By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor


For all the poor-mouthing and belly aching that went on before the Potomac River FLW Tour, the weights were actually pretty well in line with expectations and maybe a bit higher than some thought they’d be.

Had it not been for three significant bouts of rainfall – one before practice, another Thursday night and then a massive downpour prior to the final day – many believe the weights would’ve been more impressive.

While most agree the population of bass has declined in recent years, the ones that still inhabit the sprawling grass beds on the main river and in the creeks still fell for the standard offerings that always seem to work at the Potomac – a Senko, a vibrating jig, a swimjig, some flipping and even a little shallow cranking.

Here’s a rundown of how the rest of the Top 5 caught ‘em at the season finale.

2nd: Andy Morgan

> Day 1: 5, 11-05
> Day 2: 5, 15-00
> Day 3: 5, 15-11
> Day 4: 5, 13-12
> Total = 20, 55-12

Andy Morgan figured he’d be in good shape with 11 or 12 pounds on day 1 last week, especially after the challenging practice he endured. He heard the belly-aching from enough of his competitors, too, to convince him what he had would put him in the top half of the leaderboard.

He was sorely mistaken. After getting nine bites on day 1, he doubled that on days 2 and 3 before his bite total dropped to seven on the final day.

He said he probably should’ve stayed in his primary area and coaxed a few bites to upgrade his stringer. If he’d have done that, he wouldn’t have been in catch-up mode the rest of the way.

“The main river was my key area,” he said. “I had another place I could catch them, but it was pretty far south. I knew if I could get bit on the river, I could do well. The whole deal for me all week was I caught fish in the transition from clean to dirty water, right where it was mixing. Every good one I caught one was on the color line.”

He also caught some flipping docks and picked off his bigger fish from the edges of nearby hydrilla clumps.

“If we’d have had stable weather we would’ve caught them better,” he said. “I like the Potomac. It makes you adjust and bob and weave all day long. There’s always some kind of moving water.”

> ChatterBait gear: 7’3” medium-heavy iRod Genesis 2 casting rod, Lew's Team Lew's Lite Speed Spool LFS Series casting reel (6.8:1 gear ratio), 14-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Z-Man Original ChatterBait (black), Zoom Speed Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).

> Flipping gear: 7’6” medium-heavy iRod casting rod, Lew's BB1 Pro Speed Spool casting reel (8:1 gear ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed tungsten worm weight, unnamed 5/0 flipping hook, Zoom Z-Craw (green-pumpkin).

> He also caught a couple weigh-in fish on a Livingston Lures Walk N Pop 77 popper bait.

> Main factor in his success – “Having enough sense to not run all around and fishing what I had and being cognizant that the tide would reposition those fish every once in a while.”

> Performance edge – “My Bullet 21 XRS was great all season. My ride was real clean and my Garmin electronics were key. I had no trouble getting there and back.”



FLW
Photo: FLW

Adrian Avena fished from one end of the river to the other, following the tide cycles, and collected his career-best finish.

3rd: Adrian Avena

> Day 1: 5, 16-12
> Day 2: 5, 14-00
> Day 3: 5, 12-10
> Day 4: 5, 10-11
> Total = 20, 54-01

Adrian Avena got out of the blocks fast, catching a 16-12 stringer to grab the day-1 lead. From there, however, he did all he could to hold on and be consistent. His weights dipped a couple pounds each day, but he never fell out of the Top 5.

“It was just hard to catch consistent bags there,” he said. “I think with the crazy conditions, that definitely threw a wrench to everybody. I’m not saying I’d have won, but I would’ve caught more than what I weighed had the weather been stable.”

In practice, he started to find that better fish were available in the main-river grass beds and in the backs of the creeks, depending on water clarity.

“I knew there were two things that could mess up both of them – wind and rain,” he said. “We had both and that hurt me. What I found and got me all excited is that I could catch the creek fish on low tide and I needed current flow on the main river to catch those fish.”

Avena worked the tide for his 1-2 punch, which took him as far south as Potomac Creek and all the way north to the Pentagon Lagoon in Washington, D.C. A variety of baits worked for him, including a power-fishing version of the dropshot on casting gear along with a swim jig and a soft stickbait.

“I thought I could run low water for 3 or 4 hours in the morning, then run river beds and hope to catch them that way,” he said. “I was definitely excited coming into this thing. I had the potential to do well.”

> Dropshot gear: 7’ medium-heavy Halo Fishing Twilite Series casting rod, Daiwa Tatula Type R casting reel (8:1 gear ratio), 12-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, 2/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, Roboworm Fat straight-tail worm, 1/4- and 3/8-oz. dropshot weight.

> Avena declined to disclose the color of the Roboworm, but did say it was a good numbers set up.

> Jig gear: 7’3” medium-heavy Halo Fishing Twilite Series casting rod, same reel, 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Zorro Bait Co. Booza Bug (black/blue), unnamed craw chunk trailer (black blue).

> Swimjig gear: Same as jig rod, same reel, same as jig line, 3/8-oz. homemade swimjig (shad and perch), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (white trash and Houdini).

> He also fished the Reaction Innovations Pocket Rocket on spinning and casting tackle. He threw the hematoma color around dirty water and green-pumpkin/watermelon laminate in clear water. He fished it wacky-rigged, Texas-rigged with a 1/8- or 1/16-oz worm weight and weightless.

“The bait has more bulk to it,” he said. “These fish have seen so many Senkos. This is a little bit different with the ribs.”

