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
1st Place Dustin Sperling 19.84lb
2nd Place Josh Smith 15.75lb
3rd Place Koleby Van Beek 14.96lb
Co Anglers
1st Place Jamie Taylor 22.00lb
2nd Place Gary Roberts 17.14lb
3rd 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.
