The New Hampshire BASS Federation Nation held its annual State Championship on July 19 and 20, 2008 on Lake Winnisquam in Belmont NH. The two day qualifier for the 2009 BASS Regionals, set to be hosted by the Ontario Federation Nation, drew a record number of 93 anglers to the brand new state launch facility on Lake Winnisquam. Weigh-ins were held at Ahern State Park.

Weather for the mid summer event was supposed to be hazy, hot and humid and Tournament Director John Foster announced that the limit would be four fish instead of five. This was done to reduce stress on the fish once in the livewells. Saturday's weather was mostly cloudy and sticky, but temperatures topped out in the low eighties. Water temps ranged from 80-82 on the main lake and climbed even higher in the backwaters. The conditions looked perfect for a good bite, but the typically temperamental Winnisquam bass had other ideas. Not even a vicious thunderstorm, just prior to weigh-in would trigger the bass to feed. Limits were hard to come by on Day One, as only 23 were checked in, but many quality fish did cross the weigh-in stage.

Granite State Angler Ray Nieuweboer set the pace with an outstanding limit of largemouth bass that dropped the scales to 14.24 lbs. Dave Boyko of North Country Bronzebacks held down second place with 11.75 lbs and Mike NcNamara of the NH Bass Casters grabbed third place with an 11.35 lb. limit of smallies. The top 12 cut-off at the close of fishing on Saturday was just 9.29 lbs.

Sunday's weather was forecast to be hot and humid again, with a chance of showers, but instead a cool, cloudy, drizzly day awaited the anglers at take off. Again "fishy" conditions prevailed, but as was the case on Saturday, the fish locked up and the bite grew even tougher. Only 18 limits would be checked in by the end of Sunday's weigh-in.

Many of the Top 12 failed to answer the bell on Sunday and fell out of contention, but Day One leader Ray Nieuweboer did not falter. He again caught a solid limit of largemouth bass that weighed 9.19 lbs. and cruised to his first ever State Championship with a total weight of eight fish for 23.43 lbs. Ray reported that he fished painfully slow around cabbage patches with Watermelon/gold flake tubes and Carolina-rigged brush hogs in 12-14 feet of water.

Bubba Bassin member Eric Bouldin grabbed 2nd place and made his first State Team by also fishing extremely slowly in scattered cabbage and coontail with a carolina-rigged Lizard. Eric's two-day total was 21.54 lbs. and he caught a mix of smallmouth and largemouth bass.

Coming in third place and making his second consecutive State Team was Stateline Bass Angler Paul Garland. Paul also fished plastics slowly in thick cabbage to get his bites. His tournament total was 19.67 lbs.
Coastal Six angler Brian Lytle made his second State Team by virtue of his 4th place finish. Brian caught the biggest limit of Day Two (11.64 lbs) and made a huge jump to finish the event with a 7 fish total of 18.43 lbs.

Coming in fifth place and making another big jump on Sunday was Bubba Bassin's Bill Vierzen. Vierzen fished green-pumpkin colored tubes on humps to box an 11.37 lb. smallmouth limit and close out with a 18.05 lb. total weight. This is Bill's third State Team.

Al Smith made his 5th State Team by virtue of his 17.93 lb. total weight. Al fished plastics slowly deep in the weeds to catch his bass and was helped greatly by the addition of a 5.22 lb. lunker largemouth that he secured on Day Two.

The following anglers rounded out the Top 12 and will be heading to Canada's Lake Simcoe in July 2009:

7th place: Brian Morin 17.43 lbs.
8th place: Brian LeFrancois 15.42 lbs.
9th place: Tyler Hanatow 15.02 lbs.
10th place: Greg Day 15.00 lbs.
11th place: Rob Messenger 14.96 lbs.
12th place: Ronald Konopka 14.63 lbs.

Overall, 364 bass were weighed in and 348 were released alive back into Lake Winnisquam. This amounts to a 95% live release percentage and was excellent considering the very warm lake water.

Lunkers for the event were as follows:
Day One Lunker Smallmouth: Greg Day 3.49 lbs.
Day One Lunker Largemouth: Brian Carrette 5.33 lbs.
Day Two Lunker Smallmouth: Joe Andrews 4.09 lbs.
Day Two Lunker Largemouth: Al Smith 5.22 lbs.

The NHBFN would like to thank its sponsors for their continued support: Granite State Rod and Reel, Lil Iguana's Childrens Safety Foundation, Fox Ridge Outfitters, Toyota of Nashua, Hurricane Bassin' Worms, Triton, Mercury, Motorguide, Lowrance, Skeeter, Yamaha. Also, a special thanks to the NH Parks and Recreation Department for allowing us the use of Ahern State Park and also to the Stateline Bass Masters for hosting the event.