Lake Winnipesaukee District 17 New Hampshire and Maine TBF National Semi-Finals

September 28-29, 2019 – Lake Winnipesaukee | District 17 (NH & ME) National Semi-Finals

It was time once again for District 17 to come together for the 2019 TBF National Semi-finals where top qualifiers from the State of New Hampshire and the State of Maine tried to best the field for a chance to punch their ticket to the TBF National Championship. Anglers could qualify through their TBF federated clubs or by finishing high enough in the Semi Final Qualifier Tournament (SFQT) Event. We had 34 boats for our National Semi-final each with a boater and non-boater to compete on Lake Winnipesaukee for our two-day event. Anglers had to bring in their best 5 fish and the highest two-day total would earn the highest finishing boater and highest finishing non-boater a trip to represent District 17 at the Federation National Championship. We also awarded lunker largemouth and smallmouth honors for both days in addition to paying out the top six finishers with cash prizes.

D17 NSF Anglers

Day One was full of anticipation and promise as our 68 anglers got ready to blast off out of Silver Sands resort to get started on their way to the Federation National Championship. It was a beautiful late summer day on the lake for our anglers as they ran around the lake in search of their best five fish to bring to the scales. When the scales closed at Silver Sands Saturday night it was Rick Landry of New Hampshire who was leading the field with a 14.91lbs. bag anchored by a 5.24lb Day One Lunker Largemouth. Dave Barnes Sr. was leading the charge for the State of Maine with a 12.10 lbs. bag of smallmouth. Mike Kelly of New Hampshire took Day One Lunker Smallmouth honors with a 3.71lb. Smallmouth.

District 17 NSF Ranger Cup Nick Deering

Day Two as the wind always seems to do on a multi-day event on Winnipesaukee decided to blow the lake out which made for a challenging scenario for many of the anglers that were chasing main lake fish around during Day One. Anglers were faced with a strong West and Northwest Wind which always makes for a challenging environment on Winnipesaukee. When it was all said and done it was Dan Tavilla from New Hampshire that bested the entire field with a five fish limit of 13.06 bringing his two day total to 25.33lbs. Nick Deering bested the field of Maine anglers with a five fish limit of 11.34lbs, bringing his two day total to 23.20lbs. On the non-boater side, it was Tyler Robinson brought in a five fish limit for 13.59 lbs. bringing his two-day total to 25.09lbs. For the state of Maine, it was Brian Rummery brought in five smallmouths weighing in at 10.48lbs. Rummery’s two-day total was 21.00lbs. Eric Low of Maine had lunker smallmouth honors for Day Two with an impressive 3.58lb smallmouth. Rob Sylvester of New Hampshire came in with a beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee Largemouth weighing in at 4.80lbs which was good for Lunker Largemouth honors.

District 17 NSF Anglers

The New Hampshire Bass Federation would like to thank Silver Sands Marina and Resort for being our host facility yet again for our Semi-Final Championship. We would also like to thank The Traveling Texas Smoke Shop BBQ Company for treating our anglers to an impressive BBQ meal Friday night at the Belknap Sportsman’s Club for our pre-tournament rules meeting and registration. Our anglers had another great meal with a Pig Roast from Smoking Lamps BBQ on the Beach on Saturday night following our Day One Weigh in at Silver Sands. Thank you Mark Lamprey it was a huge hit! We would like to thank all of our sponsors that support our organization and our anglers: Minn-Kota, Hummingbird, Trokar, Power Pole, Lowrance, Lurelock Tackle Boxes, Beast Coast Tackle, Keitech, Samatis Baits, The Rod Glove, DUDE Products, Rocky Ledge Tackle, Favorite Rods, and Flip Fly Tye.
Congratulations to our top finishers in the money and lunker award winners. Good luck to our national qualifiers Dan Tavilla and Nick Deering who are Boaters representing NH and ME respectively and Tyler Robinson and Brian Rummery who are our Non-Boaters representing NH and ME at the TBF National Championship!

