Potomac River FLW Tour

Tournament Recap
Friday, June 26, 2015

Jay Yelas

> Day 1: 5, 14-03
> Day 2: 4, 5-04
> Total = 9, 19-07 (99th place)

Today was just a horrific performance on my part. I have no excuses. I just stunk it up today. I went back to the same areas that I fished Thursday and I’d had a good day in there. My co-angler was 8th and we’d probably caught 15 keepers.

I don’t know what happened. There was no one else in there. I don’t know how you go from 15 bites to not getting a bite at all. I weighed in four little smallmouths even though I was fishing for largemouth. My only guess is there weren’t that many in there and we caught what lived there yesterday, but that seems far-fetched. You don’t usually catch all the fish from an area in one day.

I’m driving down the road trying to have a discussion with myself about what in the world happened. I stuck with that area all day. I caught a few flipping and pitching and caught a couple on a swimming Senko and some on a ChatterBait. I was just grass fishing and fished some hard cover around the grass. Yesterday was a banner day and I thought I was in for a good tournament especially since nobody else was fishing it.

Luke Clausen

> Day 1: 5, 12-11
> Day 2: 5, 12-08
> Total = 10, 25-02 (25th place)

I don’t know if I had more going on. I pretty much scrambled throughout the week. I fished through the tides caught fish on probably six different baits in six areas. I was fighting (fishing) pressures and changing tides.

I caught quite a few each day – probably 20 keepers – but a lot weren’t the kind of quality needed to win. I didn’t catch a 3-pounder in 5 days on the water here. I’m not sure what to do to catch those here.

Everything I caught was out of the grass. I was not running the tide, but changes with the tide. On Thursday, I focused on community holes and today I ran a lot less pressured stuff because the bites were not happening in the community holes. Those were beaten up. I would’ve liked to fish tomorrow, but I had strong feeling I wasn’t on good enough fish to win.

Practice Summary
Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Luke Clausen
I don’t think it’s as bad as everybody is making it out to be. I think there will be a lot more 9- to 11-pound limits caught than people are thinking. It’s a typical tidal deal where you fish by them and not get a bite. Some guys will fish only where they get bite and catch five.

I’m not wrecking them by any means, but I got some bites. The goal is to get some bites and go from there. I really think more fish will be caught than what’s being let on

I fished some in every historical place here, but I never went north of 295 bridge. I’ve never been up toward (D.C.). I don’t know anything about it. There’s a limited amount of good-looking grass and that will group boats together. If there’s decent looking grass you’re going to get a bite. It’s not easy to get bites – it’s not like they’re jumping in the boat – but they’ll bite. It’ll be typical stuff for here. You’ll either be winding something or pitching something

Jay Yelas
My take from Sunday proved to be pretty accurate. There are no fish left in this river compared to what as here. It’s really tragic and I hate to see it for this place. Nobody seems to know why. The ones you catch are healthy and chubby, but they just don’t live in here period.

I’ve fished tournaments like this before and I’m thinking half the field will not catch a limit tomorrow. I had three bites on Sunday and no bites on Monday in 10 hours of fishing. It’s been years since I’ve had a day like that and I was trying to catch them, too. I had seven bites Tuesday so at least I found a few.

I didn’t have the kind of practice where I felt like I was on the winning stuff so I hope things will turn out better because it might not take as much weight to do well as some thought. It used to be a guy could stop on a grass bed and fish all tournament there and there would be hundreds of fish there. That’s just not the case anymore.

My process Tuesday was I was seeing everybody beating up the traditional areas and I wanted to go somewhere people hadn’t been fishing. I went somewhere and saw only two boats all day. I’m fishing somewhere I‘ve never fished here before.

Day 1 Practice Recap
Sunday, June 21, 2015

Jay Yelas
We had tornadoes and torrential rains Saturday night and the effects were evident today. The creeks were all blown out chocolate mud today. It’ll all settle in by the time the tournament starts. I don’t think it’ll affect the fish all that much.

I do think there’s something going on here. I just don’t think the fish are in here like they used to be. I’ve been coming here since 1991 and this used to be a bass factory. It was absolutely loaded, but today I talked to four or five guys and I’ve yet to talk a pro who caught five 12-inchers. I caught three bass all day. They were all chunky, 3-pounders, but with all the water I fished, I should’ve had 15 to 20 bites. I don’t know what’s going on.

The grass isn’t as healthy or plentiful as it used to be, but there’s still plenty of it. The last time we were here in 2012, it was a pretty good tournament. The fish I caught today were all healthy, but it’s not like they’re off shore on the ledges. It’s the Potomac River. They’re in 5 feet or less so it’s a little baffling to me. It’s been a perplexing start to the week.

Luke Clausen
It hasn’t been good so far. I’ve gotten some bites, but I’m not getting bit on anything others aren’t fishing. It’s not easy to get a bite and as practice goes on, I anticipate a fair number a guys will not catch a limit Thursday. It’s not the river I remember from the past.

The place I won at (in 2011), there’s no grass there from what I’ve been told. I haven’t been over there, but other guys have told me that. It’s just fishing smaller and with less grass. It’s hard to figure out what will transpire. Hopefully, I’m able to find something a little different. I feel like I’m fishing stuff that’s obvious.

Even the hydrilla is pretty short where it’s growing. I don’t think it will be a real factor where I’ve seen it. The grass seems to be way behind. It’s just real short and I don’t even know if fish would use it as short as it is.

I need to find something different and separate myself from people doing the same thing. The hard cover thing is a grind with the wood and docks, but those might be more of a factor than they have been in the past.