Satisfied with his achievement – but with one regret – Frank Scalish of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, last week climbed back into pro bass fishing’s top level, the Bassmaster Elite Series, while also qualifying for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic.

On stage in his home state on the final day of the Sept. 24-26 Bassmaster Northern Open on Lake Erie, Scalish didn’t look as ecstatic as one might imagine he’d be. After all, the 2006-2007 Elite pro had been out for two seasons, and he’d just made his way back in. Not to mention the Classic entry — the goal of every pro and the dream of every amateur.

It wasn’t that he was stunned. Scalish had come into the Northern Open division’s season-ending event on Lake Erie atop the standings after a third-place finish and then second place earlier in the year. Before the tournament began, he figured he needed only to bring in five fish each day to prevail as No. 1 and claim the two prizes.

With only a few more anglers to weigh in, Scalish took the lead on the final day at Erie. On the weigh-in stage, tournament director Chris Bowes pointed out that Scalish’s catch of almost 20 pounds was more than enough to seal the Classic and Elite deals.

Scalish’s reply? “I want to win this tournament.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I am happy,” Scalish said a few days later. “I did what I came there to do. It was a big relief, a weight off my shoulders. But it was bittersweet. I had held the lead (in the Lake Erie tournament) up until the very end. I thought, ‘I can do this! I can do a ‘3-2-1, Classic-bound’ — that’s how I envisioned the title in the magazine (Bassmaster) — and I had this whole marketing thing mapped out in my head on how it would play out.”

Scalish walked away from Erie in third place, but first in the season-long points race and a spot in the Classic.