The Montana Student Angler Federation (MTSAF) State Championship was held on May 21^st at Noxon Reservoir in Trout Creek, Montana. It was an exciting event, with blue skies, great fishing and lots of sore thumbs and smiles all around! Seven teams competed, with 6 out of the seven teams weighing-in a five fish limit. Bags of Largemouth took the top three places, but there were also a few nice 2 to 3 lb. Smallmouth weighed in.  Strategies ranged from flipping soft plastics in structure on the banks and targeting spawners to dragging jigs on rocky bottoms and targeting pre-spawners to finesse techniques and trying to track down smallmouth “wolf packs”.

The team of Drake Dawson and Christian Rensel won the Championship title by 11 oz and secured their spot in the National Championship, weighing in an 18lb 15oz bag of Largemouth, including the “big fish” of the tournament weighing in at 5.0 lbs.

Second-place team, Silas Jones and Aiden Currie, were hot on the heels of Dawson & Rensel with 18lbs 4oz of Largemouth. With two first-place finishes earlier in the season and the second-place finish at the MTSAF State Championship, Jones and Currie clenched the AOY Team title, also securing a spot in the National Championship.

Riley Brown and Mason Kelch won 3^rd place with 14lbs 6oz of Largemouth; followed by Preston LittleEagle and Hunter Purkey in 4^th with a 14lbs 5oz mixed bag of largies and smallies, missing the 3^rd place spot by just 1 ounce!

The 5^th through 7^th placings played out as follows:

5^th – Austin Hoff and Hunter Miland  (11lbs 8oz)

6^th – Miles Klein and Gunnar Stephens (9lbs 13oz)

7^th – Ethan Galassi and Bryson Bostwick (6.6 pounds).

A special thank-you to the Lakeside Motel and Resort in Trout Creek for offering discounted lodging to the boys and their families and for providing pizza for the pre-tournament meeting. Also, to Grant Aumiller for donating his time to take photos during weigh-in.

We had a great turnout of family-members and fellow adult league anglers to support and cheer-on the teams. Montana TBF is very proud of these boys and looking forward to a lot of talent and success in the future!

4 teams battled it out on May 13^th for the Oregon high school championship. Launching out of Celilo Park on the Columbia River @ 5:45AM, the teams were greeted with warm and fairly calm conditions that were expected to continue until the 2:00PM weigh in time and then turn into a gusty east wind.

The teams reported that there were plenty of biting smallmouth,  30 to 60 caught per boat,  but the bigger ones were very challenging to find. The anglers mentioned crankbaits, swimbaits, ned rigs, and drop shot as the main baits used during the event.

The weigh ins proved to be historic for Oregon as the team of Berkley Osborn and Emily Buller with 14.15lbs became the first ever all girl team to win the state championship!! 2^nd place went to Gabe Thomas and Bode Nichols with 13.00lbs, in 3^rd place was Drew Janke and Will Harris with 11.84lbs and 4^th place went to Shane Long and Sawyer Strong with 10.61lbs.

The 2023 TBF Nevada State Championship tournament was held April 8th at Lake Mohave. The morning started off with everyone and their gear loaded up on the boats and listening to the National Anthem as the sun was coming up. At safelight the teams and their captains headed out of the marina both to the north and to the south.  The fish were biting early and often, making it a lot of fun.  It was mostly bed and sight fishing, which the club had been working on in their weekly meetings, so everyone was prepared to be successful. Heading into the marina to make the weigh in time everyone was really excited to weigh their fish.  Most anglers had lots of fun as this was the first tournament this year and the first tournament most teams had participated in.  All 7 teams had fish to weigh at the weigh in. Waiting for us at the docks were all of our families and friends and people in the community who have supported our club.  It added to the excitement of the day. Markus and Isabelle Avalos won the High School Division with their bag weighing 12.55 pounds. As an added bonus, all fish weighed in were all smallmouth bass. Rylan Garrett and Nico Skerston clenched the win for the Junior Division with the biggest bag of the day at 13.37 pounds.