Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico Advance Anglers to Nationals
The Colorado TBF played host to the first TBF National Semifinal contest for District 21 on Lake Pueblo in Pueblo, Co. The new TBF National Semi-Finals program pits top grassroots anglers from each state in a “close to home” weekend event with neighboring states for significant cash prizes and advancements.
In District 21, top TBF anglers from Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico competed August 13-14 for the chance to advance to the 2017 Federation National Championship and to win enough cash to travel to the Spring 2017 event.
A total of $5,100 in cash prizes, champion titles and slots in the national championship were awarded in the boater and co-angler divisions. The top three boater and co-anglers in the 16 boat field divvied up $4,100 in total payback, including a $500 Ranger Cup award. Had the district champion boater been running a 2012 or newer Evinrude E-tec., Evinrude would have also kicked in another $1,000 to that angler.
After two days of competition, the District 21 National Semi-Final Champion titles would go to the boater from Colorado, Greg Gizzi, and the co-angler also from Colorado, David Pauly.
Rod Allen from Colorado Springs nabbed the $500 Ranger Cup award, and the Colorado TBF made the final sweep taking home bragging rights and the first District 21 State Pride Award with 47.96 total pounds.
Lake Pueblo produced lots of bass but landing keepers proved difficult. On the boater’s side, a single limit was brought to the scales on day one by Jarod Rosten who led it with 9.33 pounds. Greg Gizzi held second with four fish weighing 9.17 pounds and Stephen Way had four fish for 7.03 pounds in third.
Anglers were faced with similar conditions on day two, but Gizzi was able to land enough keepers to top the standings with four fish weighing 9.74 pounds and a two day total of 18.91 pounds.
David Pauly led it on the co-angler side from start to finish. Pauly had two fish for 3.47 pounds on day one and two fish for 3.82 pounds on day two for a tournament total of 7.29 pounds.
The top boater and top co-angler from each state advancing to the 2017 Federation National Championship are as follows; (boater, co-angler) Colorado, Greg Gizzi and David Pauly; Wyoming, Bubba ONeil and Lee Thomas; New Mexico, Andy Cochran and Adam Campbell. Congratulations to them all.
