Hanselman reels in best Elite finish, Livesay and Combs net Top 25s

Ray Hanselman, Jr., of Del Rio was the top finishing Texan in the Bassmaster Elite Series event held recently on Wheeler Lake in Alabama. Hanselman weighed in 77 pounds over four days and finished runner-up to tournament winner Cliff Prince of Palatka, Florida. He won $35,000.
Hanselman’s second-place finish in Alabama is his best performance since joining the Elites in 2018. He also has an eighth-place finish this year.
With three regular season tournaments remaining, Hanselman ranks No. 49 in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Points race. He needs to finish among theTop 40 in points to qualify for his third Bassmaster Classic. The 2025 championship is set for next March 21-23 on Lake Ray Roberts just north of Dallas. Daily weigh-ins will be held at Dickies Arena in downtown Fort Worth.
Hanselman is a veteran Lake Amistad fishing guide and outfitter from Del Rio. He is well known for the historic Cinderella season he completed on the FLW Rayovac Texas Division circuit (now called the Toyota Series) in 2015.
Hanselman made national headlines after winning three consecutive regular season events on Texas lakes, then capping the season with a win in the year-end championship on the Ohio River in Paducah, KY. His winnings for 2015 totaled more than $150,000…..
Two other Texans finished among the Top 25 at Wheeler. Lee Livesay of Longview, 12th, $10,000; and Keith Combs of Huntington, 23rd, $10,000. Livesay is currently 15th in AOY; Combs is 62nd.

Trinity Co. CWD case third in East Texas

The recent discovery of chronic wasting disease in a Trinity County white-tailed deer breeding facility is the first for that county. To date, CWD has been documented in 33 breeding facilities statewide, including three in East Texas, according to Alan Cain, big game program leader with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. A few free-ranging whitetails have tested positive for CWD, including one in Bexar County near San Antonio and one in Coleman County.
TPWD says CWD is a fatal, neurological disease found in certain cervids including deer, elk, moose and other members of the deer family. CWD has an incubation period that can span years.
The disease was first found in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado. It has been documented in captive and free-ranging deer in 30 states and in Canada. The first case in Texas was discovered in 2012 in a free-ranging mule deer in West Texas.
Discovery of the disease has resulted in the depopulation of multiple breeding facilities around the state, the most recent in late May in Hunt County.