Hughes Taps Two Stages of Potomac Spawn

Jenkins wins co-angler title on Potomac River

Jesepth Hughes of King George, Virginia, caught five bass weighing 21 pounds, 13 ounces, Saturday to win the 2018 T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division opener on the Potomac River presented by Navionics. For his victory, Hughes earned $4,948.

“I ran 15 miles south to Aquia Creek and fished two main patterns – targeting spawning fish in the mouth of Aquia and targeting prespawn fish that were moving out of the creek,” Hughes says.

“For the spawners I was just blind casting to where the beds usually are at, dragging a black and blue-colored Zoom worm. For the prespawn fish I had an area on a big flat – kind of a shell-bed hump with a few stumps. I worked that area with a ChatterBait.”

Hughes’ ChatterBait of choice was an Original Z-Man with a green-pumpkin-colored Strike King Rage Tail Craw. He says that he caught around a dozen keepers on the day – four dragging the worm, the rest on the ChatterBait.

The top 10 boaters:

1st:          Jesepth Hughes, King George, Va., five bass, 21-13, $4,948

2nd:         Matthew Caffi, Fairfax, Va., five bass, 19-1, $2,674

3rd:         Tom Bateman, LaPlata, Md., five bass, 18-13, $2,026

4th:         Safulla Rana, Warrenton, Va., five bass, 18-11, $1,255

5th:         Gregory Wilder, Millersville, Md., five bass, 18-0, $990

6th:         Ryan Powroznik, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 17-14, $907

7th:         Kyle Hoffman, Harpers Ferry, W.Va., five bass, 17-11, $825

8th:         Aaron Bartlett, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 17-8, $742

9th:         Scott Banton, Midlothian, Va., five bass, 17-2, $660

10th:       Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., five bass, 16-8, $577

Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.

Bateman caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $377.

Jenkins wins co-angler title

Lew Jenkins of Waldorf, Maryland, won the Co-angler Division and $3,051 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds even.

The top 10 co-anglers:

1st:          Lew Jenkins, Waldorf, Md., five bass, 18-0, $3,051

2nd:         Roland Burton, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 17-11, $1,237

3rd:         Jonathan Dietz, Corry, Pa., five bass, 17-4, $824

4th:         David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 17-3, $627

5th:         Billy Brown, Dahlgren, Va., five bass, 16-11, $495

6th:         Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 16-10, $454

7th:         Michael Nelms, Hartwood, Va., five bass, 16-3, $412

8th:         Gregory Callas, Falls Church, Va., five bass, 15-13, $371

9th:         John Henning, Lansdale, Pa., five bass, 15-8, $330

10th:       Lewis Williams, Roanoke, Va., five bass, 15-7, $289

Jenkins caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a 5-pound, 8-ounce fish – that also earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $377.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the region based on point standings, along with the five winners in each qualifying event, will be entered in the Oct. 11-13 BFL Regional Championship on the Chesapeake Bay in North East, Maryland. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard.