2008 MBFN Tournament Trail

       >President's Message

April 21 2008

Hundreds of Bass Caught in Potomac Tourney
RESULTS>>>

By Fredrick Matos
Photos by Rich Weldon and Denis Schanberger

The 2008 Maryland Bass Federation Nation (MBFN) Tournament Trail series of events kicked off on a very windy Saturday April 5^th with 90 enthusiastic anglers in the water on the Potomac River, launching at Smallwood State Park . It’s a great area for bass, with many great and diverse fishing locations such as the main river, various tributaries, coves, docks and structures, all presenting many opportunities to use unique angling strategies and tactics. The early April time frame and its cool water temperatures result in a pre-spawn condition, presenting additional challenges because of the finicky bass, with the bass waiting for the warmer waters to have their annual sexual experience. And as Ken Penrod jokes, bass having sex once a year is about the same frequency as some bass anglers have sex!

It was a cloudy and very windy day, with a number of anglers describing it as “rough.” The winds forced some anglers to switch their techniques during the tourney, moving from lighter spinning gear to heavier duty baitcasters and heavier lures that could be cast into the strong breezes. The air temperature was a comfortable 55 degrees, but the biting wind-chill factor made some anglers thankful they wore thermals and heavy jackets. Fishing tidal waters is another challenge with the low tide at Mattawoman Creek  at 12:54 AM, and high tide peaking at 6:01 AM, followed by another low at 1:39 PM. The water temp was 53-54 degrees, and a little warmer back in the shallower creeks. Water clarity varied depending on location, ranging from clear to light to medium stain. The bass were in a pre-spawn condition, and many anglers were successful with the usual pre-spawn technique of fishing deep drop-offs near the shallows, and running their lures near the bottom to catch the bass that were staging in the deeper waters.

The overall grand prize winner was Brett Quader of Pasadena from the boater category, whose total weight of 12 lb-14 oz edged Wayne Laubach of Joppa by a mere 6 ounces. “I was surprised at how low the total winning weight was,” observed Brett. “I expected that it would take 15 to 18 pounds to win it.”

Pat Loewy from Bowie took the 3^rd place show prize in the boater category. Money-tourney rookie Rob Chard from Pikesville captured the top prize in the non-boater category, with Joe Fleishman from Hagerstown and Ryan Fogle from Frederick , finishing a solid 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively. 

The Baltimore-based Port City Bass Anglers Club is obviously doing things the right way because both Wayne and Rob are club members, as is Dwayne Smith who finished a strong 4^th in the non-boater class, just 3 ounces out of the money. The Mudbug Bass Club from the Bowie/Crofton area was also well represented in the top finishers with top prize winner Brett Quade and 3^rd placer Pat Loewy as members.

(left to right) Tournament Director Kelly Comer with 3rd place boater Patrick Loewy, winner, Bret Quader and 2nd place finisher, Wayne Laubach.  Quader weighed in 5 bass that topped the scales at 12 pounds, 14 ounces.

The lunker grand prize went to Ron Kelley, from Glen Burnie and the Guy Brother’s Pro Staff Club from the LaPlata area, with a nice 6 lb-13 oz bass. Ron caught the big bass by slow rolling a red ¼ oz Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap with a baitcaster and 17 lb-test line at around 11:00 AM at an undisclosed location on the Virginia side of the main river in 3 feet of shallow-flat water.

On using the red Rat-L-Trap, Ron said “the fish I was trying to catch are looking for crayfish, so the bait I was using mimics them. If you have something that you know will work, why change?” He would have finished much higher but he lost a 5-pounder and a 3-pounder, boating a second fish to finish 5^th overall with a total of 9 lb-4 oz. Ron had new replacement trebles on the trap, so he figures that the two bass slipping off must simply be a matter of bad luck.

Ron Kelley, from Guy Brothers Pro Staff with the tournament lunker that weighed in at 6 pounds and 13 ounces.

