Monkey Island, OK – Grand Lake O’ Cherokees – July 27th and 28th The Bass Federation of Kansas held its annual state qualifying tournament out of Martin’s Landing. The tournament qualifies 12 members of TBFKS to the state team and one alternate to fish the Central Divisional.
2014 State Team
These fishermen were on the first leg of a journey which could take one of them to the Forrest Wood Cup. The next stop for this team is a divisional tournament consisting of 7 other states and their teams. Each state will bring a 12 person team. This division championship tournament will be held in the state of Oklahoma and hosted by the Oklahoma Bass Federation in June 2014.
The top two from each state will advance to the TBF Federation National Championship in the spring of 2015. The first place angler from each state qualifies as a boater and the second place team from each state as a co-angler. The Nationals the format changes the game since they are now qualifying for the BFL All-American. At the National Championship the Angler controls the boat and water and the Co-angler fishes from the back of the boat. At the National Championship the top angler and co angler from each of the 7 TBF divisions advance to the BFL All-American. Just last year (2012) TBF angler Brian Maloney from Missouri won the 2012 BFL All-American and the $100,000.00 cash top prize!
The Federation National Champion Angler (boater) wins the TBF Living the Dream package, which consists of fully paid entry fees as a tour pro to fish the FLW tour, use of a custom wrapped Ranger boat and Chevy tow vehicles for the year and travel stipends. The Co-angler National Champion also wins a Living the Dream package to fish to fish their choice of any Everstart Division either as a boater or a co-angler, (their choice).
Well my good friend Dennis Hamel came out on top this year. Dennis is probably our oldest TBF member in Kansas. He sure showed us how it was done. Dennis was consistent at each of the weigh-ins, in fact increased his weight at each of the weigh-ins. Dennis weighed in a total of 8 bass for 20.85lbs. He reported he was catching his fish behind the docks and dock cables.
Jason Baird fell just short of Dennis Hamel’s total weighing in 20.74lbs. Jason started out on Saturday with 9.93lbs in the morning session and stumbled in the afternoon weighing only 2.55lbs. He picked it back up again on Sunday morning weighing in another nice bag at 8.26lbs. Jason was fishing brush piles using a big worm. Jason also won the Cabela’s Angler Cash.
3rd place went to Larry Stoafer weighing in a total of 19.98lbs. Larry was flipping docks and covering allot of water. He was mainly fishing the front corners of docks looking for the aggressive fish. Larry was also our Ranger Cup money winner.
The Results
|
PLACE |
First Name |
Last Name |
TOTAL WEIGHT |
|
1 |
DENNIS | HAMEL |
20.85 |
|
2 |
JASON | BAIRD |
20.74 |
|
3 |
LARRY | STOAFER |
19.98 |
|
4 |
JASON | BENJAMIN |
18.8 |
|
5 |
CRAIG | WOLF |
16.26 |
|
6 |
BOB | SANTEE |
16.07 |
|
7 |
LARRY | FREESEMANN |
15.13 |
|
8 |
ED | BERENDS |
12.47 |
|
9 |
BRETT | MITCHELL |
12.29 |
|
10 |
JUSTIN | RUSSELL |
11.46 |
|
11 |
TRAVIS | PERRET |
10.41 |
|
12 |
DON | GLICK |
10.21 |
|
13 |
KEVIN | TRUMMEL |
10.18 |
|
14 |
SKIP | HUTCHINSON |
9.21 |
|
15 |
BRENT | NEIS |
8.98 |
|
16 |
LARRY | BRUMLEY |
8.77 |
|
17 |
MIKE | WILLIAMS |
8.58 |
|
18 |
CHRISTIAN | HAMEL |
8.32 |
|
19 |
KYLE | KLEIN |
7.38 |
|
20 |
LARRY | RIFFEY |
7.02 |
|
21 |
CHAD | DICK |
6.83 |
|
22 |
EVAN | HARTNETT |
6.61 |
|
23 |
MARK | HAMEL |
5.24 |
|
24 |
MATT | SKUCIUS |
2.86 |
|
25 |
STEVE | WITT |
2.72 |
|
26 |
MIKE | BRUMLEY |
1.69 |
|
27 |
JEREMEY | DINNEEN |
0 |
|
28 |
BARRY | DUNN |
Did Not Fish |
Ranger Cup Winners:
Larry Stoafer
Ed Berends
Cabela’s Angler Cash Winner:
Jason Baird
The Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) granted the permit to fish this tournament but with special regulations in place. As a tournament and conservation minded organization we respected these regulations. Due to the hot summer weather and mortality of fish when kept in live-wells (when not properly cared for) and a live weigh-in special care had to be taken. The GRDA required weigh-in tanks with cool water, ice in live-wells to cool the water. Tournament hours were shortened to 5 hour periods, with no fishing during the heat of the day. We were also allowed only to weigh-in 3 fish per period. We scheduled our tournament with 3 fishing periods Saturday morning 6:00AM – 11:00AM and then Saturday afternoon/evening 2:30PM – 7:30PM with the final period on Sunday morning from 6:00AM – 11:00AM. TBFKS kept weigh-in bags to a minimum and then transported all live fish away from the weigh-in site. All live fish were released on the main lake to be caught again. The fish and anglers were thankful for the cooler weather which greeted all this weekend.
Venue at Matin’s Landing
A special thanks to our partners and sponsors:
The Bass Federation (TBF), FLW Outdoors, Ranger Boats, Lowrance, Evinrude Etec, Chevrolet, Berkley, SolarBat Sunglasses, Cabela’s, Cabela’s Angler Cash, FishIDy, South Dakota FishinSD.com. Local sponsors: Yamaha, Shady Creek Marine, Fishing for Freedom
The Bass Federation Inc., (TBF), is the oldest and largest, organized grassroots angling organization in America. TBF is 100% owned by those it serves and is dedicated to the sport of fishing. TBF affiliated state federations and their member clubs conduct more than 20,000 fishing, youth and conservation events at the local level each year, and have provided the foundation for the entire bass fishing industry for nearly 45 years.
