At the District 12 NSF the 110 anglers converged on Kerr Lake in South Hill, Virginia only to be greeted with the remnants of Hurricane Sally during practice. The anglers saw high winds and torrential rainfall that dropped 5 inches of rain on the 2^nd day of practice. The storm cleared on Friday ushering in a cold front that dropped the temperature into the upper 40’s and brought North winds sustained at 15-20mph. Everything learned from practice was now thrown out to adapt to the changing conditions.

On day 1 the anglers dealt with high winds and rough water pushing the anglers off the main lake into creeks. This made for tougher fishing than what the anglers found in practice. At the Day 1 weigh-in Virginia Boater Chris Fiore brought 13.67lbs to the scales to grab the lead along with big fish for the day with a 5.04lb largemouth. On the Co-angler side Virginia’s Kevin Camden brought 10.09lbs to the scales to grab the lead.

Day two once again provided colder temperatures and Northeast winds to start the day. However as the day warmed up so did the fish with some bigger fish starting to bite. Day two saw numerous fish from 5-7lbs come to the scales with Virginia’s Mitch Camden bringing in a 7.05lb largemouth to claim big fish of the tournament. When the dust had settled on Day 2 Virginia’s Chris Fiore had claimed the victory on the Boater side with 25.05lbs closely followed by West Virginia’s Josh Balser with 24.43lbs.

On the Co-angler side Virginia’s Craig Ferguson moved into 1^st place to claim the win with a two day total of 15.68lbs followed by Virginia’s David Jeter with 14.66lbs.

William “Ed” Posey was the highest finishing Co-angler for West Virginia joining Chris, Josh and Craig for a trip to the 2021 TBF National Championship. This win was the second NSF win for Virginia’s Chris Fiore as he is a back to back champion winning last year’s NSF on West Virginia’s Stonewall Jackson Lake. Chris has spent 2020 enjoying his living the dream package he was awarded at this year’s National Championship which has allowed him to fish BFLs and the Toyota Series.

Virginia’s James Vick Sr. was the highest finishing Ranger Cup Angler.

Virginia came out on top in the State Pride competition by a 81.20lbs to 65.07lbs margin.

For full results CLICK HERE

Another tournament for the NSF record book and there will be 4 more anglers qualifying for the TBF Nationals Tournament next spring in 2021. It was a tale of good fortune and bad but in the end there were 4 that prevailed.

Lake McConaughy proved to show off a little for some but not so much for others. Anglers were met with good temps but the wind proved to be an issue for many on day 1 as wind gusts push up to 30mph making travel harsh but worth the effort for those that chose to travel. Day 1 had both South Dakota and Nebraska leaders showing up with over 14.5 pounds each.

Day 2 had light winds and the boats went west to catch their fortunes. With travel easy, more anglers both caught more fish and also had heavier weights. On day 2 there was several bags over 14 pounds but big bag of the tournament went to Dave Thomsen with 17.02 pounds of smallmouth.

We want to say congratulations to the overall winner, Kent Priel with 27.96. He just edged out two others with a spread of 0.23 pounds between 1^st and 3^rd.

On the Co-angler side congrats to the winner was Ronald Dillon with a final weight of 19.74.

The Ranger Cup winner was Lee Wubbles who finished 3^rd overall with a final weight of 27.73.

Boaters:               Nebraska – Kent Priel                     South Dakota – Troy Diede

Co-Anglers:        Nebraska – Michael Hansen        South Dakota – Ronald Dillon

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.