Kelly Jordon’s water was the best, and one key grass patch gave up the three winning bites. There is more to his win than that, though.  Here’s a closer look at how Jordon won the Potomac Elite Series.

Practice
Practice was tough for almost everyone in the 102-angler field. Jordon’s approach was two-fold and he concentrated on topwater in the mornings. He then went and flipped matted grass – mainly milfoil – in the afternoons.  He went into competition with two primary areas – one for buzzing, one for flipping – and a number of secondary spots.

Days 1 & 2
> Day 1: 5, 17-09
> Day 2: 5, 12-03 (10, 29-12)

Jordon started day 1 in his buzzbait spot, which was in a little bay. He caught only small fish and moved to another spot with the buzzer. Soon after, a storm hit. He stopped short of his destination and “jacked around” in a little bay for an hour.

He waited for the storm and wind to subside, because he still wanted to fish his matted-grass area. “It finally slicked off around 12:30, so I buzzed down there and my first cast was a 5-12. Then I caught a 4-plus-pounder.”

His two flip-fish weighed nearly 10 pounds, and along with three smaller ones from the morning, he weighed 17-09, which put him in 3rd place.

Day 2 was a disaster. He didn’t catch any big fish, went three-for-eleven on the Boogerman Racket Buzz, weighed 12-03 and dropped to 6th place. It was a disappointing day.

Days 3 & 4
> Day 3: 4, 12-14
> Day 4: 5, 17-15 (9, 30-13)
> Total = 19, 60-09

Jordon started day 3 – another bluebird, post-frontal day – in his best buzzbait spot and caught a 4-pounder on the first cast. He had four more blowups after that, and hooked two with a Senko that he threw back.

He hooked his third fish, a 1 3/4-pounder, in the tongue, and was sure it would die. BASS rules prohibit the culling of dead fish at the Potomac, so if he kept it, he wouldn’t be able to cull it. Limits hadn’t been a problem, but he agonized over the decision and opted to throw it back.

He caught a fourth fish (a 3-pounder) late, but never caught a fifth keeper. His four-fish total weighed 12-14. Turns out the rest of the field had a tough day too and he moved up to 4th. But if he’d kept the fish, he’d have been the leader.

Instead, he started the final day exactly 1 pound behind leader Rick Morris. And the fish he tossed back was front-and-center in his mind.

He started day 4 with the Boogerman Racket Buzz and missed two bites, but caught them both with a throwback Senko. They were both 1 1/2-pounders. After that, he decided to go flip a limit spot, with the goal of eventually heading downriver.

He went to where there were mats at high tide and fished some areas he’d found in practice, wanting to catch a limit, then do some running.  He did catch a limit, but it was only 7 pounds.

“I was getting ready to leave – to run downriver – and saw something good,” he added. “I pulled in and caught a 4 1/2-pounder.”  That’s when things took off.

“I said, ‘What the heck’s this thing doing here? This one’s lost.’ It was really thick, matted stuff. I was ready to get out of there and said to myself, ‘I should fish this longer.’ “I got another bite, set the hook and it was a 4-pounder. Then about 10 minutes later I caught a 5 1/2. It was all between 11:00 and 12:00.”

And that was it. He weighed those three fish and two rats for 17-15. He edged 2nd-place Reese by just 7 ounces.

Photo: Kicker Fish Bait Co./Lake Fork Tackle Jordon flipped a Kicker Fish Kicker Kraw (top) in the super-thick grass, and a Lake Fork Tackle Craw Tube (bottom) in sparser stuff.

Winning Gear Notes

> Buzzbait gear: 7′ medium-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 20-pound Berkley Trilene Sensation line, 3/8oz. Boogerman Racket Buzz (chartreuse/white with chrome blade), 2/0 Gamakatsu trailer hook.  

> Senko gear: Same rod, same reel, 17-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon line, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline hook, no weight, Gary Yamamoto Senko (watermelon/black-flake).

> Flipping gear: 7’9″ heavy-action Fenwick Techna AV rod, same reel, 65-pound Spiderline Stealth braid, 4/0 and 5/0 Owner extra-wide-gap offset hooks, 1-ounce Lake Fork Tackle tungsten Mega-Weight (unpegged), Lake Fork Craw Tube (junebug and blue bruiser), NetBait Paca Craw (black/blue with silver-flake) and Kicker Fish Kicker Kraw (black/blue with blue-flake).

> He noted he fished the Lake Fork Craw Tube around sparser grass. In thicker mats, he switched between the Paca Craw and Kicker Kraw. On the final day, he only threw the Craw Tube and Kicker Kraw.