> Main factor in his success – “The first 2 days and understanding how the tides work on the river and knowing how fish position on low water. Some don’t realize how far they’ll swim in the tide. Those fish in the creeks, they’ll swim sometimes half a mile. When they get their tail in the current it doesn’t take long to go far. Being able to run that from one of end of the river to the other was key.”

> Performance edge – “Two things were crucial. One was a new SeaStar Solutions jack plate, which allowed me to be able to get into some of these areas in backs of creeks. The other thing was the Tides and Currents feature on my Lowrance units. It gives you update information on what the tide is doing and allowed me to keep on top of it.”

FLW
Photo: FLW

Darrel Robertson found a productive area and mined it with a Senko all week.

4th: Darrel Robertson

> Day 1: 5, 12-07
> Day 2: 5, 15-12
> Day 3: 5, 12-05
> Day 4: 5, 12-05
> Total = 20, 52-13

Darrel Robertson put together three 12-pound days around a 15-12 day-2 stringer to notch his best finish in more than 4 years.

“Most of my fish came on outside grass lines and scattered clumps,” he said. “What I was doing took a lot of patience. I think I did a good job for not having a lot of places.”

He fished a Texas-rigged Senko with a nail weight and picked apart areas that had vegetation.

“My bait wouldn’t touch grass for two or three casts, but then I’d hit a clump,” he said. “It took a lot of patience.”

He said he never fished the place where he’d gotten the most bites at in practice because it was muddy every time he checked it in the morning.

“Muddy grass is no good to fish,” he added.

He fished Quantico Creek the first 2 days without a lot of bites, “but every once in a while I’d hook into a 3-pounder,” he said. “I think the key for me was 90 percent of the people were fishing on the grass. I was parallel to the edge mostly.

“This river still has quite a few fish in it, but there’s a lot of dead water. There are a lot of places that look like where you’re catching them, but there’s nothing there.”

> Senko gear: 7’ medium-heavy Lew's spinning rod, Lew's Tournament Pro HP spinning reel, 12 pound Sunline SX-1 braided line, 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line (5-foot leader), 3/0 unnamed EWG worm hook, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Senko (green-pumpkin), nail weight.

> He caught a few fish on the Mann's Baby 1-Minus crankbait in stained water.

> Main factor in his success – “I think I had to create some patience. Sometimes it’s good to not know too much. I had confidence in that Senko and figured out I had to sit down and fish it slow. If I’d had fished a clean tournament, I’m not sure I’d have beaten Clark, but I would’ve been within ounces of him. It’s hard to fish a perfect tournament.”

> Performance edge – “That Lew’s rod and reel and that Sunline braid. I won almost $30,000 in the last two tournaments with that setup. I spooled that reel up before Chickamauga and fished a wacky worm under docks there and came here and fished the same reel all week.”

FLW
Photo: FLW

John Voyles resisted the urge to run around the Potomac and instead wound up with his first career Top-5 finish.

5th: John Voyles

> Day 1: 5, 14-07
> Day 2: 5, 12-03
> Day 3: 5, 12-13
> Day 4: 5, 13-03
> Total = 20, 52-10

John Voyles committed to fishing stretches of grass in Piscataway Creek after getting a few quality bites there in practice. He’d also been burned in the past by trying to target hard cover.

“Everything I’ve learned over the years is when I tried to fish docks, I got my butt kicked there,” he said. “You could maybe win a 1-day thing on them, but I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. I like to put my Talons down and fish a 100-yard stretch all day long and if they’re biting just smash ‘em.

“I’ve been to the Potomac enough to know the community areas in general and the places you can win from,” he added. “I fished them and got bites in some and none in others. A lot depended on water clarity. I also know some not-so community places and had bites there, but no quality bites.”

He targeted an area about quarter-mile into Piscataway that attracted several boats during the event.

“I had one little stretch where I was able to find the sweet spot,” he said.

As the event unfolded and changing conditions forced others to run around in search of cleaner water, Voyles was able to stay put.

“I was very fortunate in the area I fished that it didn’t get dirty,” he said. “You could look to the back of the creek and it was blown out. My area had a lot of milfoil, hydrilla, coontail and eelgrass.”

There were thicker clumps of vegetation and smaller, scattered clumps around, but he says the key was having a hard bottom.

On day 1, when the sun was out and the wind was negligible, he thinks bluegills had taken to spawning around there, which attracted the bass. A bladed jig was his best bait that day, but as the event wore on, he also worked a swim jig and Senko in and around the clumps of grass.

“It went against every bone in my body to fish a 150-yard stretch for 4 days,” he added. “Usually, I’m the guy who pulls up, makes four casts and I’m gone. After my practice, I was 100 percent committed to that place.”

> Jig gear: 7’ heavy-action Denali Rods Noirwood Series casting rod, Lew's Team Lew's Lite Speed Spool LFS Series casting reel (7.5:1 gear ratio), 50-pound unnamed braided line, 1/2-oz. Secret Lures MVP swimjig (homemade green-pupkin sapphire blue skirt), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (California 420).

> Vibrating jig gear: Same rod, same reel, 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. homemade vibrating jig (black blue), Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper trailer (black blue).

> Worm gear: Same rod, same reel, 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, unnamed 1/16-oz. worm weight, 4/0 unnamed EWG worm hook, 5” Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Senko (junebug).

> Main factor in his success – “Being patient and knowing that I was around some good fish. Having a good first day and catching many quality fish gave me confidence to say in that area.”

> Performance edge – “My MinnKota Talons. The first couple days weren’t too bad. Even if it was not windy, you can drift around a little bit there so those Talons were definitely a key to keep me in one spot.”