Top 10 Photos from Potomac River
It’s in the books. Over. Dunzo.
The 2015 Walmart FLW Tour season is complete. Clark Wendlandt hauled the final 2015 Tour trophy with him back to Leander, Texas, following the sixth and final event last week on the Potomac River.
As a result of the varied scenery on the Potomac, which includes the all-natural and the metropolitan, FLW’s media team was able to capture quite an interesting collection of photos at the finale. The crew even managed to make it out without raising suspicions from any government agencies pulling security details along the upper stretches of the Potomac near Washington, D.C. At least, we’re not on any watch lists that we know of.
Here are 10 of our favorite shots.
It was second place again for Andy Morgan, who finished runner-up to Clark Wendlandt at the Potomac River. This was Morgan’s fifth runner-up finish in Tour competition. Here, FLW Vice President of Marketing Patterson Leeth captured Morgan showing off some contortionist skills to land a day-four keeper.
Associate Editor Jody White bird-dogged Potomac River local Bryan Schmitt on the final day. Schmitt was around the fish to win but just never could put the pieces together. White certainly put it together on this sweet early morning casting shot.
Stormy weather was one of the main stories of the tournament, and few experienced it to the degree that Adrian Avena did. Avena was camping in Smallwood State Park, the tournament takeoff site, on Tuesday night before the tournament when a tornado knocked down power lines and uprooted trees. Park rangers evacuated Avena and several other pros. Luckily, no one was injured, the tournament went on as planned and Avena made the top 10. FLW graphic designer and photo editor D. W. Reed II captured him at the ramp in his decked-out truck on the rain-drenched third day.
The cast of FLW’s online reality series Circuit Breaker is a little bigger in its third season. Tour pro Mark Daniels Jr. is the main attraction, but also getting plenty of air time are members of his family – son Mark III, daughter Morgan, and fiancé Taneisha. That’s the show’s producer and director Travis Wavescorx holding the camera. White was behind the other camera.
White scored again on this fish-fighting shot of Schmitt on the first day. Schmitt was a target for cameramen all week, considering his impressive track record on the Potomac made him an obvious favorite. He finished eighth.
Matt “The Pace” Pace, FLW graphic designer and illustrator, captured this nature scene, albeit not exactly a “natural” scene. The osprey had just snatched up a mature goldfish, which are very common throughout the Potomac due to their former owners releasing them into the river. More than one pro was on a goldfish pattern too.
FLW Senior Editor Kyle Wood had no chance of missing Oklahoma pro Zack Birge out on the water. His orange and black boat stood out like … a goldfish in the shallows … Birge went on to secure the 2015 Rookie of the Year award on day two, a day after Wood snapped this photo.
John Hunter looks awfully lovingly at his Co-angler of the Year trophy. Perhaps he’s just excited about the prospects of picking out his new Ranger bass boat, which is awarded to the COY winner, or of his opportunity to move to the front of the boat next season.
What title hasn’t Scott Martin won? With his recent Angler of the Year award, Martin becomes the only pro to have won AOY, Co-angler of the Year and the Forrest Wood Cup. Here, he is awarded his trophy from Forrest Wood, the man who practically promised Martin a spot on his Ranger Boats pro-staff back when the pro was just a kid fishing from the dock at his parents’ resort on Lake Okeechobee. “I got my start in a Ranger, and I’ll die in a Ranger,” Martin told the crowd.
The FLW Tour just feels right when Clark Wendlandt is winning tournaments. The Texan won the season finale to end a 14-year winning drought, and he did it just a year removed from a heart attack that robbed him of part of his 2014 season.