Potomac Midday Update – Day 1
It doesn’t feel like August out there
Day one of the Costa FLW Series presented by Plano on the Potomac River dawned pleasantly cool. Instead of the sweltering humidity the mid-Atlantic region is famous for in the summer, it’s breezy and it was cool enough for a sweatshirt for most of the morning. The wind was out of the north to start the day, kicking up some 2-footers on the main river, but it seems to be slackening off a bit now.
The fishing has been decent, but not spectacular. As expected, the fishing seems to be a bit better than pros characterized it in practice, but not up to the standards set in the spring and early summer. Pretty much every technique you’d expect to see on the Potomac has been in use by someone – from weightless Senkos to vibrating jigs, buzzbaits and frogs, the fish seem to be eating the usual things.
Early on in Chicamuxen, David Barnes Sr. started his day with a singular 3-pounder on about his fifth cast. Kyle Minke got off to a decent start nearby and had four in the ‘well before 8:30 a.m. Joshua Weaver and Jason Lambert each had slightly frustrating starts, reporting a lot of missed bites, but Weaver had two good ones early and Lambert had that plus a smaller keeper.
Tank Mosley caught a small limit early, but had no size with it when we found him. Douglas Reed is doing rather well, bouncing between a few places, he’s got about 13 pounds in the livewell and is “one fish away from a good limit.” Another one doing well is Tom Lavictoire – the Vermont angler subtly indicated a limit and then some on the water – we’ll get a better estimate come weigh-in.
Belmont and Aquia seem to be the two most popular areas, with a bunch of boats in each of them. That said, the reports we garnered from Aquia aren’t great. Casey Smith was there and had just one in the boat. Nearby, Matthew Kiefer was still two shy of a limit around 10:30 a.m.
Elsewhere, Ricky Windsor had three when we found him and Mike Snider had two very early. Matt Becker had only managed one when we found him, and Powell Kemp has a small limit. Finally, Wil Dieffenbauch had put together four by about 11:30.
Come weigh-in, it looks like there will be plenty of fish on the scale. But, what will actually lead seems very up in the air.
Tournament details
Format: All boaters and co-anglers will compete for two days. The top 10 boaters and co-anglers based on cumulative weight after two days of competition will advance to the third and final round, with the winner in each division determined by the heaviest cumulative three-day weight.
Takeoff Time: 6:30 a.m. ET
Takeoff Location: Smallwood State Park, 2750 Sweden Point Road, Marbury, Md.
Weigh-In Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Weigh-In Location: Smallwood State Park