The 2020 TBF District 16 National Semi-Final between Massachusetts Bass Federation and The Vermont TBF was held on Lake Champlain, South Hero, Vermont.  The host was the Anchorage, South Hero, Vermont.  Dave and his crew are always there for what we need.  Also thanks to Apple Island Marina for the use of their facilities.  As has happened twice in the past due to severe wind 28-34 MPH out of the south with gusts to 45, the second day of the tournament was canceled.  All of the anglers going into day one knew that day 2 was most likely going to be canceled with the forecast for bad winds, so everyone knew to get on their fish on Saturday and bring in the most weight they could find.

Brian Carmichael from the Massachusetts Bass Federation found the magic fish to break 20 pounds.  Brian weighed in 20.02 with 5 smallmouth bass to take 1^st place and secure the boaters spot going to the TBF Nationals in 2021 for Massachusetts.

Second place and the first place Co-Angler was Joey McKinnon of the Massachusetts Bass Federation.  Joey weighed in 18.49 pounds of smallmouth.  Joey will represent Massachusetts as a Co-Angler at the 2021 TBF Nationals.

Tom Waltz of the Vermont TBF finished 6^th overall with 17.90 pounds and won the Boaters spot for Vermont in a really close finish with 5 Vermont boaters.  Tom’s 17.90 beat out Scott Green 17.78, Cole Harris 17.40, Tim Weatherell 17.35, and Chris Adams 17.26.  Tough competition!  The Co-Angler winner going to the 2021 TBF Nationals for Vermont TBF is Andrew Goodrich a High School angler for Vermont with 15.46 pounds.  Great job Andrew!

The Ranger Cup winner was Scott Green from the Vermont TBF.

The State Pride award goes to the Vermont TBF team of Scott Green, Cole Harris, Tim Weatherell, Chris Adams, Scott McKay, Andrew Goodrich, Matt Safer and Chris Weber. Vermont weighed-in 114.65 pounds of bass.  Great job Vermont!

I would like to thank the entire group of angler for all their patience and for the great job they all did with fish care.  With the water down everyone did a great job.  There was only 1 dead fish.

A strong field of 25 boaters and co-anglers converged on Truman Lake September 19^th for the start of the 2-day TBF National Semi-Final.  The first cold front of the Fall brought fantastic weather to the Ozarks but also challenged the anglers with the first wave of the fall transition. Truman Lake has had a great rebound over the last couple years with lots of 14-18 inch fish and top tournament bags in the high teens to over twenty pounds.  Highs for each day of practice were in the low 80’s with morning lows around 60 degrees.  Winds were variable but coming from the North-Northeast, putting some fish in a funk. Summer water temps in the high 80’s also began to cool down with temps in the mid 70’s by tournament time.

Due to an abnormally dry August, the lake level was low (about 2 feet below normal pool) for the event but water quality was good with about 2 feet of visibility on the main lake.   One of the advantages of Truman Lake is the amount of water available to the anglers but the spring pandemic caused the rescheduling of several tournaments, creating pressure on the fish prior to and during the event.  To avoid this pressure some boaters made practice runs of 25-30 miles up the Pomme or Osage arms to explore dirtier water in search of bigger fish.  Lots of smaller 2-3 pound fish were caught but consistent 5 fish limits were difficult to find.  Two distinct patterns were emerged during practice, shallow fish on trees on the main lake and secondary points and suspended fish in deep main lake trees.  Fish were transitioning back out to the main lake following shad which puzzled many anglers and was an unusual pattern for Truman.

The tournament started with Saturday’s low in the upper 50’s and 8-10 mph winds from the NNE.  A hazy sunrise caused by the fires on the west coast delayed take-off slightly but by 6:50 all the boaters were on their way to their first spot.  Day 1 boater results showed Robert Hime of Missouri in first place with 5 fish for 14.53 pounds followed by Don Heiser at 13.35 and Jeremy Montgomery of Kansas with 12.79.  Attesting to the tough, changing conditions only 7 limits were weighed but Robert Hime was able to land a 5.38 pound kicker to take home the big bass pot for the boaters.  The co-angler side was led by Greg Lampton with 9.11 pounds, Devin Pino at 9.04 and Jeff Trip with 7.42.  Devin also landed the big bass on the co-angler side on Saturday on a plum worm.

The second day dawned with a slight change in wind direction coming from the east and moving to the SE later in the day.  Robert Hime cemented his win by following up his first day sack with another nice bag of 13.33 ending the two days with a total of 27.86.  He was able to stay close to take off area and get an hour and half of topwater fishing in with buzzbaits. After the topwater flurry died he would make a 25 to 30 mile run up the Osage arm, working his way back down flipping trees and throwing spinnerbaits on windblown points. The winning baits were a ½ ounce homemade compact black and silver buzzbait along with ½ ounce white and silver spinnerbaits Robert also makes himself.  As the first place angler from the Missouri TBF, the win gives Robert the chance to move on to the 2021 TBF National Championship next spring and shot at the Living the Dream Package!

