District 22 Utah and Nevada National Semi-Finals

The Bass Federation of Utah
District 22 National Semi-Final
Location: Bullfrog Marina, Lake Powell, UT
Date: September 7,8 2019

Event Summary

This Semi-Final event turned out to be a great event. The fishing on Lake Powell was supposed to have heated up by the second weekend in September. However, Mother Nature had other ideas as the heat during the event was record breaking for this time of year. This kept the fish in their summertime patterns and the numbers of fish caught was significantly less than expected. That being said, our Tournament Champion, Zac Dinkins, crushed the field on day 1 with a 14lb sack of largemouth. That bag of fish left the rest of us feeling very envious. Stephen Tauriello led the NV Anglers and he came in with a 10lb sack of fish for 2nd on the first day. The 3rd spot was held down by Utah’s Justin Hicks with a 9.19lb limit. Big Fish of the whole tournament was brought in by Paul Morley. He scaled an impressive 5.53lb toad! Every competitor was able to catch fish the first day even though only 5 limits were brought to the scales.

Zac Dinkins Tournament CHAMPION Boater

On the Co-Angler side of things, the standings were ultra-close after Day 1. Jackson Hinkley of Utah had the lead with 6.33lbs on 4 fish. Adam Cacal of NV was in a close second with 6.32lbs on 3 fish. Spencer Lazara was not far behind and he brought the only Co-Angler limit to the scales. He finished the day in 3rd with 5.85lbs.

Day 2 turned out to be a bit rainy and very windy. The winds were out of the Southwest and sustained between 10-20mph.

A few anglers benefited from this change, but overall the weights dipped on Day 2. For the Boaters, Zac Dinkins was able to hold off runner up Jason Warren for the win. Stephen Tauriello from NV came in with just enough to edge out Justin Hicks of Utah for 3rd place. Justin Hicks was the events Ranger Cup winner with his 4th place finish. There were only 2 limits of 10lbs or more the 2nd day with both of those limits coming from anglers who didn’t do as well the 1st day. (Jesse Ortega-NV and Joe Johnson-UT)

JUSTIN HICKS 4TH PLACE BOATER AND RANGER CUP WINNER

The Co-Angler champion really separated himself from the rest of the field. Adam Cacal brought in an impressive 8.5lb limit of fish and finished nearly 4lbs ahead of Spencer Lazara. Spencer came in with a big fish weighing 3.94lbs and that catapulted him above the 3rd place finisher Jackson Hinckley of UT.

Adam Cacal 1st Place CoAnglers

The State Pride overall winner this year was NEVADA. Their Co-Anglers fished extremely well and made up the deficit that the Boaters left them. The NV team was able to edge out the UT team by 3lbs. Final tally was NV-84.06 to UT-80.82. This is the second year in a row the visiting state has handed the home team the loss.

Joe Johnson/Utah Bass Federation

District 19 Montana and Idaho National Semi-Finals

District 19 Montana and Idaho National Semi-Finals

Another successful TBF event took place on Noxon Reservoir September 7-8, 2019. A total of 44 individuals took part in the District 19 Semi-Final. This included 9 boaters and 9 co-anglers from Idaho with 13 boaters and 13 co-anglers from Montana. Anglers had full run of this 38 mile impoundment to find their fish. On Saturday every contestant weighed in fish with a combination of Large Mouth and Small Mouth Bass. On the second day only 3 individuals blanked so it was a pretty successful outing. Weights were lower than normal for this reservoir but still fish were being caught with most contestants weighing in 5 fish limits.

D19 NSF Top 5 Boaters

Fishing was more difficult than normal for Noxon as the water was still warm and the area was going through rather drastic weather changes. Bright and sunny one day, rainy and cooler the next. Most fish seemed to come out of deep water on weed edges. Looks like this may have given the host team the advantage knowing the types of structure and where to find it that would be holding fish during these type of conditions.

D19 NSF Top 5 CoAnglers

Thanks to the Lakeside Resort in Trout Creek for providing their facility for us to operate from. On Friday Evening we had the sign-up banquet and everything else was run from the back yard which is beautiful with views of the reservoir along with the Cabinet Mountains. I would also like to thank Chris Adams (Idaho TBF President) and the other volunteers we had to help pull off this event.

If you ever have a chance to visit Montana make sure you bring your bass boat and check out this resort on gorgeous Noxon Reservoir.

