What a fantastic accomplishment by Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club assistant director and Springs Bassmasters member Ms. Kim Kissell and Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club Director and Springs Bassmasters member Mr. Sam Heckman to receive this grant from the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.

Colorado TBF would like to thank you both for your never-ending commitment and dedication to the Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club members and parents.

PRESS RELEASE

 CONTACT INFORMATION:

Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, Barbara Bowman, 501-541-6660

bbowman@bassfishinghof.com

 RELEASE DATE: 8/9/2021

Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Makes Four Conservation Grants

 SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – August 9, 2021 – For the second consecutive year, the Board of Directors of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame announces that the Hall has awarded four conservation grants to contribute to its mission of celebrating, promoting and preserving the sport of bass fishing. The recipients were selected through a highly competitive process, and they represent a diverse group of deserving projects.

“We are once again thrilled to be able to contribute to these worthy projects that should provide immediate impacts,” said Bass Fishing Hall of Fame President John Mazurkiewicz. “Habitat restoration and management, and other conservation efforts, are the lifeblood of our sport and are critical to bass fishing’s future. These grants are all going to worthy recipients for the benefit of the wider community.”

The four grantees are as follows:

• Southwest Iowa Fishing Team (Iowa Bass Federation TBF) – The SWIFT Conservation Fish Habitat Project will place artificial fish habitat structures in lakes and ponds throughout southwest Iowa, utilizing materials that will benefit biodiversity without decomposing or otherwise negatively impacting the fisheries.
• Spring Bassmasters & Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club (Colorado Bass Federation TBF) – Youth volunteers will create structures of chain, twine, cables and weight to sink approximately 100 cottonwood trees in the Valco ponds, adding much-needed fish habitat.
• Tri-County Bass Anglers (Indiana Bass Federation TBF) – Youth volunteers will employ a habitat enhancement plan created by the Indiana DNR in Patoka Lake, utilizing Pennsylvania porcupine cribs, pallets, black bass nesting structures and Hoosier cubes.
• Chattanooga Bass Association (TN) – The Association will build a release boat to redistribute tournament-caught fish throughout Lake Chickamauga, with help from TWRA, the Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga Tourism, Fish Dayton, and the Tennessee Department of Tourism.

“These represent a truly inspirational slate of bass anglers’ volunteer efforts,” said Board member Gene Gilliland, Conservation Director for B.A.S.S. “Once again, we wanted to make sure that sweat equity was incentivized and rewarded.” Gilliland and Board member Casey Shedd with AFTCO spearheaded the BFHOF conservation grant selection process.

The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame will hold its annual induction dinner on Thursday, September 30, 2021, at the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Mo. There will also be a concurrent auction, starting on September 27 through noon on October 1. The proceeds assist the Board in hosting the dinner and other recognition events each year, along with funding its conservation grants and other worthy endeavors benefiting the sport of bass fishing. Generous donors from all walks of the fishing and outdoors industries have already donated numerous products and experiences, many of them one-of-a-kind items that cannot be purchased elsewhere at any price. For information on induction dinner tables and tickets, visit https://www.bassfishinghof.com/2021-banquet – or call (501) 541-6660.

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About the BFHOF — The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame is a nonprofit organization led by a volunteer board of directors and is dedicated to celebrating, promoting and preserving the sport of bass fishing. Since 2017, the Hall’s inductees and memorabilia representing the history of bass fishing is showcased in Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Missouri, where it has rapidly become a popular destination.

For more information about the Hall, its mission, and to become a supporting member,

visit www.BassFishingHOF.com,

or contact BFHOF executive director Barbara Bowman at bbowman@bassfishinghof.com.

Congratulations to Cody Miller and Amy Winegardner for their angler and co-angler win’s at the District 21 National Semi Finals held last week at Lake Navajo and hosted by the New Mexico TBF.

Colorado TBF is proud of your accomplishment and look forward to cheering you on at The Bass Federation 2022 National Championship.

At just 16 years old Cody is the youngest angler ever to represent Colorado at this prestigious event. As part of the 2020 TBF Junior World Championship Team Cody is one young man you may want to keep your eye on.

Amy is the first female to represent Colorado on the co-angler side and in her short time of tournament bass fishing has earned so much respect from her fellow Colorado anglers and co-anglers.

For those who attended the event know what a tough tournament it was and surely can appreciate both of these anglers abilities to put together a winning pattern with the tough conditions.

Last week, CPW Aquatic Biologist Carrie Tucker and her technicians, placed artificial habitat into Wahatoya Reservoir near La Veta, CO. These structures were built out of recycled plastic barrels, irrigation piping, and landscape fabric received from Jim Ramsay (Aquatic Biologist in Lamar). The cement was purchased using money received from the  Springs Bass Masters club. Wahatoya Reservoir is devoid of submerged aquatic vegetation, so these structures will provide much-needed habitat for young fish to escape predators.

CPW biologist Carrie Tucker with technician Jake Stanton and intern Gail Hatch surrounded by some of the habitat structures before deployment.

Technicians Garrett Malone and Jake Stanton getting ready to drop a structure into Wahatoya Reservoir.

Technicians Garrett Malone and Jake Stanton, and intern Gail Hatch, surrounded by various habitat structures. Note our mascot in the foreground… Tyrone the T-Rex! J

2020 World Championships

By Ryan Steinhoff

The road to the Jr. World Championships started with a side trip to Arkansas where I helped my cousins learn to catch some bass. They are 5 and 6 and really enjoy fishing.  After a few days, we started the drive to Ohio.  The drive was a long 20 hours. Unfortunately, the beginning of our tournament started a little rough and learned a few things the hard way…always read the rules. We got there one day too early and started to pre-fish. Learned pretty fast that we weren’t allowed to be on the water yet… With us being a day early, TBF gave us an 8 once penalty and we had to miss a half-day of practice.  During practice, we only found one good spot and found a few others that had a few keepers. The first day of the tournament, we went straight to our spot and fished there the whole day and ended up catching four keepers. We caught those using a Texas rig. Those four keepers put us at the top of the Western division. The second day of the tournament was really rough. We only got two bites and capitalized with two keepers. We found out that those two keepers were enough to clinch the Western division and gave us the opportunity to fish on the final day and try to win the world championships. On the Championship day,  we did not have a single keeper until 11:30. We were starting to get pretty nervous!  We got our first keeper at the spot we fished for during the first two days of the tournament. We made a small adjustment and changed to the inside of the point.  We ended up catching 11 to 13 keepers! These were caught on senkos. On the boat ride back, we were so nervous that we didn’t have enough weight, all we could do was wait and pray. It was finally our turn to weigh in and were really happy with the weight. We weighed in at 10lbs 6oz which was enough to win the Jr World Championships and to bring a win to Colorado. This was an experience that I will never forget. There are so many people that I would like to thank: Sam Heckman, Rod Allen, our boater and Captain Steve Way, my partner Cody Miller, Tyler Hassler,  Trokar, Garrett Marquez, Kim Miller, Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club, Eagle Claw,  Parents, Milicia Marine, Colorado Custom Lure, TBF for putting on an awesome tournament.