Robinson and Waugh Battle for Castrol Maximum Performer Division Champions Title

On today’s second day of the TBF Northern Division Championship at Fort Madison, Iowa. Defending Division Champs from Michigan held on to their day one lead in their quest to become back to back champions their two day total is 113-07. While still in command, the Michigan lead is somewhat smaller today as the always tough Wisconsin squad closed some of the ground that was between them finishing second at 102-06. Minnesota made a jump to finish in third with 92-08 while Ohio slid one spot into fourth with 89-03. Illinois and Indiana held down the fifth and sixth places with 87-15 and 59-10 respectively.

In the individual overall race for the Castrol Maximum Performer Division Champions Award, Michigan’s Tommy Robinson took over the lead with 21-07 from day 1 leader Tony Waugh from Ohio who now sits in second on a weight of 20-07. Robinson spoke briefly form the weigh in stage to tell the crowd he is having to scramble every day. His fish today were biting completely different that on day 1, so day 3 will come down to whether he can adjust to what his fish are doing or not.

Another Michigan angler, Jason Knapp and a good friend of Robinson’ s sits in third with 19-07 and is breathing down Robinson’s and Waugh’s neck. They cannot let up or stumble on tomorrow’s final day or Knapp’s may overtake them.

Peoria, Illinois Angler Lee Lewis held down the fourth spot overall at 16-11 and the top spot on the Ohio Team. He has a 6 pound cushion on his state team lead so barring a disaster tomorrow by Lewis or a huge bag by one of the other Illinois anglers, he should be on his way to representing Illinois as their boater in the 2010 TBF Federation National Championship! Leading the Wisconsin’s Team and sitting in fifth overall with 15-03 is James Tomsovic from Sparta, WI.

Minnesota’s Nate Carlson caught a 4-09 largemouth that held up for the days big bass.

In addition to the $24,000.00 cash payout and Castrol Maximum Performer bonus there is also a total of $1200.00 in Ranger Cup monies at stake for those anglers who are Ranger Cup qualified.

Final day weigh in begins at Captain Kirks Marina in Fort Madison Iowa, it is free to the public.

Be sure to check out the photo gallery on this website.

For full standings go to our tournament standing page or click here.

TBF Northern Division Day 1

Ohio’s Tony Waugh leads individual overall standings, while defending Northern Division Champions from Michigan lead the state standings to show they are serious about keeping the Division Cup in the “Great Lakes State”.

Day 1 weigh-in started out looking like Indiana would lead day 1 as they were on top for much of the first half of the weigh-in, but Michigan and the rest of the northern division states would have none of it. There were only 5 limits of fish weighed in on a tough day 1 of the TBF Northern Division Championship. And Michigan weighed in 3 of them, Wisconsin weighed one of them and Ohio the other….and there you have the top three teams. Michigan leads with 69 pounds 14ounces, Wisconsin sits in Second at 48-06 and Ohio with a late flight push holds down the third place slot with 46-13. The rest of the field is stacked in there fairly close. The host state of Illinois has 44-03 good enough for fourth, 41-09 is fifth place and that was Minnesota, Indiana went from 1 to sixth in the blink of a flight so to speak and winds up in sixth place with 30-08. The good or bad news I guess depending on what place your in is that the fishing on the Mississippi is a little “off” right now, the river is as low as it has been in some time and there are two more days left, so it is still anyone’s game, although it would appear that it is Michigan’s game to lose as they have a decent lead on their way to back to back division Championship titles.

Five bass limits were few and far between, as stated above there were only five of them total among the 72 championship anglers. The day’s biggest limit belonged to a bag containing four smallmouth and one largemouth brought to the scales by Ohio angler Tony Waugh, his limit locked the scales in at 12-12 and placed Waugh into the individual overall lead which he carries into day two.

The first limit of the day showed up to the stage when Michigan angler Tommy Robinson, brought up his 12-05 bag, good enough anchor him solidly in the team lead for Michigan. Michigan teammate Derek Cummings had one of the day’s limits and he sits in third place behind Robinson. Right behind Cummings is another Michigan teammate who is in the fourth place spot with limit number four of the day that weighed 9-03 and it belonged to Leo Reiter. Minnesota team captain Lanny Isensee managed four fish today but it was enough to land him in fifth leading the Minnesota team with 8-14. “Home lake” is not all it is cracked up to be and the mighty Mississippi was tough on many of the host state anglers, but Lee Lewis from Peoria, Illinois figured something out and weighed 4 fish for 8-06 to secure his state lead and the sixth place overall spot. The fifth and final limit of the day was weighed in by Wisconsin angler James Tomsovic, which of course put him into his state’s leading spot and seventh overall with 8-04. Two more days to go!

Check out the full standings on our standings page by clicking here.

Weigh-in’s begin each day this week at 3pm CST at Captains Kirks Marina, they are free to the public.