The Oklahoma Bass Federation will start the 2016 year by completing the 36 year old program and start our new, future program.
First, we’ll again qualify a 12 man team to fish the final Central Division Tournament on Truman Lake in Missouri, June 19-24. This will be the top 6 boaters and next 6 highest finishers at our three state qualifying tournaments (SQT). These events will be at Texoma, March 12-13, Eufaula April 2-3 and Muskogee, April 30-May 1. Each weekend event will be two separate tournaments with the winner getting 100 points, 2nd 99 and one less for each place. The final results will be the total of the four highest days. The top two team members at the Divisionals will advance to the National Finals with the highest being the boater and the other the co-angler.
Now the second part, the new program will run parallel to the above in 2016 and then stand alone in 2017 and the future. In 2016, we’ll run this along with the 12 team qualifying event. Here’s the difference; we’ll qualify 10% of the field to the Nationals Semi-Finals (NSF). That will be 10% of the total individuals with paid entry to our SQT’s along with the Top 6 and the State Team tournament. The Top 6 and the State Team event will be held at Muskogee, September 17-18.
An example of this is as follows: if we have 50 contestants at each of our 6 qualifiers that would give us 300 contestants allowing 15 boaters and 15 co-anglers to advance to the NSF. Likewise, using this past year’s numbers, we had 48 in the Top 6 and 54 in the State Team events. That would allow 5 boaters and 5 co-anglers, in addition to, the SQT qualifiers. The new program allows each club to send a boater and co-angler to the NSF. For a club to be eligible, they must have at least 2 entrants in any of the above events (it requires the two to enter and attend at least 2 of the SQT weekend events). The NSF will have an entry fee of $200 for boaters and $100 for co-anglers. This event will be run using rules establish by the TBF and all entries will be made through the TBF office.
The NSF will be held in Muskogee Sept. 24-25. We’ll fish with Arkansas in this event in a home/home format, next year, we’ll fish in Arkansas. We’ll advance the top boaters and co-anglers to the TBF National Championship. Those advancing will be based on one pair for every 50 entrants in the NSF. In the example above, we would send the top 2 boaters and co-anglers to the Nationals along with the two qualifying from the Central Division Tournament. At Nationals, our three boaters and three co-anglers will compete on Monday and Tuesday in an elimination tournament with the top boater and top co-angler advancing to the National Finals.
This is open to all Members meeting the requirements of the OBF. If you are interested, call 580-761-8094.
