Colorado TBF Federation members and National Championship qualifiers Sean Hinton and Brandon White finished their tournament today. 14 anglers, the top 7 Anglers and 7 Co-Anglers, one from each of 7 divisions, will continue on Saturday to battle to the end and the ultimate prize of TBF Federation National Champions.
Here is the process: each state, like Colorado, that has a TBF Federation sends a 14-man State Team to a Western Divisional tournament. This is a no entry fee event and all an angler need be is a State Federation Member to qualify and meet the requirements of that Federation, in the case of the Colorado TBF, they compete in a team format tournament and the top 7 teams become the 7 Anglers and 7 Co-Anglers who will represent Colorado at the next Western Divisional.
At that Divisional the top two overall finishers from each state will continue on to the next TBF National Championship event, another No Entry Fee event, where those qualifiers will be treated as royalty, or at least given the Pro treatment, with most expenses also paid by the National TBF Federation. Lodging, most meals, new Ranger Boats complete with 250 hp Mercury or Evinrude Motors, Lowrance Electronics, and Motorguide or MinnKota Trolling Motors, boat gas, even bags of ice, bottled water, and a sandwich lunch is provided for them in the boat. All these anglers need to do is show up at the event. As a bonus for qualifying from their state, each angler is also awarded a portion of pay-out for attending this event. This year each angler who came, no matter how well they finished in the event, was awarded at least $200; and more depending on how high they finished.
The anglers will have the use of that new Ranger boat for a practice day and up to three days of fishing. The first two days everyone fishes, but after the second day the field is cut to the top Angler and Co-Angler from each Division, who then will fish one more day to seat one overall National Champion from each category. But just by being their Division Champions, all of these anglers will also earn berths in the BFL All-American Tournament.
The overall Co-Angler Champion will win a birth in the FLW Championship Cup Tournament and $5,000 cash. The Angler Champion will win a birth in the FLW Championship Cup tournament for a chance to win over $500,000, and the coveted “Living the Dream” Package, that includes the use of a fully rigged and wrapped Ranger Boat and Chevy Truck for the 2013 season on the FLW Professional Tour, all entry fees paid, and travel and expense money to boot. By competing against fellow bass club members across the nation someone will win the “Living the Dream” package valued at $100,000.
Colorado Anglers who attended this year, Sean Hinton and Brandon White, finished their event today. Sean finished in 22nd overall, with a total weight of 14.4 lbs. The South West Division Champion was Jeff Erickson (total: 27.13 lbs,) who will represent the SouthWest at the BFL All-American.
Brandon White finished in 18th place with a weight of 10.9 lbs. The leader caught a total weight of 24-15 lbs.
Tomorrows another day, and while the Colorado team are driving back across KS, the Division Champions continue on Saturday, good luck to the South-western states!
