One thing is for certain, somebody is always going to win. Today at the Southwest Divisional Championship at Clear Lake, CA someone did just that. Seth Rowe of Chowchilla, CA was steady at the helm for three straight days. Weighing in 22.04 on Wednesday, he then followed it up with 25.15 on Thursday and finally today sacked another 23.02 to seal the win with 71.05 pounds. That gave him the cumulative three day total victory, but more importantly, it guaranteed him a spot in the upcoming 2016 TBF Federation National Championship. Making a strong push to the finish line was Inder Lopez,of Spriong Valley, CA who came up just 14 ounces short of the win. Inder started fairly strong with 21.03 but managed to catch just 4 keeper fish on day two for 16.10. But he finished strong with the largest limit of the event with 32.10 pounds to finish in second place. His consolation prize was that he was the second highest finisher in his state, so he still qualified to fish in the Federation National Championship.

When asked how they were catching their fish, just about every contestant said pretty much the same thing. They were sight fishing or bed fishing. Numerous anglers talked of how they spend 20 minutes or more trying to catch each bedding fish. As the tournament progressed, the time it took to catch each fish got longer as more and more anglers were fishing for the same bedding fish. White flukes, white jigs, tubes brush hogs and wacky worms were just a few of the preferred baits used by the winning anglers. Most anglers said their fish were in two feet of water or less. There were a couple of anglers who managed to catch fish on a buzzbait, a Pop-R, a frog or a reaction bait, but by far the event was dominated by sight fishing. Today had several 20 pound plus bags weighed in, but not the size we had see in the previous two days. However the big fish were biting today. There were a couple of seven pounders and three over 8 weighed in today. The biggest turned out to be a 8.11 lunker by Trevor Lincoln of Santee, CA. His big bass earned him an extra $290 today.

The final piece of the puzzle, was who were the top two anglers from each state that would be moving on to the Federation National Championship next spring. Here is how they finished:

CALIFORNIA

Seth Rowe 71-05

Inder Lopez 70-07

ARIZONA

Jon Griffith 56.10

Jesse Parks 55.05

UTAH

Cory Jones 52.04

Joe Johnson 51.05

COLORADO

Sam Heckman 55.10

Brandon White 48.11

NEVADA

Shane Moline 63.06

Victor Cole 48.06

This was the first of seven divisional qualifiers for the TBF this year. The next one is this coming week in the North West Division at Noxon Reservoir in Trout Creek, Montana.

Results

Photos

Sometimes lightning does strike twice. For the second day in a row, all 58 anglers in the Southwest Divisional Championship, at Clear Lake, California caught at least one keeper fish. Even though the weather conditions were changing every day, the anglers were still figuring out how to catch them. The three days of practice brought high and gusty winds. The first day of competition brought cool temperatures and bright sunshine. Today brought overcast skies and drizzling rain for most of the day. Tomorrows forecast is for “payday” for ten lucky anglers. For the five states competing, each state will advance the highest two finishing anglers into the TBF Federation National Championship in the spring of 2016.

Leading in the cumulative weight category after two days is now Seth Rowe, from Chowchilla, CA. Seth brought in the biggest bag in two days of fishing today, with an impressive 25.15 pounds. That vaulted him all the way to the top of the leader board with 48.03 pounds. Just behind him in second is Shane Moline from NV with 46.02. Third place honors go to Bill Brown of Utah with 40.05. Fourth place is occupied by Jon Griffith of AZ with 39.14 and the fifth spot is taken by James McIntyre of AZ with 39.10.

The biggest bass of the day was upscaled today by Inder Lopez with a giant 8-14 toad of a bass. For that lunker, Inder earned himself an extra $290 today.

The qualifying for the Federation National Championship looks like this by state, after Day 2:

CALIFORNIA
Seth Rowe 48.03
Randy Pierson 37.13
Inder Lopez 37.13

UTAH
Bill Brown 40.05
Don Allphin 33.13
Joe Johnson 33.04

ARIZONA
Jon Griffith 39.14
James McIntyre 39.10
Jesse Parks 35.12

COLORADO
Sam Heckman 32.12
Bryan Leck 32.10
Gabe Kennedy 32.03

NEVADA
Shane Moline 46.02
Victor Cole 39.04
Douglas Jones 25.01

There are still numerous people in each state that can change the leader board with just one big bite on Friday. Rumor is that most anglers are primarily sight fishing. This means that a big fish can come on just about any cast if the angler can just entice that fish to bite. There are several anglers that reportedly have see 8 to 11 pound fish on the beds and have not been able to make them bite. Could that change tomorrow? If it does, it will be a game changer for a lot of folks. Weigh in starts tomorrow at 2:30 Pacific time. Good luck to all the Southwest anglers on the final day tomorrow.

Results

Photos

GORDON AND GAGNER BRING IT HOME ON THE FINAL DAY OF THE 2015 TBF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BOTH ANGLERS PUNCH THEIR TICKET TO THE FORREST WOOD CUP, WIN CASH AND A TBF “LIVING THE DREAM” PACKAGE.

Grove, OK. (April 25, 2015) – Shawn Gordon of Russellville, Arkansas, weighed his third five-bass limit in as many days to claim the title of TBF National Champion. On Day 1 Gordon weighed in 17 – 03 and lead his division, on day two he weighed only 14-05, central division standout Dean Matt’s from Yukon Oklahoma closed the gap to only four ounces but Gordon held onto his lead int he central division to make the cut and compete the final day. However Gordon was not the overall tournament leader going into Saturday’s final day, that spot was held by Colorado’s Sam Heckman who had almost a three pound lead. As the final 7 TBF division champions brought their fish up onto the FLW Tours Main stage in Rogers, AR. to weigh in on the final day.   Tournament leader Sam Heckman checked in with four fish, one short of the tournament limit.  This final weigh in would get very interesting very quickly.

