Chris Lambert wins the individual race and the Castrol Maximum Preformer Award.
Flashback…2007 Washington was the host state for the 2007 Western Divisional Championship on Pot holes Lake, the held the division champions cup for a full year….and liked it…..they had no intentions of giving it up. Mission accomplished.
The TBF state team from Washington proved this year that they are tops in the west again with a total three-day weight of 353 pounds and 5 ounces. They accomplished the feat over 1400 miles away at Lake Havasu, AZ. About as far away from home as they can get in the western division.
“I and all the members of TBF in the state of Washington are so very proud of our team, stated Gary Morris, the Washington TBF state President, back to back division championship titles is a dream come true, there is a lot of great fishermen in the west, so I know that the guys worked hard to earn it.” Morris went on to say this about the tournament Champion Chris Lambert from Olympia, Washington, “ Chris is a good guy, a long time federation member, always happy, never complains, he just a good guy and a great fisherman. He’s someone you never hear a complaint about and he is an angler that is definitely has the skills to move into the FLW tour’s pro ranks someday.”
Chris Lambert
Lambert who won the individual standings and the Castrol Maximum Performer cash award. Lead his team and will fish the 2009 Federation National Championship as a boater, second place angler for Washington who will go as a non-boater is David Kromm.
The Washington TBF Team
In the state team standings, finishing in second place forty pounds behind Washington with 313-02 was the team from California. Anchored by Los Angles angler Troy Lindner, and John Albidrez from Fresno who will both advance.
Colorado, in their first TBF divisional, had a slow start but moved up each day to finish strong in the third place spot with 265-04. Colorado TBF state President Steve Way had this to say about their first TBF divisional, “We are very excited to be able to send a State Team to the Western Divisional. March of 2007 many of the anglers in Colorado made the decision to form a new partnership with FLW/TBF and we are glad that we did. We are thrilled to have finished so well. I think that it is just starting to sink in that we are the first team to represent the State of Colorado with this new Partnership. We all strongly feel that we have great support with FLW/TBF for the Federation level Angler, something that many of us have not felt for a long time. This past year for Colorado TBF has seen some test and failures but we feel that we are putting together a strong organization. If we continue to grow at our current rate, we could easily double the membership this year that we had at the end of last year. The great finish by our anglers can only help.”
Rounding out the State team standings were; The host state team from Arizona
Washington State Champs
finished in fourth with 263-05, Idaho and Utah wound up tied in the fifth spot with 261-02, Seventh place was the team from Wyoming and finishing in eight was the new TBF Montana team, who fished two angler down all week with only ten team members at 176-09.
“The members of Montana’s first TBF Divisional team had a great time at Lake Havasu, we did compete with only ten anglers instead of the twelve allowed but our guys fished hard.” Said Montana TBF state President George Riedel. “We are already looking forward to competing next year with a full team against the other states in the Western Division. We want to prove that there are more than trout fishermen in Montana (but the trout do eat well). We would like to invite any and all our neighbors to join us this summer for some world class smallmouth fishing here in Montana–see out website for our tournament schedule — www.montanatbf.com
Under the TBF format, not one, but two anglers from each TBF state advance to the 2009 TBF Federation National Championship, Presented by the National Guard. From Washington will be Lambert and Kromm, Lindner and Albidrez from California. Colorado will send Sam Heckman, Fountian, CO., and Matt Massey, Lakewood, CO. Idaho anglers advancing are Brandon Palanuk (Rathdrum, ID) and Brandon Craner, (Filer, ID). Top Utah anglers were Joe Debrucque who lives just across the line in Grand Junction, CO. and Robert Knight from Salt Lake City. Wyoming anglers advancing are two state presidents. Past Wyoming state president Mike Bozner, Rock Springs, WY and current state president Eric Lippincott, Daniel, WY. Montana anglers earning their spots are Sean Andrachick, Marion, MT and Don Collins, Kalispell, MT.
2009 TBF National Champ Western Qualifiers
TBF would like to send out a special thanks to members of the Arizona Bass Federation of TBF, Dave and Brenda Hagan and all the crew who hosted this event. The Arizona “team” done a great job, the Federation is thankful for people like you.
For more details about how the Western Division anglers fared today and their outlook for tomorrows final day check out our partners website at www.flwoutdoors.com