Don Collins
Montana VP/TD

D11 Michigan and Ohio National Semi Finals

2019 District 11 National Semi-Final

On September 7th and 8th, 2019 156 anglers started fishing the Detroit River at Trenton , Michigan in an attempt to change their fishing career forever in a National Semi-Final hosted by the Michigan Bass Federation.  The Top boater and co-angler from Michigan from 18 Michigan teams would advance while the Top 2 boaters and co-anglers from Ohio will advance to the TBF National Championship in 2020. The Detroit River as well as all the Great Lakes waterways are experiencing possible record high water levels but the weather cooperated even if everyone though the fish did not. When the scales were closed on Sunday Josh Kolodzaike of Michigan had defended his title by repeating winning the District 11 NSF with a weight of 32.98 pounds as well as winning Ranger Cup. Ohio Top 2 boaters were Danny Vandine in 4th with 30.23 pounds and Troy Sneddon with 30.18 pounds. Troy is also a repeat winner as he fished in the NSF in 2019. The Top co-angler with 30.03 pounds was Dean Osbourne of Ohio and Matthew Schlabach was 2nd with 24.41 pounds. They will be representing Ohio in the 2020 TBF National Championship. Representing Michigan will be Rob Ryder with 21.69 pounds.

 

There were a total of 850 fish caught with 843 being released back to the Detroit River for a total weight  of 2219.92 pounds. Big Bass of the tournament was a 5.48 smallmouth caught by Doug Schane.

The Michigan Bass Federation and the Ohio bass Federation wishes to congratulate all the anglers for an excellent tournament and display of sportsmanship.

Pennsylvania’s Cicero and Snyder Win High School Fishing World Finals!

Cicero and Snyder Win High School Fishing World Finals

Anthony Cicero IV and Dakota Snyder fished their way through three full days of qualifying rounds to sacked a 16-pound, 6-ounce three-fish limit on the fourth and final day to win the Student Angler Federation’s (SAF) 10th annual High School Fishing World Finals on legendary Pickwick Lake out of Florence, Alabama June 19-22.

Representing Pennsylvania’s Elizabethtown High School, the hard-fishing duo topped an enormous field of 389 teams from 38 states and two foreign countries — Canada and Zimbabwe — to claim the prestigious World Final Champions crown. Squads were comprised of two anglers and an adult boat captain, pushing the total number of participants to more than 1,160.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” said Cicero. “Emotions are running high.”

With a payout of more than $2.85 million in college scholarships, cash, gift cards and other prizes at stake, competition was fierce. In fact, tournament officials report that the prize purse was certainly the richest in SAF High School Fishing history and likely the largest ever posted in a single event in all levels of competitive bass fishing.

Total payout in scholarship offers and prizes included: $1.62 million from Simpson University in Redding Calif., $1.08 million from Kentucky Christian University in Kentucky, $96,000 from Bethel University in Tennessee, $10,000 from FLW Outdoors, $12,000 from The Bass Federation, plus more than $40,000 in prizes from sponsors and TBF.

Produced by the Student Anglers Federation (SAF) under the TBF umbrella with support from FLW Outdoors, the popular four-day High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship dual-event format allows families to attend both premier championship events at one time with only one weeks’ vacation. Both events kicked off June 19, with the National Championships concluding on Friday and World Finals wrapping up Saturday.  All anglers to compete for three days, with a second-chance round designed to keep everyone in the game until the final-day cut.

Saturday’s field included the 10 National Championship finalists, the top 10 teams from Friday’s World Finals semi-final round, and the next 10 teams (highest day-three weight) from the semi-final round and second-chance rounds combined. A Friday night pizza party, which saw competitors devour more than 350 pizzas, included a “Lucky Dog Last Chance Wildcard” drawing for one team, not already qualified, to compete on day four – bringing the total number of teams competing in the World Finals finale to 31.

While many teams chose to ply Pickwick’s popular offshore ledge fishery, Cicero and Snyder played the shallow game.

Targeting the Mulberry Creek area, near Kroger Island, the team zeroed in on shallow grass with woody cover and hooked bass in depths ranging from 8 inches to five feet.

One area was particularly productive. “We were fishing a stump where we had caught a couple in practice. We caught our three best fish there today and ended it all,” Cicero reported. Anchoring their limit was a 7-7 behemoth that earned Big Bass honors.

Snyder noted that they enjoyed their fastest action throughout the tournament during the morning hours and in overcast conditions—a trend that continued on the final day.