Open Letter to TBF Membership

With the announcement today of MLF signing a letter of intent to acquire FLW we have had a significant number of requests this morning for information about how this will affect the Federation, it’s members and its relationship with our partners in fishing at FLW.  Change always affects something, so will there be some changes of course, but that is not the question, the question is will they be changes for the better from the Federation’s perspective?

Optimistic, the Glass is Half Full – As always, I am optimistic and excited about the possibilities with new things moving forward in our partnership with FLW. Time and YOU the membership will tell if it is a fit, but I believe it certainly can be and if it does not it will not be for the lack of trying.  Either way the federation is very strong, we are an independent company and have been for many years. We are financially stable and financially independent as well and YOU the Federation’s membership are loyal and strong.  The Federation (TBF) will be solid for many years to come and as a matter of good corporate governance TBF is well positioned to easily survive on its own if it ever had to, however, we have such a great valued partner in FLW and so it is business as usual currently.

The Greatest Partnership in Fishing – In short, we make a great partner as does FLW. As you may have noticed and some of you have pointed out in the MLF/FLW press release FLW has “nearly 50,000 members” and nearly half of those are OUR federation members! So, it is a great and equal partnership as we are the largest block of adult membership FLW has, all of High School membership is our Student Anglers Federation (SAF) members so we are a strong valued partner with FLW as they are with us.

Federation FACTS, Federation STRONG – The close to home model of the 22 TBF National Semi-finals continues to grow and gain in popularity as we will have over 1800 TBF members participate above the state level in a TBF national semi-final event this year. We always pay back more than 100% every season so the money is good, the people are great and the program is solid.

The 2019 TBF Federation National Championship had a record payout again last year (2nd year in a row) and we only see that continuing to grow as the National Semi-Finals do.  As a company we have a huge competitive advantage because our overhead is very low in many areas; for instance, executive staff, myself as the TBF National President along with all the TBF National Board members are very fortunate in our personal lives to be able to serve the federation without pay.  I as the President/CEO nor any TBF National Board member have ever drawn a single dime in salary, it helps makes us a very stable company with low overhead.

Industry Support and Partnerships – Our sponsor base is also solid, they know the value of grassroots and that their dollars of support are well spent. To that end I am happy to report to you all that we just last week signed a new multi-year agreement with Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s!  They support what and who you are as well as what you are doing in the federation and you should support them every chance you get.

New for 2020 – We announced in August 2019 at our annual Presidents meetings we will be holding some “test” events as TBF Member Appreciation events in 2020, kind of a “TBF Owners Tournament” if you will. Where ALL TBF members nationwide can come and compete in an event where the top prize will be a new Ranger RT Boat powered by Evinrude! So, stay tuned for that announcement!

Our Friends & Partners in Fishing at FLW – We will still be seeing many of the same friendly faces at FLW, the operations staff in Benton, KY; From Kathy Fennel on down, is staying on and it is business as usual. Of course, there will be changes, such as the FLW tour to a FLW Circuit next year, FLW will be adding 3 new divisions of the Costa’s so anglers have a place to go compete and following our lead with our TBF National Semi-finals 3 new divisions will cut down on travel costs and time for those anglers.

As things move forward, I am sure there will be other changes and like we always have for 50 years the Federation will adapt, overcome and thrive.  One thing that I have been asked frequently today is “Are we going to be forced to adopt the MLF format” and the answer is of course not, we are a separate company and will continue to build our program off the state presidents input each year at our annual meetings based on input from their members in whatever direction that takes.

We have most of 2020 schedule planned on our end. We will still have a TBF Federation National Championship of course, just like always, still have a Junior World Championship, the 11th annual High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship, still have annual meetings with the state’s leadership all of that TBA as soon as we can.

SHOW OUR STRENGTH, LET’S GROW! – 2020 TBF Federation membership is OPEN NOW as of October 1 and we want to all TBF members PUSH 2020 membership HARD right now let’s not wait until spring. Let’s show our new partners our value, commitment and strength in the partnership!

I CHALLENGE YOU! – What I challenge each and every one of you to do as Federation members is to go out right now and find (1) person who is not a TBF member and sign them up for 2020! It is easy, our National TBF dues are still only $50 a member and that include an FLW membership.  We can DOUBLE the size of the federation one member at a time! Everyone knows one person who fishes who is NOT a current TBF member let all go find one and sign them up for 2020 and watch how it helps YOUR organization grow prosper.