Top gun Brett Quader fished the area in the week before the tourney to obtain first-hand experience about the water conditions and preferred locations. Based on these experiences, Brett’s successful strategy was to fish the grass beds, especially in clear water, using the main river area from Piscataway Creek to Broad Creek as his primary location. Brett caught bass all day, landing so many bass that he lost count, estimated to be in the 20-30 range, but almost all were too short. He began the day with moving lures such as crankbaits and spinners, with very little luck. He also had some difficulty casting spinning gear into the wind, so he switched to a heavier 7 ½-foot flipping stick, flipping a green-pumpkin Texas-rigged worm into the grass and docks. It’s obvious that that the new tactic paid off nicely for him. Brett caught his largest bass, a 3-pounder, in the afternoon when the tide was moving out. 

Brett gives a great deal of credit to Joe Delauney, his co-angler. “Joe has a great laid-back attitude that calmed me down when I was getting frustrated in the morning,” said Brett. Joe had a fairly good day himself, finishing 6^th in the non-boater class with three nice bass.

Veteran tourney angler Wayne Laubach pre-fished the area twice in the two weeks prior to the tourney to get a competitive advantage. One of Wayne ’s concerns was the unstable “up and down” weather that was so unpredictable. “The grass beds yielded small fish, so with the bass not yet moved to the flats, my strategy was to fish for the deeper bass that are more accessible,” he said. He fished ledges in Mattawoman Creek and the main river at depths running 5-18 feet. His strategy worked great, quickly resulting in three keepers early in the morning, within a half-hour of the tourney’s onset. The full day resulted in five bass and a total of 12 lb-8 oz. But like Brett, Wayne also landed many small fish, about 15, he said. 

Wayne used his reliable 6-6 medium-heavy baitcaster with a home-made 3/8 oz jig to catch four of his keeper fish. “It’s not really a secret lure,” he said, “because I made it from readily available parts.” Wayne caught his 3 lb-11 oz lunker at 7:15 AM, not on the jig, but on a red rattle-trap at a small grass patch next to a ledge. He used a slow “yo-yo” retrieve with great success. Using grubs and shaky heads only caught short fish. Wayne ’s co-angler, Rodney Young, also had a good day, finishing in a very solid 5^th place with a total of 8 lb-6 oz.

“It was a pretty slow day that started fast and ended fast,” Wayne remarked in reviewing the tournament.  “I was just fortunate to be in the right areas at the right time doing the right things.”

Rob Chard won the non-boater category, in his very first money tournament. His 3-bass total was 10 lb-5 oz, with a very nice 5 lb-2 oz lunker. Rob’s a native Baltimorean and a retired 22-year Army veteran. He says that he was looking for a hobby when he retired, and he landed on competitive bass fishing. He says that he grew up fishing in the Middle River area, where his parents had a waterfront home. “We fished and fished, not for sport, but for food,” he said. Needless to say, Rob ate a lot of fish when growing up. Bass fishing is relatively new to Rob, but he has learned a great deal very quickly in his three years as a member of the Port City Anglers club. If he continues to progress at this rate, we may see Rob in the Bassmaster Classic in a few years.

Rob pre-fished the area in the week before the tourney, but he says that he didn’t develop any particular strategy. He also caught many small fish under 12 inches, like Brett and Wayne, and even landed a very nice yellow perch. Rob’s strategy was to use search baits such as spinners and crankbaits to quickly locate the bass. He caught a nice 4-pounder in Mattawoman before moving up north to the spoils area, a rough 25-minute boat ride, but it was well worth it. Rob said that Kevin Mahoney, his boater, lives on the Potomac and knows the area extremely well, and that Kevin selected the locations. Rob caught his 5 lb-2 oz lunker in the spoils, using a ½ oz Frenzy rattle-trap in a variation of a fire-tiger color. Rob cast the trap into the shore, sometimes hitting the rocks on the shore, and then retrieving it along the rocks on the bottom to attract the bass staging in the deeper water.