Gordon’s final day catch turned out to be one of the biggest of the event at 18pounds and 10 ounces and secured him the title of National Champion and TBF Living The Dream Angler.  Gordon will l represent TBF anglers everywhere on the FLW tour next year with all entries fees paid, a custom wrapped ranger boat, a tow vehicles, travel stipends and more.

“For the first two days Gordon fished shallow rock and small pockets of the main lake arms, with a white square bill crank bait and fished bed fish with a green pumpkin-colored YUM Christie Craw.” said Gordon. The final day the weather would not allow him to sight fish so he relied on the square bill to bring it home for him.

“Its a lot to take in right now,” said Gordon. “This means I am fishing the Forrest Wood Cup, which is really special.

“Since I wasn’t able to sight fish on the final day, the key for me was finding those fish along those points and pockets,” Gordon said. “Luckily, they were right where I needed them to be.”

The top seven Division Champion Boaters on Grand Lake were:

1st: Shawn Gordon, Central Division, Russellville, Ark., 15 bass, 50-2, $100,000 Living the Dream package + Ranger Z518 Boat
2nd: Sam Heckman, SouthWest Division, Fountain, Colo., 14 bass, 45-10, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package
3rd: Brian LaClair, Mid-Atlantic Division, Denton, Md., 15 bass, 40-9, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package
4th: Mark Lundgren, Southern Division, Cocoa, Fla., 12 bass, 36-14, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package
5th: Curtis Richardson, Eastern Division, Belleville, Ontario, 13 bass, 34-0, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package
6th: Nicholas Smyers, Northern Division, Franksville, Wis., 11 bass, 27-4, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package
7th: Mark Maderos, NorthWest Division Maple Valley, Wash., nine bass, 25-14, $1,500 + BFL All-American Package

The top angler from each state qualifies to advance to the TBF Federation National Championship as a boater, the second place angler in each state attends as a co-angler.

Top prize on the co-angler side  went to Gilbert Gagner of Highgate Springs, Vt., won the co-angler championship and “Living The Dream” co-angler prize package, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 43 pounds, 4 ounces.

There is a lot on the line for the co-angler side as well and some great sticks fishing it.

The top seven Division Champion co-anglers on Grand Lake were:

1st: Gilbert Gagner, Eastern Division, Highgate Springs, Vt., 15 bass, 43-4, “Living The Dream” package + $2,500
2nd: Wes Logan, Southern Division, Springville, Ala., 12 bass, 39-11, $750 + BFL All-American Package
3rd: Phillip Duracz, Northern Division, Chesterton, Ind., 10 bass, 27-9, $750 + BFL All-American Package
4th: Steven Wiseman, Mid-Atlantic Division, Bryans Road, Md., 10 bass, 23-4, $750 + BFL All-American Package
5th: Johnny Babb, Centtral Division, Holdenville, Okla., 10 bass, 23-3, $750 + BFL All-American Package
6th: Will Treadwell, SouthWest Division, College National Champion, 10 bass, 22-11, $750 + BFL All-American Package
7th: Brian Merlini, NorthWest Division, Maple Valley, Wash., eight bass, 19-14, $750 + BFL All-American Package

Overall there were 13 bass weighing 32 pounds, 14 ounces caught by co-anglers Saturday. Only one of the final seven co-anglers weighed in five-bass limits.

The winning boater received a $100,000 “Living the Dream” prize package which includes use of a wrapped Ranger boat powered by Evinrude as well as a tow vehicle, fully paid entry fees into the 2016 Walmart FLW Tour, a cash award, an automatic berth into the 2015 Walmart BFL All-American and the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup. First place on the co-anglers side is a “Living The Dream” prize package including paid entry fees into the FLW Rayovac series division of their choice, a cash award, and an automatic berth into the 2015 Walmart BFL All-American and the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup. Each of the seven Division Champions (7 boaters and 7 co-anglers) will advance to the 2015 Walmart BFL All-American.

The 2015 TBF National Championship, hosted by the Grand Lake Association, is the ultimate dream goal for all TBF members. The boater and co-angler with the heaviest cumulative weight from all three days of competition will be crowned TBF National Champions. The tournament featured 48 Boaters and 48 Co-anglers, representing seven TBF divisions nationwide, who qualified through a series of TBF club, TBF state and TBF divisional championship series tournaments to compete in the TBF National Championship

Coverage of the TBF National Championship will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) November 9 from 7 p.m.-8 p.m. ET. when Season 20 of “FLW” returns this fall. The Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show airs on NBCSN, the Pursuit Channel and the World Fishing Network and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.

For complete details and updated information visit BassFederation.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the TBF on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheBassFederation and on Twitter at Twitter.com/BassFederation.

ABOUT THE BASS FEDERATION
The Bass Federation Inc., (TBF) is a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. TBF is owned by those we serve and dedicated to the sport of fishing. The Federation is the largest and oldest, organized grassroots fishing, youth and conservation organization there is. TBF, our affiliated state federations and their member clubs conduct more than 20,000 events each year and have provided a foundation for the entire bass fishing industry for more than 45 years. TBF founded the Student Angler Federation and the National High School Fishing program in 2008 to promote clean family fun and education through fishing. Visit bassfederation.com or highschoolfishing.org and “LIKE US” on Facebook.

ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.