THE BASS FEDERATION
and Pickwick is the perfect candidate to host the biggest high school fishing event in the world , according to TBF President Robert Cartlidge .
“ It ’ s a great venue for an event of this size ,” Cartlidge said . “ There ’ ll be about 1,200 competitors this year , and we expect more than 3,000 people in total to attend this event . When we were in Anderson , South Carolina , in 2021 , the location where we held the weigh-in seated 3,300 people . Our spectators filled that up and then some . We expect more of the same this year .”
High school anglers from all over the world will compete in the 2022 World Finals , including teams from Canada , Zimbabwe and South Africa . Domestically , teams that qualified for the National Championship will also automatically be entered into the World Finals , giving them the potential to perhaps win two major events in one weekend .
The two events take place concurrently on the same body of water , but that wasn ’ t always the case .
“ The National Championship and World Finals used to be two separate events ,” Cartlidge explained . “ The parents of the student anglers voted to combine the events to avoid having to take two separate weeks off during the summer . It also benefits anglers who can ’ t fish qualifying events for the National Championship . Instead of missing the event altogether , they ’ re able to enter the World Finals pool and still compete , even though they missed out on National Championship qualification .”
The World Finals / National Championship is a four-day event that begins on Wednesday , June 22 . The 2022 National Champions will be decided on Friday , June 24 – that team will then join the other top 31 teams in the world for the World Finals on Saturday , June 25 . The team with the most weight at the end of Saturday will claim the title of World Finals Champion and a big part of an overall college scholarship and prize pool totaling more than $ 3 million .
ANNUAL MEETINGS IMPORTANT FOR TBF ’ S FUTURE
Before the High School Fishing World Finals and National Championship get underway , there ’ ll be some business to take care of for TBF state presidents and tournament directors . While TBF runs like a well-oiled machine come tournament time , it ’ s the hard work and planning accomplished at these meetings that keeps the nation ’ s largest grassroots tournament circuit running smoothly .
“ This year we ’ ll have state presidents and state tournament directors come in and have three days of meetings about how we can continue to improve TBF ,” Cartlidge said . “ These meetings are where we set general directions – rules , tournaments , fish care and more – for the next year and years to come .”
In 2023 , the various state youth directors will join the state presidents for the meetings ( the youth directors and tournament directors alternate their attendance every year ).
These meetings aren ’ t just to advise the state representatives . Cartlidge says that a major goal of these meetings is for the state federations to also educate the TBF Board of Directors about improvements that can be made on a larger scale .
“ Each state federation owns one share of the TBF company , so these meetings are to inform shareholders of our policies and to get their input on how we can continue to grow at a national level ,” Cartlidge said . “ The Board of Directors and I have a list of things that we bring to the table , but we leave the floor open to any and every state to be heard with their ideas . It ’ s an important part of what we do .”
2021 High School World Champions Carson Underwood and Andrew Jones .
92 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | JUNE-JULY 2022