Central Divisional Championship Begins presented by Evinrude

 

After the first day, the one thing that is still certain, in this event, is that everyone is still in the hunt to make the championship. The keeper bites were few and far between as only 102 keeper fish were weighed in by the 94 anglers.Joseph Webster There was only one limit weighed in today and it belonged to Joseph Webster of Fulton, Mississippi with 12.12 pounds.

  Eight other anglers have a weight of just over 6 pounds going into the second day of competition on the Tenn-Tom Waterway in Aberdeen, Mississippi. Most every angler in each of the 8 competing states, still has an opportunity to be one of the top two anglers from their state, come Friday.

 

 

 

Ben Milliken got off to a good start with two fish that weighed 7.09 pounds. He also brought the biggest bass of the day to the scales with a nice 5.05 lunker.DSC01305

The top two anglers from each of the eight states are as follows:

Kansas: David Heffel 6.08 & Jayce Newell 6.01

Mississippi: Joseph Webster 12.12 & Jamie Long 6.09

Oklahoma: Johnny Babb 6.15 & Brandon Moss 4.14

Nebraska: Ben Milliken 7.09 & Terry Hussey 5.11

Arkansas: Mike Palmer 6.08 & Josh Ray 6.08

Missouri: Cole Findley 6.01 & Tim Biondo 4.15

Louisiana: Mark Brasher 4.07 & Seth Leblanc 4.06

Texas: John Brothers 4.13 & Rick Rickman 3.09

The daily weigh-ins begin at 3:00 pm each of the next two days at Aberdeen Marina.

View Day 1 Pictures 

View Day 1 Results

A “Rare” TBF Northwest Division Championship Presented by Berkley

The 2015 Northwest Division Championship presented by Berkley is over, but it was a “rare” occurrence and will be talked about for a long time to come. Washington big stick Aaron Eckterncamp catching a “Rare” unheard of bag of fish from the tournament waters, locking up the individual division champions title and Montana winning its first Division Championship in more than a decade for sure and possibly its first in history (no one is quite sure).

In a rare occurrence, all 54 anglers weighed in at least one fish every day of the three day event. There was not one single zero in three days. That is pretty impressive on any body of water. The Noxon Reservoir in upper northwest Montana made a name for itself this weekend with some impressive limits of fish. The average size limits are normally around 12 to 14 pounds. A good sack of fish would be anything above 16 pounds and anything above that would be rare.

Day one saw 47 of the 54 anglers bring in a limit of bass. The big bag on day one belonged to Brian Sanders of Sutherlin, OR with a 16.02 pound sack of bass. The biggest bass of the day belonged to Randy Gust of Osburn, ID with a 5.07 smallmouth. On the second day of competition, 48 out of 54 anglers brought a limit of fish to the scales. Aaron Echternkamp of Moses Lake, WA shocked the crowd with a bag that weighed one ounce shy of 21 pounds, at 20.15. Daily big bass honors on Day 2 went to Dillon Thomas, of Green River, WY with a 6.07 pound bucketmouth. And to finish the event, Day three saw three different anglers bring in bags of 17 plus pounds, while 45 of the 54 anglers recorded limits on Friday. The biggest bag belonged to Bryson Mort, from Post Falls, ID with big bass day 3 NW Noxon17.05 pounds. The final big bass of the tournament went to Casey Clark from Lambert, MT with a nice 5.10 largemouth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the individual category, the overall winner of the event was Aaron Echternkamp with an impressive three day weight of 50.11 pounds. He was the only angler to reach the 50 pound club. For his efforts he received the overall Champions plaque and earned a spot at the TBF Federation National Championship next spring, representing Washington.

Aaron Winner NW Div Noxon

The other qualifier from Washington was Peter Kline. The other 8 qualifiers were as follows: IDAHO: Bryson Mort & Loron Torok, MONTANA: Stan Fisher & Danny Stamper, OREGON: Nicholas Fitzsimmons & Thomas Hartshorn, WYOMING: Zach Lugibihl & Lee Thomas. Congratulations to these ten qualifiers for the TBF National Championship.

NW Noxon top 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the competition among the states the final results looked like this:

Montana 437.14Montana Winning state

Idaho 417.05

Washington 416.03

Oregon 360.10

Wyoming 179.03

Congratulations to Montana for a well deserved win in a total team effort.