(left to right) Co-angler winner Rob Chard with Ryan Fogle, third place. 2nd place finisher, Joe Fleishman, not pictured.  Chards 3 winning fish weighed 10.5 pounds.

Hagerstown’s Joe Fleishman of the Antietam Bassmasters club in Smithburg was  2^nd in the co-angler competition with four nice bass totaling 9 lb-9 oz. Joe gives a great deal of credit to Emory Taylor, his boater, whose strategy was to fish the main river 15-20 minutes north of Mattawoman. Joe estimates that Emory caught about 50 fish, and that had to have been the most bass that any angler caught in the tournament. It’s very surprising that they were all too short. “He caught more fish than anyone I ever saw before without being able to weigh-in any of them,” Joe observed.

Joe’s best lure was a shallow-running Mann’s Baby-4 Minus crankbait in a red-crawfish color. He caught three out of his four keepers before 11:00 AM. Unlike some other anglers who switched from lighter to heavier tackle during the tourney, Joe went the opposite way by switching from a baitcaster with 17-lb mono to a lighter St. Croix crankbait rod and Quantum reel spooled with 8-lb mono. “I wasn’t getting many bites on the 17, so I moved to the lighter rig with 8-lb line that provided more sink and better lure action,” Joe said. On the other hand, Emory was using 14-lb test line, but he didn’t have any of the red-crawfish colored lures. Joe believes that the lure color was the big difference in enabling him to catch the larger bass, compared to Emory’s ton of small ones.

Ryan Fogle, from Middletown and the Westmar Bass Club in Frederick , edged Dwayne Smith to place 3^rd in the co-angler or rider category. Ron’s a relative newcomer to money-tournament angling, this tourney being only his second participation. He said that he didn’t have any special strategy, “just to go out and have a fun day fishing and try to catch some fish.”

Ryan caught two nice bass, totaling to 9 lb-4 oz, and Dwayne was only three ounces behind at 9 lb-1 oz. Ryan and his boater began the day in the Mattawoman, but there was too much wind in their area, and it was crowded with entirely too many boats.  They moved to the main river, south of Mattawoman and below the power line, an excellent move in retrospect. Overall, Ryan caught 10 fish, but only two were long enough to weigh-in. His lunker was a very nice 5 lb-4 oz that he caught on a Zoom Brush Hog, and he also boated a 4-pounder on a blue-black jig. He used green-pumpkin and red-shad colored Brush Hogs, and a jig, slow fishing all of them.

Pat Loewy finished a solid 3^rd in the boater class with four nice bass, totaling 11 lb-12 oz. Pat’s strategy was to get a tactical edge by pre-fishing the area for the three days prior to the tourney. He decided on the area back of Mattawoman Creek beyond the no-wake zone because it was more protected than others, with much less wind. The water was slightly stained, becoming clearer when the tide was going out, with a temperature around 55 degrees.

Pat relied on medium and shallow-running Bandit crankbaits, colored in what he said was the fire-tiger color, in green and yellow, that the Potomac bass prefer. He used a baitcaster and 12-lb mono to fish the edges near some emerging grass and lily pads. He cast toward the shore and retrieved to the deeper 7 to 10-foot depths. It was a successful tactic, and he caught 12 bass, but eight were too short.

Overall, the big surprise in the tournament was that hundreds of bass were caught by the 90 anglers, but even more surprising was that a large majority were too short to weigh-in. The small bass will grow and grow into huge lunkers in a few years, so we have a lot of great fishing to look forward to in the future.

Last but not least, the unsung hero in all of this is Tournament Director Kelly Comer who deserves a ton of kudos. It takes a great deal of time and dedication to run tournaments, and Kelly and his cadre of volunteers did another great job. By the way, Kelly is looking for volunteers for upcoming events, so please contact him if you are so inclined. Two or three volunteers from the same club is an excellent approach to volunteering. It’s also an excellent learning experience for the BA.S.S. newbies. Club presidents can also help out by putting tournament volunteering on their meeting agendas. Kelly can be reached at 410-288-3533 or kchhvck@aol.com.