2024 NBAA National Championship Event Heads to Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas

PONCA CITY, Okla. (November 8, 2023) – The National Bass Anglers Association announced today that Lake Dardanelle, Russellville, AR, will host the 18^th annual NBAA National Championship in 2024.  Qualified teams will come from nearly 20 states on April 17-19, 2024 for the premier event on one of the top lakes in the country.

Russellville Arkansas in the heart of the US and right on I-40 will host the national event as anglers travel from Florida to Montana and points in between for the week-long event.  NBAA is excited to work with the Russellville Tourism and Visitors Center to roll out another great event.

“Our community is very excited to welcome the National Bass Anglers Association in April 2024, to Lake Dardanelle,” Chamber Director, Christie Graham, said. “We look forward to hosting this great tournament and all its anglers.”

“The NBAA’s local division format is a great format anytime but especially in a tough economy we face right now.” NBAA Tournament Director, Randy Sullivan, said. “Anglers compete in their local overtime or weekend division events on a local lake with very little travel or costs. Then, once each year the top anglers from each NBAA division can qualify for a true national championship vacation event at a destination fishery like Lake Dardanelle where they will catch numerous quality bass for a chance at significant cash and prizes including a new Ranger boat.”

A detailed fact sheet will be posted to the website at www.nbaa-bass.com  with more information needed for those attending the event. Competition days are slated for Wednesday April 17, Thursday April 18 and the 2024 Champions will be crowned on Friday, April 19^th at Dardanelle State Park. Daily weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

For more information about, NBAA, or to start your own NBAA division on your home lake visit www.nbaa-bass.com or call 580-765-9031. Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nbaabass.

For more information about the Lake Dardanelle area, contact Christie Graham, Executive Director of Russellville Tourism and Visitors Center at 479-967-1762.

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The 2023 National Bass Anglers Association (NBAA) is in the books and it was a great week at Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma.  With over twenty Divisions represented from fourteen different states, there were 103 teams that were all looking for the same thing, enough fish to win the Ranger Boat package, valued at just under forty thousand dollars.  As practice started at the first of the week, teams were already finding fish in several different stages throughout the lake.  Some were moving in, some were about ready to spawn, some were spawning, and others were already done spawning and moving back out to deeper waters.  But the reports were that most teams were not having a problem catching a limit, the problem was getting enough quality bites, to build the size of the daily bags.  About half the teams entered into the optional, option pot and right at two-thirds entered the daily big bass pot for the week.  This added roughly another $8,000 to the final payout.  This event was a three-day cumulative event, so every fish counted and was extremely important.

Wednesday set the tone for what was to come.  Lots and lots of limits and everyone had around the same weights.  Most of the 79 limits on Wednesday weighed between ten to fourteen pounds.  A total of 52 teams that had a double-digit weight going into the second day.  The overall leader after Wednesday had 18-05 pounds and the Big Bass of the day was 5-09 pounds.  Thursday was more of the same.  A total of 77 teams of the 103 brought limits to the scaled the weights improved a little bit also.  When the scales closed Thursday, 34-15 pounds was leading and a total of 58 teams had weighed at least 20 pounds on the first two days.  Big Bass on Thursday jumped a couple of ounces to 5-11 pounds.  The stage was set for the Friday crowning of a new champion.  The weights were really tight and realistically speaking, probably everyone in the top twenty-five had a good chance to win on Friday.

Friday was another pretty day in Oklahoma but the rain was gone and the skies were clear and the wind picked up and made for a really interesting final day.  Big Bass of the day dropped to 5-04 and the weights for the most part all were around nine to twelve pounds with very few quality bags on Friday.  Only sixty-three limits were caught and only roughly a dozen or so limits over fifteen pounds.  This really opened the door for several teams as they tried to work their way into the top twenty for a check or sponsor goodies.  The biggest two bags of the week were weighed in on Friday.  James and Gunner West weighed 19-15 and Larry and Phillip Harris weighed the biggest bag at 21-02 and finished just short of the win for a third-place finish.

James and Gunner West from Spiro, OK outlasted second place by just 15 ounces to claim the victory and the Ranger boat prize package with 49-01 pounds.  Seth Daniel and Noah Belt, also from Oklahoma, finished second with 48-02 and collected cash and prizes totaling around $5700.  Phillip and Larry Harris, from Tennessee, claimed third with 46-08 pounds and collected $3400 in cash and prizes for their efforts. Fourth place belonged to Tyler Fenger and Stephan Baker with 46-05 pounds and Greg Bowles and Grant Christensen had 44-12 pounds.  Each year every Division has a Team Points Champion and each year they fish for an additional option pot for only the TOY teams and the highest finisher walks away with the entire pot.  This year that pot was worth $2800 and the Michigan team of Jason and Jennifer Wilbur were the highest TOY finishers and claimed the $2800.  The top twenty teams received cash and prizes that totaled roughly eighty thousand dollars.  Not bad for a NO ENTRY FEE Championship.

You can be at the 2024 NBAA National Championship as well.  Simply visit the website and click on “Start A New Division” and  www.nbaa-bass.com will have everything you need to do in order to qualify for next years Championship.  Thanks for all the teams who took the time to come to Oklahoma.  We had a great week and met a lot of really nice people and look forward to seeing you again next year.

For Full results and more photos of this event CLICK HERE

2023 NBAA National Championship NO ENTRY FEE Event Travels To Grand Lake, Grove, OK.

PONCA CITY, Okla. (August 3, 2022) –It has been ten years since the NBAA championship was last hosted at Grand Lake and the feedback from the anglers a decade ago was, they wanted to come back, so after visiting top lake such as Chickamauga, Table Rock, Kentucky Lake and many others in the past decade, the National Bass Anglers Association announced today that Grand Lake in Grove, Oklahoma, will host the 2023 NBAA National Championship.  Qualified NBAA teams will come from across the country for a premier event on May 3-5, 2023. This annual no entry fee event typically boasts a payout well over $80,000 in cash and prizes.

The city of Grove will host the national event as anglers travel from North Carolina to Montana and many states in between to stay a week in the area. Grove, Oklahoma has established itself as a welcoming place for anglers from all walks of life and Grand Lake of the Cherokees is a diverse lake that has been stocked with full grown Florida largemouth bass multiple times in recent years and fits just about any style of fishing techniques.

“Our community is very pleased to welcome the National Bass Anglers Association anglers to Grove, Oklahoma in May, 2023 to Grand Lake,” Chamber President, Donnie Crain, stated. “We look forward to hosting these National Championship anglers in our hometown area.”

“NBAA’s is a local grassroots team format” NBAA Tournament Director, Randy Sullivan, said. “Anglers compete in events on a local level with very little or no travel cost. Then, each year they can qualify for a true national championship event at a top-rated fishery like Grand Lake, OK where they will catch plenty of bass for a chance at cash and prizes that rival many of the larger organizations. Top prize at the 2023 event will once again be a fully rigged Ranger RT198 Pro Powered by Mercury.”

A detailed fact sheet will be up soon at www.nbaa-bass.com  with more information needed for those attending the event. Tuesday evening, May 2nd will be registration / rules meetings, while competition days will begin Wednesday, May 3rd and the 2023 Champions will be crowned and awarded their new Ranger Boat with Mercury outboard on Friday, May 5th.

For more information about, NBAA, visit www.nbaa-bass.com or call 580-765-9031. Look for NBAA on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nbaabass.

For more information about the Grove, Oklahoma area, contact Grove, Oklahoma Chamber, at  www.groveok.org or 918-786-9079.

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