115,000 dollars.
Payouts in the Tackle Warehouse Invitational events vary according to place achieved, down to an $8,000 prize for 50th place.
"He's one of the best fishermen I know,'' Becker said of Thompson. "This is his first year entering the Toyota Series and making an attempt toward the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals and the Bass Pro Tour, but I've been telling him that he could make it.
"He did very well in the Toyota Series, going straight through those events to qualify for the Invitationals,'' Becker added. "And I don't see him taking very long to qualify for the Bass Pro Tour, either. I would say that he will do it within a couple years, if not sooner.''
Becker makes an independent living now as a professional bass fisherman.
"That's all I do, and it's very cool,'' Becker said.
Thompson figured that it was this year or never for him to pursue his dream by entering the Toyota Series.
"I told myself that I'm 35 years old, and it's time to take the chance and find out if I'm good enough,'' said Thompson, who began fishing competitively at the age of 16. "This is the first year that I actually tried to do it, and things went real well.''