The Bottom Line
Main factor in his success – “The fact that I love to grass-fish and I was excited about the fishing. I’m not a big tide-fisherman, so I can’t tell you what the fish do. When they leave me I don’t know where they go. But when I see the right kind of conditions and the way the grass is, that’s the key deal. Here, it was clumpy milfoil with holes. Clumpy was the key.”

Performance Edge – “My key piece of equipment this week was my whole flipping combo. Actually, I was doing more pitching than flipping with that big rod. I’m just so comfortable with that setup, and the braid.”

Here is some details on how other top finishers caught their fish.

2nd: Skeet Reese
> Day 1: 5, 16-05
> Day 2: 5, 17-00
> Day 3: 3, 8-15
> Day 4: 5, 17-14
> Total = 18, 60-02

Reese relied on laydowns in 1 to 7 feet of water for his fish. “They were all in a creek,” he noted. “My number-one bait was a 4-inch Berkley  Power Hawg, but I also caught fish on a Terminator buzzbait and Terminator Pro’s Top Secret Jig.”

He started flipping with Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon on day 1, but ran into trouble. “I broke off four or five fish – there were barnacles all over the wood. They just shredded the line. I switched to Berkley Trilene Big Game and didn’t break as many off – only one (on day 3) and one (on day 4).”

> Flipping gear: 8′ fast-action Lamiglas XFT 806 flipping stick, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel, 25-pound Berkley Big Game  line, 3/0 unnamed extra-wide-gap hook, 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten Worm Weight, 4″ Berkley  Power Hawg (green-pumpkin).

> He caught his biggest fish on day 3 using a 1/2-ounce Terminator Super Stainless buzzbait. Three other fish he weighed were caught on a 5/8oz Terminator Pro Top Secret Jig in the Skeet’s secret color, which is a mix of olive-green, black neon and pumpkin.  

> Main factor in his success – “I think I just was able to find an area that had good-quality fish and I played to one of my strengths, which is flipping. They caught them a lot of different ways here, but I stuck with what I knew and fished on wood.”

> Performance edge – “I think this week the most important piece of gear was the Berkley  Power Hawg. I flipped a lot of other different baits, but that bait was consistently getting more bites than any other. I don’t know if it was the curltails or what, but they definitely wanted it.”

3rd: Steve Kennedy
> Day 1: 5, 15-15
> Day 2: 5, 13-05
> Day 3: 5, 13-14
> Day 4: 5, 14-06
> Total = 20, 57-08

Steve Kennedy also flipped, but he focused on matted grass. He’d find a group of fish concentrated in certain mats, then work them over with a variety of baits.  He had two primary spots – one at a creek mouth, the other up the river. He did find another upriver area late on day 3 that produced fish too.

> Flipping gear: 7’11” heavy-action St. Croix rod, Shimano Curado casting reel, 65-pound Power Pro Braided Line, 4/0 round-bend straight-shank hook, 1 1/2-ounce Bass Pro Shops tungsten weight (unpegged), Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver 4.20  (blue) and 4″ generic craw (blue) and Yamamoto twintail grub (blue) and Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw (sapphire blue).

> After he thoroughly worked a mat, he came around one more time with a green-pumpkin Sweet Beaver.

> Main factor in his success – “Just flipping that grass. I came in there planning on doing it, and I stuck with it. It’s what you have to do to win here.”

> Performance edge – “It was the Minn Kota trolling motor with a Weedless Wedge 2 prop – it got me through that grass. You’d get into the heavy grass, and once the water dropped to low tide, you pretty much had to plow through acres of hydrilla to get to what I call the real mats – the stuff that floats up to the surface.”

5th: Rick Morris
> Day 1: 5, 13-06
> Day 2: 5, 13-10
> Day 3: 5, 16-10
> Day 4: 5, 11-02
> Total = 20, 54-12

Rick Morris also focused on grass, but he threw a Chatterbait.

“I was fishing a Chatterbait on the edge of the grass when the tide dropped down – making short little pitches to the outside edge,” he said. “I was throwing right to the edge, where they were tucked up underneath. They’d come out screaming and slam it.”

His primary area was up a creek. During low tide, he fished in 1 to 2 feet of water. During high tide, the water was over the grass.  He also caught a few fish in the morning throwing a toad to arrowheads during high tide.

> Chatterbait gear: 7’6″ medium-heavy RPM Custom Flipping/Pitching Special rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 20-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, 1/4- and 3/8oz Rad Lures Chatterbait (green-pumpkin).

