Eastern Division Heads to the Potomac
Tidal aces headline field
The Toyota Series Eastern Division rolls on with the Toyota Series at the Potomac River. Hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners, the three-day tournament will feature the region’s best bass-fishing pros and co-anglers casting for a top prize of up to $65,000, plus a $35,000 bonus if the winner is a qualified Phoenix Boat owner.
Though the field isn’t set to be huge for this event, it’s headlined by several of the best tidal anglers in the country. Among them are Bryan Schmitt, Mike Iaconelli, Kurt Mitchell and Wayne Vaughan.
Tournament details
Toyota Series
Potomac River
Marbury, Md.
Takeoff: 7:00 a.m. ET
Weigh-in: 3:00 p.m. ET
Current conditions
In any event on the Potomac, there are quite a few patterns in play. From settling down in a major grass bed around one of the Potomac’s big creeks, to fishing hard cover or going far up a creek to skinnier water, there’s almost sure to be some diversity in the top 10.
Joseph Thompson is a Potomac local to an extent, and he nearly won the 2019 Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine All-American there.
“The river has been fishing pretty tough lately, but I think that by the time this tournament rolls around it will get much better,” says Thompson. “The weather is stabilizing. We’ve had a lot of rain – the river is stained – and some stretches are muddier than others. However, it’s supposed to clear up in the coming days and with water temperatures dropping, I think all of that should really help the fishing.
“With the water getting cooler and cleaning up, I truly think we’re going to catch fish on a ton of different techniques,” Thompson adds. “We’ll catch fish in the grass. We’ll catch fish in the pads and on hard cover. If you go up north, you’ll catch both tides. It’s going to be wide open. So, the guy that goes out and fishes his strengths and doesn’t follow what the crowd is doing is going to be the guy that wins.”
For a winning weight, Thompson thinks about 42 or 43 pounds will do the trick. In 2019 in August it took just 38-15 for Marvin Reese to win and 2018 in August, Mike Hicks won with 48-10. There’s no particularly recent multi-day history for FLW in September on the Potomac, so it’ll be good to add a little data this week.
Tactics in play
Though the community holes are well known and famous on the Potomac, the river always offers some variety year over year. This year, Thompson thinks that even more tactics than usual will catch fish.
“We’re going to really open up the arsenal and catch fish on a lot of different baits,” Thompson says.
Thompson says that he expects a lot of fish to be caught on various topwater baits like buzzbaits, frogs and Pop-Rs, and moving baits like a swim jig or a ChatterBait.