What a great week in Montana. Just wanted to say a quick thanks to all who were involved in making this event a success. Thompson Falls Chamber of Commerce, Lakeside Resort & Motel & The Trout Creek Community Improvement Association all played a part in getting this event scheduled in Montana. Hosts for this event were Lakeside Resort & Motel, John & Julie Harris and then Trout Creek Motel with Bill & Yvonne Stevenson. Both of these places are fine places to stay with clean rooms and great people to take care of you while you are there. If you ever get a chance to get to upper Northwest Montana, I highly recommend you look these folks up. Thanks for a wonderful week in Montana.

 For Day 3 Photo Gallery CLICK HERE

For Complete Standings CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

 

TBF Northwest Divisional, presented by Berkley Day 2 Is In The Books

For the second consecutive day, every angler in the TBF Northwest Division championship presented by Berkley in Trout Creek, Montana weighed in at least one or more fish.  All 54 anglers have now weighed fish each of the first two days of the three day event.  Day 1 had 47 limits weighed in and Day 2 had 48 limits weighed in out of 54 anglers.   This sets up the final day to be a shootout as several anglers in each state still have a legitimate shot at making the top 2 anglers in each of their respective states.  When the weigh in concludes on Friday, the top two anglers from Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon & Wyoming will advance to the TBF Federation National Championship in the Spring of 2016.

As for the overall bragging rights, from this event, Aaron Echternkamp, from Moses Lake, WA NW Day 2 Leader Aaronstands atop the leader board with a two day weight of 33.11 pounds.  Aaron weighed 12.12 on Day 1 and then wowed the crowd with a monster sack of 20.15 pounds today, which was by far the heaviest bag of the two days so far.  No one is really talking about how they are catching their fish, since the weights are so close together.  Most of the locals are speculating that many of the anglers are still bed fishing in the mornings and then if they don’t have a limit by mid-day, then they are moving on to other patterns.  Just behind Aaron, in second place, is Nicholas Fitzsimmons, of Lyle, WA with 32.03 pounds.  Lurking closely in third is Peter Kline, of Tulalip, WA with 31.12 pounds.  Rounding out the top five are Bryson Mort of Post Falls, ID with 29.02 pounds and Tony Lofranco of Bothell, WA with 29.01 pounds.

The Biggest Bass of the day came from Dillon Thomas from Green River, WY.  Dillon only brought one fish to the scales, but it weighed an impressive 6.07 pounds.  Dillon will receive $270 for his big bass on Day 2.  Congratulations DIllon!

 NW Day 2 Big Bass Dillon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for each states top two anglers, here is how they stand with one day of fishing left.

WASHINGTON

Aaaron Echternkamp 33.11

Peter Kline 31.12

Sitting in third is Tony Lofranco with 29.01

 

MONTANA

Randy Gust 28.03

Danny Stamper 28.01

Sitting in third is Stan Fisher with 27.02

 

IDAHO

Bryson Mort 29.02

Jason Hickey 26.04

Sitting in third is David Ashton with 26.00

 

OREGON

Nicholas Fitzsimmons 32.03

Brian Sanders 27.12

Sitting in third is Thomas Hartshorn with 25.07

 

WYOMING

Zach Lugibihl 25.11

Lee Thomas 23.04

Sitting in third is Kasey Thomas with 22.01

 

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a good one.  Many anglers in each state still have a really good chance at moving up and acquiring one of those two coveted state spots, for the Federation National Championship.  Weigh in starts at 3:00 pm Mountain Time and results, along with all the winners photos will be posted immediately following the weigh in at Trout Creek, Montana. 

For Day 2 photo gallery CLICK HERE

TBF Northwest Division Championship, Presented By Berkley

Day 1 of the TBF Northwest Division Championship, presented by Berkley is in the record books and every single angler weighed in fish today!  It was a good day at Lakeside Resort & Motel in Trout Creek, MT.

Oregon angler Brian Sanders leads the individual overall standings with 5 fish that tipped the scales at 16 pounds and 2 ounces. d1 leader NW div

 

Big fish of the day was caught by Randy Gust (MT) and weighed in at 5-07. But it was the host state of Montana that grabbed the lead in the state standings, they have a 9 pound lead at 147-09, Idaho and Washington are almost tied at 3rd with 138-14 and 138-11 respectively and Oregon and Wyoming round out the five.

In the individual standings by state, Sanders leads the Oregon Team, Mike Dominick leads Montana with 15-09, Jason Hickey leads Idaho with 14-03, Peter Kline is right at the top and leads Washington with 15-09 and Zach Lugibihl is leading the Wyoming squad with 12-15

 

For complete Overall Standings CLICK HERE

For complete State Standings CLICK HERE

For compete State Team Standings BY State CLICK HERE

 

For day 1 Photo Gallery CLICK HERE