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WISCONSIN WINS THE BFN NORTHERN DIVISIONAL TOURNAMENT…..AGAIN!!! The 2008 WBFN state team has taken first place for the second year in a row, garnering the top prize of a $30,000 Skeeter/Yamaha boat. This makes the sixth year out of the last eight that the Wisconsin team has won the northern divisional. This win was a true team effort and while Jim Barczak led the Wisconsin anglers for the first two days of the event, there were three other anglers on the team close enough, that with a good limit, could possibly take over the lead on the final day. They were Brady Farrell, Chris Johnson, and Geoff Williams. On the final day, with a total weight of 14 lb. 4 oz., Brady captured the top spot. With Jim Barczak being the final angler for Wisconsin to weigh in he needed a weight of 14 lb 3 oz to take over the lead. Jim’s weight was 10 lb 7 oz making Brady Farrell the Wisconsin representative at the Federation Nation National Championship in November on Millford Lake in Junction City, KS. The team win was not an easy one. Wisconsin was in second place behind Ohio at the end of the first day and dropped to third place at the end of day two with Ohio still in first and Minnesota in second. There was a delay in the posting of the final results for day two because of a protest. Then came what Terry Hilbert called “Christmas in August”. The protest was against an Ohio angler for a violation of rule 16 which was for altering a fish. The end result of the protest was the angler having his entire day’s catch of 13 lbs disqualified. While this still left Ohio in first, Minnesota was now only 7 oz behind in second and Wisconsin about 5 lbs behind in third. With only one day to go the Wisconsin team really dug deep. They would need everyone to weigh fish on the final day….no zeros. The team meeting concentrated on knowing where everyone was going to be fishing and helping those team members that were struggling, and everyone finding fish. Members of the team had observed Brad Wall, top angler of the Ohio team, finding his team members and taking them to spots on Tuesday. He would stay there and make sure they knew how to fish the spot and then go get others. This became the Wisconsin plan for day 3. Chris Johnson caught his fish early in the day. He then went to find his team members and find out how they were doing. Those he found that did not have fish were taken to Chris’s spots. When Chris’s spot was full, he took them to the area Barry Wolf had caught his fish. This team effort made the difference with Wisconsin finishing in the top spot by 6# 3 oz over Minnesota with Ohio only 9 oz behind them.
Final Team Standings
STATE TOTAL FISH TOTAL WEIGHT (#-OZ) Wisconsin 126 278-7
Final standings for the Wisconsin Team are listed with overall tournament rank in the order they finished. Name Club Total Fish Total Weight (#-oz) We wish Brady good luck at the FNC in November and congratulations to the entire team for their win in Oshkosh. Here is the winning 2008 Wisconsin state team with alternate Terry Hilbert and President Jeff Dyer.
….and Brady Farrell the Wisconsin champ and Jon Stewart BASS tournament director.
Wisconsin hosted the Northern Divisionals this year and the great event would not have been possible without the many volunteers that showed up to help make the event a success. As the host state, Wisconsin also had to come up with funding for the Tuesday night banquet. A big thanks to Mercury Marine, New London Lanes (Terry Hilbert), and Brovarney Baits (Dan Brovarney) for donating money for this event. I would also like to thank Johnsonville Sausage for donating the brats that were sold at the youth concession stand. The proceeds from that stand were a big part of the overall monies raised for the WBFN youth. All around it was truly a team effort!!!
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