Finishing in second on the boater side was past BFL All-American Champion Brian Maloney with a total of 25.56 pounds. Like many anglers Brian began the day fishing shallow with topwater baits and soft plastics.  Later in the day he would try to upgrade his bag by flipping deep trees in 18-24′ using a dark colored 10 inch worm. Finishing 3^rd overall and first on the Kansas side was Jeremy Montgomery with 24.4 pounds of Truman Lake bass.  Jeremy started day one up the Pomme and Osage arms flipping cedar trees on main lake points with a plum worm.  His fish were suspended in trees in 10-20 feet of water.  In the afternoon he moved to the Tebo and finished his limit and upgraded his sack twice. Day 2 started slow, with no keepers in the boat at 11:30 but undeterred he moved to the Grand and Tebo and caught 5 keepers quickly to cement his placement.  As the top Kansas boater, he will join Robert Hime at the TBF National Championship and try to bring a championship back to District 7.

Rounding out the top anglers on the boater side in 4^th place was Larry Stoafer (23.15 pounds) and in 5^th place was Charles Gardner (18.44 pounds).  Larry focused his early day on the shallow main lake flats up the Osage arm casting a KVD 1.5 square bill on standing timber and stumps.  As the day wore on, he transitioned to flipping plastics (green pumpkin brush hog) but stayed shallow, finding fish in 2-3 feet of water.  Charles also focused on shallow fish but used a moving bait (bladed jig) on a main lake flat on Saturday and staying put on the same area on day two but transitioning to a flipping bait to secure his spot in the top 5.

Fishing from the back of the boat is always a challenge and the “random draw” format of this event presents each angler with the challenge of adapting each day to a wide range of boater strategies. The top co-angler for the event was Kansan Jeff Tripe with a final bag of 12.5 pounds.  Finishing second, and first out of Missouri was Greg Lampton with 12.11 pounds. Each of these anglers had to adjust to the locations selected by their boaters and used a variety of moving baits (spinnerbaits and topwater) along with soft plastics to catch fish behind some of the Midwest’s finest boaters.  As a result of their efforts they have both won the opportunity to move on as co-anglers to the 2021 TBF National Championship!  Finishing 3^rd was day one leader Devin Pino with 10.92 pounds followed by Ray Cates with 8.93 and Troy Richter with 8.62 pounds.

The Missouri TBF would like to thank all the participants for their cooperation and support at this event.  While the weather was great, the lingering COVID pandemic required changes in our tournament procedures that resulted in some delays.  Your patience was greatly appreciated.  We have also received lots of initial feedback from our new members complimenting their boater/co-angler on their attitude and fellowship in the boat.  Some of these participants are new to the TBF and this experience at this event goes a long way to helping both the Missouri and Kansas TBF continue to grow.

On September 12, 2020, 150 anglers from Ohio and Michigan fished the TBF District 11 National Semi-Final at Mosquito Lake. Four anglers from Ohio and two from Michigan qualified to advance to the TBF National Championship in early 2021. Even though Mosquito lake had a reputation for being a big bass lake, fishing was very stingy for the past several weeks and this held true for this tournament.

After the scales were closed on Sunday the boater division was won by local favorite, Nick Provonozac of Ohio, with 10 fish that weighed 21.90.

Second place boater was Ken Pond of Ohio with 9 fish weighing 21.35. Third place was Chase Fennell of Michigan with 10 fish weighing 19.34. These three will represent their states in the TBF Championship.

On the co-angler side winning the tournament was Don Ary of Ohio with 9 fish weighing 15.21. Second place was Randy Burr of Michigan with six fish weighing 14.26 and third place was Chris Langenfeld of Ohio with 8 fish weighing 13.91. These three anglers will represent their states at the TBF National Championship.

It is 2020 and yes, the year has been a crazy one. From wearing mask, social distancing, lockdowns, and border closings, a trying year for all.  A disappointment for our Ontario Anglers who could not attend our regular scheduled event held in Pennsylvania.

With short notice however our anglers picked up their rods and reels, 23 anglers and 23 co anglers made the trip to Port Colborne, Ontario.

Port Colborne lies just west of Buffalo, New York on the shores of Lake Erie. World renowned for smallmouth bass. The event promised to be a slugfest.

Reports however during pre-fish found the bite was off, cooler than normal temperatures prior to the official event had the bass tight lipped.  Regardless, the start of the tournament Saturday morning saw everyone excited to get out on the water. The forecast was for very fishable winds and warmer temperatures for both tournament days.

As the boats started to come in for day one weigh in, it definitely appeared the bite was still off.  A few anglers and co-anglers managed to bring in some great bags.

On the Angler side Mark McConnell brought 4 smallmouth to the scale for 18.92lbs to lead. Matt Pezzetta in second Place at 17.66lbs

On the Co Angler side our youngest competitor in the event Dylan Blair crossed the scales with 17.74 lbs. with his 4 smallmouth for the day one lead. With James Eckebrecht  sitting in second with 15.66 lbs.

With a better forecast for Sunday the anglers were anxious to get started. Once out of the marina and into the lake, ole Mother Nature pulled a fast one, she sure can fool the weatherman at times.  Regardless of the choppy conditions, the anglers made it through the day when the scales closed on day two.

Our youngest competitor, Dylan Blair, was the Co Angler Champion with the best two day weight of any competitor, boater or co angler, at 33.38 lbs.

On the Boater side, Matt Pezzetta put together two strong days of fishing and managed to bring 32.98 lbs. to the scales and punch his ticket to the Nationals next spring along with Dylan Blair.

The Ontario Federation wishes to thank all of its volunteers and the City of Port Colborne for such great facilities and hospitality.

We also look forward to seeing our Eastern Division friends from New York and Pennsylvania next September back here in Port Colborne.