Steady Villa moves ahead at the Potomac, top five is packed with talent
MARBURY, Md. – Slick and hot conditions made things a little tougher on Day 2 of T-H Marine Stop 5 at the Potomac River, and it showed on the leaderboard, as success on Day 1 was no guarantee of the same on Day 2. Moving up from third place, Martin Villa now leads going into the final day after adding 15 pounds, 7 ounces to 18-15 from Day 1 for a 34-6 total. Behind him, Nick Hatfield has 33-10, Michael Neal is third with 32-11, Cody Spetz tallied 32-9 and Potomac superstar Bryan Schmitt sits in fifth with 17-7.
While 30 pounds goes down the leaderboard to 21st place, the top five are stunningly tight. Considering how the Potomac has been fishing, and how free and easy Championship Monday is likely to be, things seem primed for one of the better Tackle Warehouse Invitationals final days of the year. With some big fish being caught, and some big hitters in the mix, it’s looking like a good day to tune in to the MLFNOW! live stream and maybe do a little less work than normal.
Hard cover has Villa on top
No stranger to the Potomac, Villa is an exceptional current fisherman who likes to hone his craft fly fishing for trout. Now, he’s in the mix for $80,000, and his efforts have him unofficially tied for the Angler of the Year lead as well.
Unsurprisingly, Villa is banking on specific pieces of hard cover at specific times. Running the tide and making a lot of effort to get on certain exact places – he checked one spot five times today before it was free of boats.
“I’m missing a grass bite – and I that know it’s the 1-2 punch that you need on this fishery – let me rephrase that, the big-fish grass bite,” Villa said. “It usually revolves around the topwater, but it just seems that when the tide is high they don’t really want to hit it, and when the tide is low I’m not really trying to be in the grass, because I’ve been fishing hard cover. And the places where the better fish are, they’re pulling off of the spawn. So, there are fish coming through every day, so hopefully there are some more there tomorrow.”
Villa’s best spot is a perfect confluence of his skills.
“It’s a dominant lie,” he said. “I have one cast that in the past two days I’ve caught 20 fish off of. The worst part of it was there was another tournament boat, a team tournament, that was on it all morning. I went five times for it, and the fifth time they were 100 yards away.”
With low tide moving back another hour on Monday, Villa isn’t going to have much time at prime time.
“I know that if I’m going to win this thing, it’s going to come down to the last couple of casts,” he said.
Of course, he could figure out the grass bite, which would make him pretty hard to handle on the final day.
“I’m going to have to search deep and think of where my starting spot is,” he said. “I do have a patch of grass up north that I got bit in, and it’s been historically good for me. I’m really confident in this patch, but the northwest wind blew it out these last two days. I fished it one day in practice, made one 15-minute pass and caught four, one that was 4 1/2. I’m hoping it calmed down enough. There is enough grass in there where it should clean out quickly, and if I can get there in the morning and catch them, I may not leave. Because typically you can sit on that school all day.”
Hatfield in the hunt again on the Potomac
Despite a Tennessee address, Hatfield has been pretty successful on the Potomac in his young career, and he’s looking good again going into the final day.
“Today started a little bit slower than yesterday for sure,” he said. “I started in Mattawoman yesterday, but didn’t do that today. I just ran straight to Quantico. It was super slow, the water was high, it was slack tide – it basically sucked. I milled around, and then I catch a 3-somehting on the swim jig, which is when I broke my rod and all that mess. I kept working down that stretch, and fish were blowing up on little shad. So, I got down and rigged up a Flashy Swimmer, put a little Keitech on it, and caught two nice 3-pounders on it.”
From there, Hatfield slid over to a pattern that has been an interesting feature of the tournament this week.
“I went to my little bream bed deal, and sat there for like an hour,” he said. “I caught a 4, a 3 1/2, it was pretty fun. It amazes me how many fish are in there that you don’t see. It’s like an aquarium, you feel like you can see a fish if it’s up there, but no. You throw it up there, pick up, and they’re running off with it.”
As for the final day, Hatfield has quite a few options on the table. But, he knows it will take a big bag.
“I feel pretty good about it, I think I can catch another 14 for 15 pounds,” he said. “Can I catch 16 or 18 pounds and try to win? Who knows, we’ll see what happens.”
Neal looking good again on the river
Hatfield and Villa have a pair of wins between them, one in college and one at the Phoenix Bass Fishing League level. By comparison, Neal is no stranger to the big time, having turned into an angler that is clearly among the Top 10 in the world over recent years.
“It’s not been as easy as usual,” he said of the fishing. “Yesterday, I didn’t have a limit until 10:30, and they weren’t very big. Today I had a quick limit off a bream bed I didn’t get a bite on in practice, but just weighed one off of it. Today they were all on a spinning rod, I never thought I’d get to the Potomac and catch them all on a spinning rod.
“It was all on a wacky rig. I think it was so slick, and they’re getting so much pressure. And, where there is good grass the water is fairly clear. So, I pulled out the spinning rod and just went with that approach.”
Neal has been fishing all over the river, as far south as Potomac Creek, and might be close to narrowing things down.
“I’m fishing probably four places, all four in different areas,” he said. “I’m probably going to eliminate a couple of those areas and just focus on one. I caught some good ones in the morning when the tide was high using 360 and LiveScope and just casting to the thicker clumps, so that may be a deal in the morning.”
Top 10 pros
1. Martin Villa – 34 – 6 (10)
2. Nick Hatfield – 33 – 1 (10)
3. Michael Neal – 32 – 11 (10)
4. Cody Spetz – 32 – 9 (10)
5. Bryan Schmitt – 32 – 1 (10)
6. Troy Stokes – 31 – 10 (10)
7. Blake Hall – 31 – 9 (10)
8. Cody Meyer – 31 – 8 (10)
9. Flint Davis – 31 – 2 (10)
10. Kyle Weisenburger – 30 – 15 (10)