Scott Dean for sure.
I f there ever was a "Superteam" tournament series, Scott would be my first choice to be my partner.
How many of these guys mentioned have qualified for the BASS Classic or the FLW Championship?
Great local competitors are seldom great national competitors.

I can assure you there are many many on this list that are better than Bernie Shultz, Paul Elias, Jimmy Houston, Byron Velvick and many other low performing pros that have in the past or continue to fish on these tours year after year. Most don't have the money, time or the salesmanship to ever find out. It seems that many have to cut it short due to funds, thus they aren't able to hang around long enough to develop a national name for themselves that helps attract sponsors...unlike some of the grandfathered in names above.

I agree to a point.
Part of being a good national touring pro is money.(I hate it, but it's a fact).
Another aspect of being successful, is lake knowledge.
I fished very few Texas lakes well in competition, so I simply held off until I was able to fish Pro nationally.
I qualified for the BASS Classic in my first and second year of competing.
I fished against a lot of competitors that were way more successful locally, but were unable to compete nationally.
I fished on my own money, and simply won enough to continue until I decided that my home life was more important.