2016 TBF of Michigan State Championship July 17 Lake St. Clair

[djkimmel]

The 2016 TBF of Michigan State Championship is scheduled for Sunday, July 17 on Lake St. Clair after confirmation by FLW Outdoors that they will let us use the trailer that day after the BFL on Detroit River.

The state team from this event will go October 1 and 2 THIS year (2016) to fish against Ohio on Sandusky Bay in the new National Semi Final tournament where we trade off every year now with Ohio and Michigan only to save money.

Also not confirmed but likely, entry fee for the state championship will be $125 for boaters and $75 for co-anglers as the format has changed to boater / co-angler format now instead of a draw tournament. Boater controls the front of the boat and fishes against the other boaters. Co-angler fishes against the other co-anglers from the back of the boat as all other events starting with the new National Semi Finals are boater / co-angler format too.

The top 6 boaters and top 6 co-anglers will advance to the National Semi Final this year in October.

For this season only we'll be sending 4 persons to the 2017 National Championship next spring. It will be the top boater and co-angler from the September 2016 Regional that last year's state team qualified for, and the top boater and co-angler from this October's National Semi Final. Everyone will fish a couple days at the national championship next year out of their own boats and then the top boater and co-angler from each state will finish the national championship fishing out of Ranger Boats as before once they've paired it down from 4 for each state to the top 2.

[oldjigger]

Really this seems like it can be so rigged may be old fashioned but now sounds like we're going between st clair and sandusky bay and what about rest of state.   totally smallmouth fisheries

[Team houston]

Lets see, the state championship has been to the Grand river,Burt and Mullett, Cadillac and St. Clair. Did I miss any? Pretty spread out in my opinion.

[djkimmel]

Really this seems like it can be so rigged may be old fashioned but now sounds like we're going between st clair and sandusky bay and what about rest of state.   totally smallmouth fisheries

There's no guaranty that will happen though we draw the most boats often at Lake St. Clair. It makes sense for this year since we went to Cadillac and Mitchell last year, and the team this year will go to Sandusky - a similar water.

It will take time and patience to see how it works out since we can only have 1 National Semi Final per year in either Ohio or Michigan.

I can imagine if and when Ohio goes to the Ohio River instead some people will complain about going to such tough water when they have better water available. Hard to win as a tournament director. Even harder if you only have 1 event a year.

One thing to add - TBF Inc. stated they are not guarantying that the present state match-ups will stay the same long term either so we may end up being matched with someone else somewhere down the road besides Ohio. That could really change things up too.

We'll need some patience with this setup but I'm sure the various boards will do the best they can with the present setup.

[markgoetsch]

Happening this weekend!  Meeting after the BFL weigh in.

[djkimmel]

Good luck to everyone. The weather should be nice for a change (I hope).