The 2025 season is a wrap, and we have our next set of anglers qualifying for the TBF National Championship where anglers compete for over 400k+ in cash and prizes as well as advancement opportunities into the highest levels of the sport. Nate Maher ran away with this event on the boater side bringing in both the heavy bag and big bass both days of the event to finish with a commanding 6lb+ lead over 2nd place. Nate finished with a 2-day total of 30.33lb including a 4.77lb big bass on day 1 and a 3.69lb big bass on day 2. The weights were certainly tight on the co-angler side, but Justin Bauer was able to beat the field by bringing in big bass on both days as well bringing his two-day total to 18.31lb with a 3.14lb day 1 big bass and 3.52lb big bass on day 2. Rumor has it Justin was able to anchor his day 2 bag in the last 20 minutes of the event to earn his spot to Nationals!

These two anglers will be joining Chancy Walter and Jim Garton who both qualified for the TBF National Championship back in May by winning our Clear Lake Qualifier.

The river was a new body of water for a lot of anglers and for a weekend forecasted to be filled with rain we were all lucky to stay dry throughout the event. A lot of fish were caught, no one got stuck in a backwater, and the Mississippi showed why it truly is a special place to fish. We are already looking forward to the 2026 season and it is never too early to reach out about TBF membership or creating your own club to participate in next year’s events. Let’s congratulate all our anglers on more time who made it to the TBF National Championship, and we look forward to cheering all these anglers on as they compete for a piece of the “Living the Dream” prize package at Nationals. Thank you to all the anglers who participated in the 2025 season, and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.

When District 8 Semi Final host South Dakota announced that the Semi Final would be held on the Missouri River anglers were not sure what to expect.  No Iowa angler had previously fished this water before making this event the great equalizer. The Missouri River is known to be a shallow water fishery that albeit tough to navigate and fish, can produce some quality smallmouth and largemouth bass. This body of water was massive and provided anglers a diverse playing field. Anglers could fish the river itself or drive down to Lewis and Clark Lake which sets up more like fisheries we are accustom to in the state like Lake Red Rock or Rathbun.   Iowa anglers took there lumps at this event with multiple boats getting stuck, lower unit failures and troller motor malfunctions, but with all tournaments someone will always rise to the top!

Boaters

1^st Place Dustin Sperling 19.84lb

2^nd Place Josh Smith 15.75lb

3^rd Place Koleby Van Beek 14.96lb

Co Anglers

1^st Place Jamie Taylor 22.00lb

2^nd Place Gary Roberts 17.14lb

3^rd Place Jim Garton 12.75

Congratulations to Dustin Sperling and Jamie Taylor for qualifying for the 2025 TBF National Championship boasting over 400k+ in cash and prizes as well as opportunities into the highest level of the sport.  These anglers earned every pound of fish they caught on a tough fishery to qualify for Nationals. We look forward to both of these anglers representing Iowa at the National Championship.   One overlooked, but cool feature with the TBF Semi Final is if a co angler weighs more than all boaters the co anglers gets to upgrade there co anglers spot to a boater!  No one loses a spot and we get to bring up 2 co anglers to pair with the 2 boaters.   Jamie Taylor winning the event overall on the co angler side as well as beating the Iowa boaters means he gets to upgrade to a boater position.  Since Jamie was able to conquer this feat of beating all Iowa boaters Gary Roberts and Jim Garton are also qualified for the National Championship with a co angler spot.   This is a great for our state federation being able to send 4 anglers to the National Championship. We look forward to cheering these guys on and want to thank everyone that participated in the Iowa TBF this year. We could not do this without you and look forward to seeing everyone for the 2025 season.

Returning to a familiar venue for the TBF State qualifier anglers descended upon Lake Rathbun on June 23^rd for the 2^nd and final TBF State Qualifier of 2024 season.   The conditions were excellent and anglers enjoyed a great day on the water. Anglers reported much better success leading up to the event, but come tournament time Rathbun showed its normal hand with big fish hitting the scales, but 5 fish limits being tough to come by.

Boaters

1^st Place Aron Jacquart 16.16lb with a 5.29lb Big Bass

2^nd Place Peter Pettschull with a 4.39lb Big Bass

3^rd Place Nick Siepker 14.31lb with a 3,79lb Big Bass

Co Anglers

1^st Place Gary Roberts with a 5.57lb Big Bass

2^nd Place Roger Davis 11.21lb

3^rd Place Trent Mcdermott with a 5.38lb Big Bass

Please join us in congratulating these anglers as they have qualified for the 2024 District 8 TBF National Semi Final, joining our first 6 qualifying anglers from the Okoboji qualifier this spring. These 6 boaters and 6 co anglers will all compete at the District 8 TBF National Semi Final on the Missouri River out of Springfield South Dakota on September 21^st-22^nd.  One boater and one co angler from our state team will advance to the TBF National Championship via the National Semi Final for their chance to compete for more than 400k in cash and prizes, as well as advancement opportunities into the highest levels of the sport.