For the win, Cicero and Snyder earned their choice of team scholarship offers to go to a top school and fish on the college fishing team including: A $56,000 – ($28,000 per angler) Scholarship offer from Bethel University, a $100,000 ($50,000 per angler) scholarship offer from Kentucky Christian University and a $80,000 ($40,000 per angler) scholarship offer to Simpson University. Snyder plans to join the United States Marine Corps after graduation, but Cicero says the scholarship options could be life-changing for him.

“This is an amazing opportunity,” he said. “The doors are wide open right now to three great schools, and I have a lot of thinking to do.”

TBF President and CEO Robert Cartlidge said providing such educational opportunities to youngsters who love fishing was a motivating factor for event organizers, and he praised supporters of these efforts.

“It is great to see our sponsor partners and these universities supporting young people in outdoor sports,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why we founded the national high school program in the US back in 2007, so that young anglers could live their dream and earn a good education through fishing that would be on par with any other sport.”

“History was made at Saturday’s World Finals awards ceremony, and it was something to see, as multiple colleges and university recruiters were on site, competing for top teams to attend their institutions of higher learning,” he added. “Whatever else happens, that is a success for these young people in my book.”

Alabama’s Gardendale High School squad, brothers Griffin and Fletcher Phillips, finished second with a 14-pound, 13-ounce limit anchored by a sag-bellied 7-pound, 1-ounce beauty. Adding to the excitement of the siblings’ day, the big bass bit shortly before the weigh-in started.

“We had a grassline where we got a few big bites in practice when it was overcast, but because it was sunny when we blasted off, we didn’t think we could get bit so we didn’t stop there,” Griffin explained. “But as we were heading back in the afternoon, our dad (their boat captain) said, ‘You have enough time, you can stop on it.’”

“We pull up, I make three casts with a 1 1/4-ounce white/chartreuse spinnerbait with gold willow-leaf blades, hook that big fish and I was like ‘This is the one we need,’” he continued. ”We had a decent bag that was about 10 pounds, but that fish helped out our bag a whole lot.” For their Second place finished the team was offered the following scholarships: A $40,000 – ($20,000 per angler) Scholarship offer from Bethel University, a $90,000 ($45,000 per angler) scholarship offer from Kentucky Christian University and a $80,000 ($40,000 per angler) scholarship offer to Simpson University.

In total more than 60 scholarship offers were made to top teams at the event the full list of scholarship offers is below. All teams had to meet eligibility requirements of each schools program and scholarship offers.

Bethel University, $96,000.00 –

SAF’s long-time partner who has offered scholarships every year for 10 years now. Offered to the winning team 56K – (2) 28K scholarships and to the 2nd place team a 40K – (2) 20K scholarships.

 

Kentucky Christian University – $1,080,000.00 as follows:

$100,000 – (2) 50K scholarship offers to the World Finals winners, $90,000 – (2) 45K scholarship offers to the 2nd & 3rd place team in the World Finals, $80,000 – (2) 40K scholarship offers to the 4th -12th place teams in the World Finals and $80,000 – (2) 40K scholarship offers to the Winners of the National Championship

 

Simpson University Redding Ca. – $1,620,000.00 as follows:

TOP California teams – $120,000 – (2) 60K Scholarship offers to:

  • Top World Finals Team – Ryan Beaty – James Alderman – Alhambra Calif, HS Bulldogs
  • Overall Combined weight – Cooper Goff – Nathan Phillips – Lake County Calif, HS

Top 5 western State teams 100,000, (2) 50K Scholarship offers

  1. CA – Sam West – Sheldon Reese, Lake County HS
  2. AZ – Taj White – Ethan Ryan, Phoenix HS
  3. AZ- Weslee Barnes – Jacob Jones, Phoenix HS
  4. ID – Kyle Mann – Cole Koenig, Lodi HS
  5. CA – Justin Hurney – Tyler Hurney, Freedom HS Falcons

Additionally, Simpson University also offered the Top 10 places in the World Finals a $80,000-  (2) 40K scholarship offers  and  the Top 16 GPAs in the tournament – $5,000 Scholarship award that is stackable with any of the Simpson U awards above.

TBF & FLW also presented their annual cash scholarship offers of $12,000 & $10,000 respectively, and finally over $40,000 in prizes and sponsor giveaways were awarded at the event.

For complete results, visit HighSchoolFishing.org. The website also offers information on attending or qualifying for the 2020 High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship dual event, which is set for La Crosse, Wisconsin.

For the hundreds of event pictures check out our facebook page HERE and results are on our results page along with daily weigh in videos HERE