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

SouthWestern Divisional Championship

One thing is for certain, somebody is always going to win. Today at the Southwest Divisional California 1st Place TeamChampionship 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.Seth Rowe SouWest Overall Winner 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 sevenTrevor Lincoln Day 3 Big Bass 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

South Western Divisional day 2

Seth RoweSometimes 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.

Inder Lopez Big Bass Day 2Leading 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