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

TBF Southwest Divisional Day One

 The first day of the Southwest Divisional, on Clear Lake in California, is finished, but the standings sheet says the three day tournament is far from over.  A total of 58 anglers took to the water this morning in hopes of punching their ticket to the TBF Federation National Championship in the Spring of 2016.  Teams from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah and the host state of California are fishing in this event for two coveted spots from each state, to advance on the TBF grand finale.

  These Divisional events are special bass tournaments.  They are really two events rolled into one.  The bragging rights goal, is to have the most cumulative weight after the three day event.  The other goal is that you don’t have to beat everybody else in the event, you simply have to beat only the other anglers that are from your state.  The highest two anglers from each of the five states are the real winners this weekend.

  Here is how the bragging rights part of the event went on Day 1.  Bryan Leck, of Canon City Colorado, took top honors with a hefty 23.03 pound sack among the 158 anglers.  Second place was Shane Moline from Kingman, AZ with 22.12 pounds.  Third place belonged to Seth Rowe from Chowchilla, CA with 22.04 pounds.  Holding down fourth place was Ralph Encizo of Fresno, CA with 22.03 pounds.  Rounding out the top five was Inder Lopez of Spring Valley, CA with 21.03 pounds.  Sixth & seventh place also broke the twenty pound mark as well.  Victor Cole of Nevada had 21.00 pounds and Michael Moreno of California had 20.00 pounds on the dot.

The big bass of the day belonged to Bryan Leck of CO with a nice 6.15 pound lunker.  If you look at the overall standings, a seven pound bass would put almost half of the field in the lead.  This is going to be a really good event as it will go down to the wire on Day 3.

 

From the qualifying part of the event, the top two anglers, and the first angler out, in each state look like this after Wednesday’s competition. 

CALIFORNIA:  Seth Row – 22.04 & Ralph Incizo – 22.03 pounds.  Lurking closely in third is Inder Lopez with 21.03 pounds.

ARIZONA:  Tom Geffert – 19.02 & Jesse Parks – 18.12.  In third is Jon Griffith – 18.02

UTAH:  Bill Brown – 19-12 & Don Allphin – 19.03.  Third is Cody Compton with 18.07 pounds

COLORADO:  Bryan Leck – 23.03 & Brandon White – 19.00.  Third is David Wilkins with 17-14.

NEVADA: Shane Moline – 22.12 & Victor Cole – 21.00 with David Hudson in third with 13.04.

 

The next two days should be very interesting as just about everyone is still in the hunt in each of their respective states.  By the way, today all 58 anglers weighed in at least one keeper fish.  You don’t see very many times when there are absolutely no zeroes in the weigh in line.  It is going to be a shootout over the next two days.  Weigh in at Konocti Vista Resort and Casino will begin at 2:30 on Thursday and there will be ten tickets punched to the Federation National Championship on Friday.

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