ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Beginning Friday, the bass in northern California's Folsom Lake will be unsuspectingly worth their weight in gold to 10 of the sport's top anglers who will cast for precious metal in the Bass Fishing event of the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

The two-day competition pits the sport's top 10 bass anglers in a rod-to-rod competition on the 11,900-acre canyon reservoir loaded with largemouth, spotted bass and smallmouth, the three species of bass found in the lake. Largemouths inhabit the slot canyons, washes and river arms while the spotted bass and smallmouth suspend against deep canyon walls and offshore rock formations.

"This will be an interesting competition because we each excel at different angling styles and, depending on how things play out, the strategies could be highly productive in shallow and deep water," predicts Gary Klein a native of northern California who grew up fishing deep, western impoundments like Folsom.

Shawver's Dream

By Craig Lamb RENO, Nev. — While most of his peers are in the midst of planning their classroom curricula for the coming academic year, high school mathematics teacher Jerry Shawver III of Jacksonville, Fla. is going bass fishing at the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. But Shawver is not playing hooky from work to participate in the Great Outdoor Games. He earned his trip as the amateur bass fishing world champion after winning the CITGO BASS Federation Championship. Shawver, 38, and a member of the First Coast Christian Bass Club, is fishing among the lofty ranks of bass fishing's most decorated anglers, including defending gold medallist Shaw Grigsby and BASS four-time world champion Rick Clunn. The Great Outdoor Games is one of two fantasy bass fishing trips that have turned to reality for the star struck Shawver. In a couple of weeks, he'll travel to New Orleans and fish as an amateur in the sport's world championship, the CITGO Bassmaster Classic presented by Busch. "I knew I'd be going to the Classic after winning the amateur championship but this is just overwhelming," he says. "I had no idea that I'd get to fish the Great Outdoor Games. I've seen it on TV but this is just beyond belief to be around all of these great athletes." The Great Outdoor Games Bass Fishing event is unique because nine of the 10 competitors are full-time BASS pros. Only a five of the amateurs are invited to the Classic and only one is invited to participate in the Great Outdoor Games. This is Shawver's first trip to both events. He is no doubt the envy and collective pride of his amateur peers who fish in weekend bass club tournaments for the chance to advance through the narrow hole to the top of bass fishing's elite competitions.

Klein, 45, moved east two decades ago to chase his dream of becoming a professional bass angler. As a result, he's learned to catch fish shallow and deep and is armed with the winning credentials to prove it.

His teammate is Floridian Shaw Grigsby, the Great Outdoor Games defending gold medallist and an expert at prowling the shallows for largemouth. Klein is the two-time silver medallist, making this team the one to beat.

The all-star team lineup includes defending bronze medallist Clark Wendlandt and former world champion Davy Hite; two-time gold medalist Peter Thliveros and veteran pro Ron Shuffield; former world champions Rick Clunn and Denny Brauer; and pro angler Zell Rowland and amateur Jerry Shawver II.

At daylight on Thursday the teams fanned out across the lake to scout locations and plan strategies for tomorrow's qualifying round.

With only a day of practice, the anglers are fairly guarded about their expectations. But local anglers believe the action should be hot.

"Ninety percent of the fish caught are going to be spots in the 1¾- to 2½-pound range, but there are enough 4½-pounders in there to really make a guy's tournament," said 2002 Western Bass Sportsman of the Year Kent Brown, who grew up fishing Folsom.

"You're going to see a ton of great footage of guys catching fish, because a 30- or 40-fish days on Folsom in the summer isn't out of the ordinary. The neat thing about this lake is that it has an outstanding big largemouth fishery — I've already seen a couple up to 15 pounds this spring — so a guy could make a huge splash with just one of those. But I think a guy can win with all spots, with five fish in the 17-pound range."

The teams can keep seven bass measuring a minimum of 12 inches. Fish are held inside the aerated holding tanks of state-of-the-art Triton bass rigs used in the competition. After the fish are weighed they will be released into Folsom Lake.

Total scores are based on the highest cumulative team weight in pounds and ounces, less any points deducted for penalties, such as the 8 ounces subtracted for any dead fish.