Student Angler Federation Bass Tournament-Sandy River Showdown

What event could possibly get today’s teenagers out of bed at 0430 on a Sunday? An opportunity to compete in the first ever Student Angler Federation Bass Tournament in Virginia. Sunday March 28th 2010, 12 members of the Kenston Forest Kavalier Bass Assassins competed with one another in an internal school qualifier dubbed the Sandy River Showdown in Farmville, Virginia. This was the first step of the journey towards crowning the first Student Angler Federation School and individual champions.

The competitors are divided into two age groups, 11-14 years old and 15-18 years old. They compete head to head against others in their age group with place finishes determined by total weight. The results in the 15-18 year old group were: 1st Place, Orrey Lloyd with 8.06 pounds and Big Fish for the Tournament , a 7.10 pound monster. 2nd Place, Austin Slatyon with 1.46 pounds, 3rd Place, Lucas Lloyd with .81 pounds. 4th place, Allison Cheely, 5th Place, Margaux Hall, 6th place, John Chipper and 7th place, Michaela McGhee. In the 11-14 year old group; 1st Place, Carl Schwabenton with 2.2 pounds, 2nd Place, Steven Baldwin with .91 pounds, 3rd Place, Willie Wright. 4th Place, Brian Chipper and 5th Place, Lex Schwabenton. Congratulations to all of our competitors.

Orrey Lloyd

Orrey Lloyd

This was an awesome event even though the weather was brutally cold on the young competitors. It’s success can be attributed directly to Kenston Forest School, its enthusiastic students and supportive parents, the volunteer Boat Captains; Reuben and Chris Williams, Jason Hensley(Sandy River Bassmasters, Region 6); Ben Nice (Region 3); Ken Kirk (K2 Guide Service); Mark McGhee (Regional Pro)and Jay Strawser (Assistant Coach, KFS). KFS Team Coach and event coordinator, Michael “Doc” McGhee (Ft. Pickett Post Command Sergeant Major and National Guard Fishing Team Pro) and Tournament Director, Tim Mick who also serves as the TBF-Va State Youth Director. Additional thanks to Region 6 for use of its weigh in trailer, Haley Ford, Lowrance, FLW, the National Guard, Veterans of Foreign Wars Virginia, Wiley X and Automotive Excellence in Blackstone, Va.

The Student Angler Federation is a new program within the ranks of the Bass Federation which brings bass competition to the middle and high school level. The TBF pillars of Youth, Conservation and Fishing sit on a foundation of Education. The SAF functions both as a fishing club with elected officers and a mission of developing students civically and as a sports team with levels of competition in Districts and the State. Kenston Forest once again demonstrated its “lead by example” philosophy and started the first Club/Team in the Buggs Island/Gaston District as well as Virginia. Since then Jefferson Forrest in Bedford has introduced another Club/Team and explosive growth is expected throughout Virginia as word of this opportunity is spread.

Indiana TBF Member Wins FLW Fantasy Fishing’s TOP Prize!

Last week’s winner of the $5,000 top prize of FLW’s Fantasy Fishing at the Table Rock Tour event, was one of our own Federation members, Roy Marchant, of the Indiana Bass Federation!

Since the early 90’s, Marchant has been a longtime member of the Indiana Federation with the Heart City Bass Club in Elkhart, Indiana. He signed up for FLW’s Fantasy Fishing last year at one of Indiana Bass Federation’s regional meetings after hearing about it from his club president. It’s free to play, anyone can play right from their own computer, and he received Fantasy Fishing “Players Advantage” free with his paid dual TBF & FLW dues. He signed up in the league TBF set up for each state federation, and played with other Indiana Bass Federation members!

Roy’s team pick for the Table Rock Lake FLW Tour Tournament was Brent Ehrler, Ron Shuffield, Bryan Thrift, Scott Martin, Andy Morgan, Clark Wendlandt, Dave Lefebre, Ott Defoe, Michael Bennett & Luke Clausen. He had 3 of the 5 top finishers and 7 of the top 12. Pretty impressive. Picking Ehrler to win the tournament gained him 5,200 points, for a total of 12,730 points. Second place was 856 points away.

When asked, Roy said he spent about an hour and a half doing research online – looking mostly at how the anglers have done early in the seasons and how well they did on particular types of water, in the Southern region, like lakes and rivers. “That time spent has paid off, and I will definitely spend that time again, especially, if it means winning another $5k!” Even though the research helped, modestly, Roy said it was “an educated guess, with a little luck.” After winning, he realized his chances to win seem better when it doesn’t cost anything to participate! Of course, after winning the first event he leads the Fantasy Fishing overall standings and the race for this year’s top prize of $50,000.

