The final Oklahoma Bass Federation qualifying tournament was held on the Arkansas River at the Three Forks Marina in Muskogee, OK on April 30 and May 1. As it has been the norm this year, the weather was a big factor. Thursday practice day was clear skies and not much wind. Friday, as predicted, brought strong North winds, and during our pairing meeting, a downpour. The heavy rain Friday night resulted in a rise of about 5 to 6 feet on the river to start the Saturday competition. However, as usual, our fishermen still found the secret to bring in good stringers of bass.
Day 1
The day started with high water levels, swift currents and muddy creeks. However, Stewart Ryan, Ada, brought one of the largest stingers of the year with a 5 fish limit weighing 19.23# with a 4.89 pounder to anchor his limit. Mike Morris, Ada, was second with 5 fish weighing 15.19 pounds. A pair of Bedlam anglers followed at 3rd and 4th with Jack Garrett’s limit weighing 13.47# anchored by the big bass for the day at 5.11# for 3rd and Shane Blocker with a limit weighing 13.30# taking 4th. Brandon Moss, Ada, had a limit weighing 12.35# for 5th, while Darrel Dye, Ponca City followed at 6th with 4 fish tipping the scales at 10.84#. The only other 10 plus stinger was Ron Fuller’s, NEO, 5 fish limit at 10.23# for 7th place. Rounding out the top 10 was Sandy Hooker, Ponca City, at 8th with a 9.84 limit, Dean Matts, Central, followed with a limit weighing 9.24# for 9th and Mike Morgan, Ada, 10th with 4 fish weighing 8.05#. John Garcia, Bedlam, and Shawn Lewis, Ponca City, were the only others to bring a 5 fish limit to the scales for 11 with 8.05 and 12 place at 7.62, respectively.
Day 2
The second day looked promising with no rain in sight and the river down to about 1 to 2 feet over normal. However, the current was still strong and the fish discovered there were anglers trying to move them from their places of residence to the Three Forks Marina weighin site. Only three anglers broke the 10 # mark on the final day. Stewart Ryan, Ada, again led the tournament with a limit weighing 13.81#. Following in second was Brian Browning, Bedlam, with the second with one of the only four limits of the day tipping the scales at 11.51#. Chuck Nelson, Ada, had 4 bass weighing 11.21# to capture the number 3 spot followed by Jake Beam, Ponca City, with a limit of 5 for 9.75# finishing at fourth place. Brannon Whipple, NEO, took 5th place with 4 fish weighing 9.30#. Clayton Coppin, NEO, was 6 th place at 8.92# followed by Shane Blocker, Bedlam, at 7 th with only 2 fish weighing 7.46# with the big bass of the day at 5.25#. The top 10 included Brandon Beck, Ada, at 6.38 at 8 th, Jody Linder, Ponca City, with 6.00# at 9 th and Mike Morgan, Ada, duplicated his 10 th place finish the first day with 5.95#. Wes Carey, NEO, was 11 th with 5.54# and rounding out the top 12 was the fourth limit by Jeff Linder at 5.09#.
Final 2016 Results
The final State Qualifying Tournament schedule has been completed. This year’s events had a dual purpose to select our final Central Division Team and determine the qualifiers that will fish the 2016 TBF National Semi-Finals tournament. The Central Divisional will be held on Truman Lake out of Bucksaw Marine the last week in June while the NSF will be held on the Arkansas River/Three Forks Marina September 24 and 25. The top 2 anglers from our Divisional will qualify for the 2017 TBF National Championship, number 1 as the boater and 2 as the co-angler. The top boater and co-angler in the NSF will join the Divisional qualifiers for an elimination round at the 2017 TBF Nationals. (Note: If there are 50 or more OBF contestants in the NSF we will be able to qualify two boaters and two co-anglers to the TBF Nationals.)
This year’s final results were the closest race between the top 14 spots than any of the previous 36 years history of the Divisional format. Stewart Ryan, again, took the State Championship with 396 points. Mike Morris was the State Runner-up with 385 points, both fish with the Ada club. Now the ties. We had two way ties for 3 and 4 with 384, 5 and 6 with 377 points, 7 and 8 with 366, 13 and 14 with 362 points, and a three way tie at 10, 11, and 12 with 363 points. The tie breaker is the total number of fish weighed in for the four days used to reach the anglers total points. The second tie breaker is the number of live fish brought to the scales and finally, the third being the total weight for the four days.
Ron Fuller nosed out Jody Linder with 19 fish verse 17 to garner 3 place and placing Jody at 4th. Dean Matts, the only angler to finish with 4 limits/20 fish, bettered Brandon Moss’s 15 for the 5th place slot. Brandon thus became the final boater on the Divisional team with his 6th place finish. Donnie Combrink, our first former Junior angler contestant to make our Team, took the 7th place with 370 points. Mike Morgan and Brannon Whipple not only tied in points, they also were deadlocked on fish weigh-in as well as the number of fish alive, 16. The final tie breaker showed Mike weighing in 34.87# to take 8th verses 32.62# for Brannon for 9th. The three way tie at 10 thru 12 was Kyle Tudor, Don Linder, and Shane Blocker. Tenth pace went to Don with 16 fish followed by Kyle weighing in 15 fish for 11th. Shane Blocker rounding out the Top 12 with his 12 fish total. The other tie at 13 and 14 was between Jeff Linder and Brandon Beck. Jeff got the 13 spot with 18 fish and Brandon notched the 14th place with 14 fish. Rounding out the top 15, with his second place finish the final day, was Brian Browning, Bedlam, with 258 points.
The team that will represent you at the Divisional June 19-24, 2016 will consist of 4 first timers, 3 for the second, 2 for the fourth, 2 with 22, and 2 with over 30 state team appearances. Dean and Don will fish in the last of the Divisional tournaments while having fished the first in 1981 on Toledo Bend. Stewart and Jody have represented us over 20 times while Jeff and Ron have had 4 trips. All others are going for their 1st or 2nd trips. This team will also have one of the youngest to make the team and the oldest. Donnie Combrink, 18, is second youngest to make our team. Wyatt Ryan who made the team two years ago at 18 was 2 months younger at the time than Donnie’s present age. The other part of history for these two is that Donnie comes from our Junior program and Wyatt was part of our High School/SAF program. On the other side, Don is the oldest to make the Team. This will be the second time that three from the same family have made the team, Jody, Jeff and Don.