In closing, I will just say that change is inevitable in business, but rest assured that TBF is optimistic, well positioned, financially secure and ready for whatever opportunities the future brings our way. The TBF board is committed to the long-time motto of “Federation First” and we are honored to serve you.

As we get moving into this new partnership arena, we will of course keep your State Federation Presidents updated as updates occur. On behalf of the entire TBF Board of Directors we remain,

 

Yours in Service,

 

Robert Cartlidge, President/CEO

Federation National Office

5998 N Pleasant View Road

Ponca City, OK 74601

O-580-765-9031

District 18 Oregon and Washington TBF National Semi-Final on the Columbia River

District 18 Oregon and Washington TBF National Semi-Final on the Columbia River.

The District 18 TBF National Semi-final proved to be a challenging event for most anglers  The Columbia River Gorge lived up to its name this weekend showing it’s mighty winds and rough river conditions making this event quite challenging for some of the anglers.

District 18

Day 1 leader Nick Culver weighed in a 5.75# smallmouth bass that held up as the big fish of the event. Day 2 was a different day in the morning with calmer winds, but as anglers traveled down river to the west, they faced some dangerous conditions. The weights for Day 2  were definitely a lot lower than Day 1, due to high pressure moving into the area and making fishing conditions a bit tougher.

D18 TBF National Semi-Final

Congratulations to Chris Lambert – WA as the overall boater division winner, Todd Woolard – OR as the overall co-angler winner, and Kory Ray – OR as the Ranger Cup winner.

D18 Ranger Cup Winner Kory Ray

Delaware Hosts District 13 National Semi-Final – Delaware, Maryland, and Nations Capitol

Delaware Hosts District 13 National Semi-Final – Delaware, Maryland, and Nations Capitol

The Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers were being stingy with giving up their limits and lunker especially on day one of the September 28 and 29 National Semi-Final. A small cold front had moved in the week before and the fish developed a little lock jaw. Day two was a little different with a few more fish being caught and some of the big ones must have gotten a little hungry. Tide charts were somewhat skewed and the anglers had to pay attention to the water flow to hit their spots on their perceived prime tide. 31 Boaters had a great day with good water conditions and light winds to hold down the chop.

Leading the Tournament on the Boater side day one was Delaware’s Greg Alexander with 11.62 pounds, with Maryland’s Co-angler Dwayne Smith limiting with 8.05 pounds. Day 2 would bring a change to the standings with Delaware’s Boater Rodney Oberdick weighing in a limit of 13.85 pounds. Oberdick’s total of 22.61 pounds bested Alexander’s 22.49 pounds by .12 or 1.92 ounce. On the Co-Angler side Maryland’s Andrew Wiley came out on top with 15.31 pounds topping Smith’s total of 14.74 by .57 or 9.12 ounces. Lunkers for the Tournament are Oberdick’s 5.53 and Dwayne Smith’s 3.79. A total of 387 fish for a total of 631.18 pounds were caught with 385 fish being returned to the Nanticoke waters.

D13 Delaware Winners

Headed to the National Championship from Delaware are left Co-Angler Roger Shirkey Jr.
And right National Semi-final Tournament Champion on the boaters side Rodney Oberdick.

D13 DC Winners

DC’s Top boater (left) Bill Easter, brought in his total weight of 18.23 pounds to win a birth to the National Championship. On the Right is DC Co-Angler John Wiseman who weighed in 12.98 pounds to secure his position.

D13 Maryland Winners

On the left is Maryland Co-Angler and National Semi-Final Champion Andrew Wiley. Andrew managed 15.31 pounds .91 pounds ahead of Maryland’s 2nd place Co-Angler. Right is Maryland 1st place Boater Frank Arthur who brought in 17.49 pounds to be part of the Maryland anglers headed to the National Championship.

Congratulations to the anglers headed to the National Championship and to all the anglers who competed in this tournament to make it close for all. Congratulations to Delaware for their 4th State Pride Win.