Roy already has his team set for the next stop of the FLW Tour at Lake Norman in North Carolina. He has his favorites picked……and he’s not sharing! Can’t blame him.

Congratulations Roy! We would love to see YOU win the $50,000. Keep up the good work, and we’re proud to have you as a TBF Member!

You or someone you know aren’t Fantasy Fishing? Get started now! It’s NOT too late. It’s free to play; you can play in your state federations’ league or set one up for yourself or your club. Active TBF members also get Players Advantage free, which includes all the inside stats and “scoop” to help you pick your team. Players Advantage members win 4 to 1 while playing Fantasy Fishing. So, get your team picked and locked in for the FLW Tour event on Lake Norman. YOU could be the next winner of $5,000 or even $50,000!

EVINRUDE LAUNCHES NEW LOOK AND DESIGN FOR CONSUMER

New design promises more user friendly features

Sturtevant, Wis., March 9, 2010 – A new look for www.evinrude.com has been launched in an effort to draw additional traffic to the company’s website and provide consumers with more tools to make their purchase decision for an outboard engine.

Consumers visiting the www.evinrude.com website are afforded many unique opportunities to aid them in their decision process. New page layouts provide a more user-friendly navigation along with faster uploads and links to the many tools available on the site.

Competitive specification information, engine performance bulletins and a completely interactive ICON electronics feature enable the consumer to research their potential engine purchase with ease. Consumers are also able to order a copy of the award-winning Evinrude E-TEC infomercial, free of charge. The maintenance calculator – an interactive tool that determines the overall cost of ownership for a 3-year period – remains the most useful tool on the site and one that clearly illustrates the Evinrude E-TEC value proposition of no dealer scheduled maintenance for 3 years or 300 hours of use.

“Our product website captures a very high number of consumers researching their outboard engine purchase,” stated Yves Leduc, vice president – general manager for BRP’s North America Division. “In today’s technical age, it is important to provide our consumers with a website that delivers a valuable and useful resource. Keeping existing and potential new consumers on our website for product and educational information is imperative to communicating our many competitive advantages and ultimately building sales,” Leduc concluded.

Current retail promotions and Evinrude’s many boat builder partners are also featured on the site for those consumers searching for a new boat and motor package.

Evinrude engines’ reputation for dependability, quality and reliability coupled with the fact that Evinrude E-TEC is the only outboard with no dealer scheduled maintenance for 3 years or 300 hours makes the decision to power with Evinrude E-TEC an easy one. Having the lowest operating costs of any outboard engine means that powering with an Evinrude E-TEC can save consumers up to $1,600 per year in fuel and maintenance costs.

South Carolina TBF Holds its First Tournament On Lake Murray

The Bass Federation of SC. held its first tournament of the 2010 season on Lake Murray on Feb. 27th. out of Dreher Island state park. TBF tournaments are partner draw tournaments for the weekend angler with a boater and co/angler division. The weather cooperated nicely with lots of sun, light winds and temperature in the mid 50s. The cool nights and high winds we have been experiencing have kept water temperatures down in the 40s. This made it difficult for anyone to put together a five bass limit. There was however some impressive bass brought to the scales.

Taking first place honors in the boater division was Darrell Shull with three bass weighing10.38lbs. Second place was Herman Vining with three bass at 10.21 lbs. and third with a catch of two quality bass was Robert Rikard weighing in at 8.27lbs. Roberts largest fish was 5.86lbs.

On the co/angler side first place went to Kenny Grimes. He managed to bring in two bass, his largest was 6.05lb. lunker good enough to take big fish honors also for co/anglers. Second was Randy Allen also with two fish at 7.89lbs. Third place went to Bryan Beaudrot again with two bass, his largest at 5.79lbs.

The big fish of the tournament honors went to Craig Fredrychowski with his 7.04 largemouth. Because Lake Murray is large it offers many different patterns of bass fishing. On this day the dominant pattern seemed to be pre-spawn bass moving up to staging areas adjacent to spawning coves. Crankbaits were the lure choice here. Some anglers did achieve success with other methods reported such as jigging spoons in deeper, clearer water. As well as spinner baits in shallow muddy water in uplake areas. Although fishing is generally still slow, as the water warms up more of these quality bass will start to appear.

TBF is open to all age 16 and over. Our next tournament will be at Santee Cooper out of Blacks Camp on March 27th. TBF offers a great experience for all who enjoy bass fishing as well as the opportunity to advance to the next level through our points system and 6 man team format. We also offer a youth program and conservation efforts in cooperation with DNR. For more information on joining, please visit our web site www.tbfofsc.com . We would be happy to have you join us.