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.
