MARBURY, Md. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Northern Division wraps up this week at the Potomac River, and it should be a typical September Potomac event with good fishing but maybe not the best fishing of the year. With 122 boats in the event, there should be plenty of room, but it doesn’t mean that boat draw won’t be key – right now, the name of the game isn’t just community grass beds, and getting into the back of a productive creek first could be a separator.
Fishing Clash Angler of the Year wraps up
On the pro side, Fishing Clash Angler of the Year pays out $5,000, and this event should produce a great finish. In the lead, Brody Campbell has 517 points, and he’s 15 points ahead of his closest competition. But, after that, things are tightly packed. Hayden O’Barr, Ethan Carr and Erik Luzak are all in the hunt and have between 502 and 496 points – not a lot on a tidal fishery where consistency can be hard to come by.
There are also a few pros that might be in it if the top of the field falters. Tommy Dickerson, Jack Daniel Williams and Daryl Biron are all around 480 points, and Dickerson and Biron are old hands at shallow largemouth – they could be very primed for success.
The Super Tournament lowdown
Over the weekend, Rick Hawkins got the win in the Shenandoah Division Super Tournament on the Potomac with a two-day total of 33 pounds, 5 ounces. Broderick Luckey in second also eclipsed 30 pounds, but 11 to 13 pounds was a much more typical bag for the event.
Hawkins fished hard cover the entire event.
“I had decided I was going to slow down and jig fish and drop-shot fish and really pick the cover apart,” Hawkins said. “I did that and only got five bites Saturday and seven bites on Sunday. Most of the guys who were fishing grass were catching tons of fish, just not large fish. That was the difference. I was fishing for the large bite.”
Luckey, in second, ran a combo pattern.
“It’s been fishing tough. I practiced five days for the BFL, and only one of the days I actually had a limit,” he said. “Day 1, I ran a lot of hard cover, a lot of docks, and they seemed to bite good with the sun being out. Day 2, we got some good cloud cover and some good wind, and the grass bite turned on. I picked up a white swim jig and a white ChatterBait and went to work. When we got some wind, the bite really picked up.”
Luckey, of course, is fishing this event as well.
Schmitt’s assessment
When it comes to the Potomac, there aren’t many more dialed-in than Maryland pro Bryan Schmitt, and this week, he thinks we’re in for a tough one.
“There’s way less punching real estate, but more winding grass, submerged grass,” he said. “They’re in the creeks, but do you want to play Ring Around the Rosie? Boat draws and that kind of stuff can dictate that, and there are a lot of kayakers that venture into the creeks. It seems tough to me to catch a bass that is main-river oriented, but when you get in the creeks, there’s life.”
Schmitt expects the fishing to be a grind, as it often is in September, and he thinks the winning weight will reflect that.
“The weights were pretty good in that BFL compared to what I am seeing,” he said. “She’s tight. I would say for sure 15 pounds a day would win right now. If you look at what Hawkins had last week, he had a little better than that, but I don’t see that happening again.”