The 2022 NJBF Team Tournament was held at venerable Lake Champlain and pitted the top anglers from the NJBF clubs in a two-day shootout. As usual, and despite the windy conditions, Lake Champlain did not disappoint.

The winning team, in dominating fashion, was the North Jersey Bass Anglers. This team, which also won the events help on Lake Champlain in 2018 and 2020 basically lapped the field by winning by nearly 23 pounds. The team consisted of Boaters Ralph Campitello, Jarrett Kuipers and Travis Pizzulo; Co-Anglers Joe Casale, Bill Garcia and Charlie Rother.

Taking second place was the East Coast Bass Anglers. This team persevered notwithstanding one of their anglers Day 1 weights being discounted based on a boat break down/late check in. That team did just enough to take second place by 0.72 pounds over the third place team. That team was Boaters Mike Mapes, John Holda, Greg Ryback and Bob Zeleny; Co-Anglers Tom Presnell and Anthony Simone.

The third place team was the Clearwater Bassmasters. That team consisted of Boaters Pete Longo, Ray Szmyd, Rick Vann and Brian Wisniewski; Co-Anglers Mike Aspinwall and Ed Szmyd.

The overall individual winners in the event were Pete Longo with 35.73 pounds; Rick Vann with 34.74 pounds and Travis Pizzulo with 33.47 pounds. These three boaters, along with the top three co-anglers (Bill Garcia – 32.72 pounds; Mike Paulicelli [Essex County Bassmasters] – 29.91 pounds; Scott Kirkpatrick [Warren County Bassmasters] -29.44 pounds), qualify to fish in the 2022 District 15 TBF National Semi-Final to be help in September 2022 on the St. Lawrence River.

Special thanks to:

The Ticonderoga Chamber of Commerce – https://ticonderogany.com/ticonderoga/

The Town of Ticonderoga – https://www.townofticonderoga.org/

The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism – Lake Champlain Region – https://www.roostadk.com/lake-champlain

The Lake Champlain Region – https://www.lakechamplainregion.com/

CANDLEWOOD LAKE – RESULTS and YEAR TO DATE RESULTS are posted on the Results page of this website.

The New Jersey Bass Federation’s second point event of the 2022 season was a two-day tournament held on Connecticut’s Candlewood Lake.  Candlewood is one of the best fisheries in the Northeast and is one of the few places you can catch largemouth and smallmouth bass on back-to-back casts.  The tournament turned out to be a close affair and the most consistent anglers came out on top.

BOATER DIVISION

The Boater Division winner was Scott Weiland.  Weiland was the most consistent angler over the two days as he posted 33.05 total pounds for his best 10 fish.  He was followed by Mike McMahon who also had two excellent weights but fell just short with 31.49 pounds.  Finishing in third place with a big day two comeback was Nick Angiulo with 30.07 pounds.  The big fish in the Boater Division was caught by Greg Del Russo who weighed in a 5.69 pound largemouth on Day 1.

CO-ANGLER DIVISION

The Co-Angler Division was won in a landslide by Joe Sodora.  Sodora had an impressive 21.41 pounds for his best 6 fish, easily taking the top spot by nearly 4 pounds.  Taking second was Mike Wotanowski, who also weighed in 6 fish, totaling 17.65 pounds.  Third place went to Joe Venuto with 14.79 pounds.  The Co-Angler Division lunker was a 5.32 pound largemouth weighed in by Joe Sodora on Day 2.