With the first qualifier over the anglers again went out on Okoboji for the second qualifier for another set of Semi-final spots. This day was like the “Tale of Two Days” in the tournament world. With clear skies and less than 5 mph winds greeted the anglers who unleased they skills on what was fishing for spawning smallmouth to fishing for spawn and post-spawn largemouth.

What was a “hit or miss” proposition yesterday turned into batting practice for many with several limits caught per fisherman. With the ability to sight fish a good number of smallmouth over 4 lbs. were weighed in.

Once again with his local knowledge and a desire to put an exclamation point to the previous days  statement, Jerry Pape again set a pace that was too much for anyone else to match. With a winning 5 fish bag of 21.67 lbs.. Jerry stated that he had right at 21 lbs. within 90 minutes after blast-off. On the non-boaters side Jeremy Jensen won with 15.31 lbs.

Congrats to Jerry and Jeremy.

The following tournament results are as follows for Qualifier #2.

Top Finishers:

Boaters Division                                                                           Semi-final Qualifiers

Jerry Pape                          21.67                                Mark Sexton                      B

Mark Sexton                      19.11                                  Mark Borchers                  B

Mike McKnight                 18.80                       Jerry Avis                B                           

Mark Borchers                  18.65                                                                                              

Jerry Avis                            18.41                           Jeremy Jensen                  NB

                                                                                              Billy Ray              NB

Non-Boaters Division                                                 Giles Monif                        NB

Jeremy Jensen                  15.31                                  

Jacob Her                           11.99                                  

Billy Ray                              10.13                                  

BB Mark Borchers                  4.80

Ranger Cup Mark Borchers

With the first qualifier for a set Semi-final spots the anglers were ready for what could be either a good or bad day of fishing. With lake conditions of water temps anywhere from 62 to 68 degrees and fish from pre-spawn to post-spawn depending on which lake you fished, it was going to be a “hit or miss” proposition for all. And to add to the spottiness of the fishes moods the winds increased to 20+ mph which made more than half of the West Okoboji (the big lake) virtually unfishable but like always someone always seems to figure out the puzzle.

With local knowledge and a desire to make a statement Jerry Pape set a pace that was too much for anyone else to match. With a winning 5 fish bag of 22.15 lbs. Jerry set the tone of seeing what the lakes were capable of producing. On the non-boater side Doug Paterson won with 13.87 lbs.

Congrats to Jerry and Doug.

The following tournament results are as follows for Qualifier #1.

Top Finishers:

Boaters Division                                                                           Semi-final Qualifiers

Jerry Pape                          22.15                              Jerry Pape                          B

Mike McKnight                 21.20                                 Mike McKnight                 B

Tony Taylor                       17.73                                 Tony Taylor                       B

Jerry Avis                            17.64                                                                                              

Mark Borchers                  17.03                               Doug Patterson                 NB

                                                                                 Jacob Her                           NB

Non-Boaters Division                                               Russ Seaman                     NB

Doug Patterson                 13.87                                  

Jacob Her                           10.83                                  

Russ Seaman                     7.70                                    

BB Terry Svendsen                 5.27

Ranger Cup Jerry Avis

From your NE TBF President:

Members –

I have great news to report as 2019 looks to be an event filled year with 3 different tournaments to fish to qualify for the 2019 District 08 Semi-finals to be held at Big Stone Lake located on the South Dakota /Minnesota border in September.

New for this year the normal 2-day State Tournament is changing to two 1-day qualifiers and also adding a third qualifier at Lake McConaughy. This should be an unique change that should add something for everyone’s fun.

Additionally there are also the Open Team and Cystic Fibrosis tournaments at Mozingo as normal.

Check out the tournament page for more information and see you at the tournaments.

Pat Klausen

September 9, 2018

TBF District 8 National Semi-final Report

The Nebraska TBF would like to extend congratulations to Kent Priel for winning the 2018 District 8 National Semi-final tournament and also to Chris Swift for qualifying as the Nebraska non-boater at Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota. Both anglers will move on to the TBF Nationals in 2019 to a lake that will be announced later this year.

According to Kent he had about the worst practice period as you can imagine with only getting just a couple of hours in on the first day of practice before his outboard breaking down. Kent spent the majority of day 1 practice driving to a boat dealer very near Canada to get it looked at. After finding an issue he again was ready to try on day 2 but it was no better. Another dealer isolated the problem to a bad injector which was sent by overnight freight so that it would be ready for the tournaments’ first day on Saturday.

Saturday was cancelled due to high winds forecasted so it all came down to one day for the tournament.

Kent took a leap of faith and went to an area that a couple of friends from western Nebraska told him about where they had caught some smallmouth bass while fishing for walleye a couple of weeks earlier. Kent ran over 40 miles to get there to find the fish ready to eat. He developed a strong pattern using largemouth methods of flipping trees with a tube using 20lb line. It did not take long to get his limit and then started heading back since the wind was getting stronger. It took an hour and a quarter to travel back to weigh-in but got back safe and sound to win the boater side of the tournament.

Mike Iaconelli said it best “NEVER GIVE UP!”