The 2009 Northern Division Champions from Michigan made a statement this week in Iowa that they will be the team to beat. They led the event wire to wire and finished up back to back division champions. Can they make it three in a row?

Next year’s event will tell that story, but the Michigan team fished a nearly flawless event out of Fort Madison, Iowa on the Mississippi river this year and finished with 171 pounds even, besides the lion’s share of the nearly $25,000.00 in prize money, they also took home the Team Standings Ranger Cup money.

Wisconsin did make a valiant effort on the final day to overtake the Michigan anglers and cut their lead in half, but it was too little, too late and Wisconsin finished second with 166-09. The host state of Illinois who had been struggling all week made their move on the final day as well and moved up into third place finishing 6-05 ahead of the fourth place Ohio squad. Illinois finished with 135-13 to Ohio’s 129-08. Minnesota wound up in fifth with a team weight of 127-11 and Indiana rounded out the field at 85-08. The 2010 TBF Northern Division Championship will be hosted by Indiana on Lake Patoka.

While there was not a single angler in the 72 angler championship field that weighed in a five fish limit all three days in a row. It was Michigan angler Jason Knapp that proved that a steady hand will prevail as he fished his way through a crowd to the Division Champions title, the Castrol Maximum Performer Bonus award and a $600.00 Ranger Cup bonus.

Knapp only weighed in 3 fish the first day but they weighed 7-03. On both of the last two days he weighed in a limit and was the only angler in the field that weighed in two limits over the course of the event and finished as the Division Champion with 28 pounds and 9 ounces. Knapp was fishing small creek and had lots of company in and out of it, but no other boat managed to catch the fish in there like Knapp and his partners did.

Tony Waugh went on to catch solid sacks on days 2 and 3 to finish his work and place him into second place overall and leading his Ohio team with his weight of 26-05. Tommy Robinson who was the tournament leader going into the final day only managed one fish on Friday as the river continued to drop and hurt his area. He finished up in third overall at 22-14, only two ounces back in fourth was Illinois angler Lee Lewis with 22-12 and 6 ounces behind him in fifth was Wisconsin’s James Tomsovic.

The top two anglers from each state team progress to the 2010 TBF Federation National Championship, Presented by The National Guard. That event will be held in Knoxville, TN the week of April 19th. The top angler from each state progress as the Boater and the second place angler on each team progresses as the co-angler. Here are the 12 who will advance from the Northern division.

Michigan – Jason Knapp- Boater, Tommy Robinson – Co-Angler:

Wisconsin – James Tomsovic- Boater, Jim Dick – Co-Angler;

Illinois – Lee Lewis – Boater, Darin Reed – Co-Angler;

Ohio – Tony Waugh – Boater, Kevin Wells – Co-Angler;

Minnesota – Tim Domaille – Boater, Nate Carlson – Co-Angler;

Indiana – Aaron Ault – Boater, Steve Quiggins – Co-Angler

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For complete standings click here

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.