> He used the 1/4-oz Chatterbait on day 1, but after losing some fish, decided to go to the 3/8oz size, which had a larger hook.

> Toad gear: 7’9″ heavy-action RPM Custom Okeechobee Flipping/Pitching Special rod, same reel, 65-pound unnamed braid, 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline hook, Stanley Ribbit (watermelon) and RPM handpour frog (white).

> Main factor in his success – “I concentrated on one small area which was maybe an 1/8-mile stretch of creek. I was persistent with the Chatterbait for many hours until the tide got right and the fish turned on. It was a late bite every day.”

Sounds like grass was king on the Potomac, but several ways to pry the bass from the heavy cover.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Check out what it took to win and contend on the Bassmasters American Major.  Conventional wisdom suggests deeper water is the way to go this time of year on Wylie, but Wolak shrugged off that textbook approach when he discovered packs of fish along the banks.

Practice
Wolak had never fished Wylie before, but he knew from experience on similar lakes that deep water was the standard during mid-summer. During the first day of practice, he started in deeper water, but quickly discovered that approach wouldn’t work for him.

Next he tried shallow water and saw bass that were good-sized and accessible.  “I saw a lot of fish cruising and just sitting in shallow water,” he said. “There were little wolfpacks hanging around the banks and attacking the shad.”

He tried to get them to strike with a number of baits, before he finally settled on a Zoom Ultravibe Horny Toad. He also found if he pitched a worm behind it, he could get some of the fish that wouldn’t hit the Horny Toad. Most of the fish were at a depth of between 6 inches and 2 feet.

As he found more packs of fish, he marked them on his GPS so he could go back to them during the tournament. By the end of practice, he had a stockpile of points marked with quality fish.

Competition
Day 1: 5, 15-06
Day 2: 2, 4-13 (20-04)
Day 3: 5, 15-06
Day 4: 5, 10-08 (25-14)

On day 1, Wolak went back to his GPS points and started to catch fish. He bagged 15-06 and knew he had a pattern that could carry him through the tournament.

He tried the same pattern on day 2. The fish were there, but he had a tough day and only caught two keepers for 4-13. He didn’t catch any until the afternoon and one came at the end of the day.  “I didn’t execute,” he said. “I missed a couple. I squeaked into the cut, but I was optimistic, because I knew my pattern would hold up.”

On day 3 he fished a frog and pounded the fish. He finished with his second 15-06 sack of the tournament and held a nearly 5-pound lead.

Day 4 was sunny and still, and he figured the frog wouldn’t be as effective, so he fished a worm and caught his target of 10 pounds to win the tournament.  “I learned from day 2 that when it was super sunny and stagnant, they didn’t get that frog that well,” he said. “I fished with a worm a lot more. Knowing I only had to get about 10 pounds to win, I knew that was a better strategy.”

Winning Gear Notes
> Frog gear: 7’6″ unnamed flipping stick, unnamed reel, 50-pound unnamed braided line, Zoom Ultravibe Horny Toad.
> Spinning gear: 7′ unnamed rod, unnamed reel, 10-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 1/8oz weight, Zoom Finesse Worm (green pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “I did something a little bit off the wall that most guys wouldn’t have thought would win it. I pretty much ran with it and said this is what I’m going to do, and stuck with it.”

2nd: Kevin VanDam
> Day 1: 5, 16-04
> Day 2: 4, 9-07 (25-11)
> Day 3: 5, 9-02
> Day 4: 5, 13-13 (22-15)

When Kevin VanDam started the tournament, he felt deeper water would be the key to a victory, but he soon discovered shallow water would be more productive. Why? The bass were still hanging around the bream beds.

The first 2 days of the tournament, he concentrated on offshore structure with a jig. He worked the fish slowly and the approach got him 16-04 on the first day and 9-07 on day 2. However, he figured out the slow approach wouldn’t work for the six-hole format on the final 2 days.

So on day 3 he moved to shallow water and threw a mix of baits at the banks and docks. He landed 9-02 to make the final six.  “The main thing was to target the secondary pockets in the creeks and find the bluegill beds,” he noted. “I was fishing the docks and everything that was in there. I was just using whatever I thought would work. I had 15 rods out on the deck.”

He stuck with the same strategy on day 4. He moved quickly from one area to the next as he attempted to find fish, and finished with 13-13 – the largest sack of the day.

> Flipping gear: 7’4″ heavy-action Quantum PT Series flipping stick, Quantum Energy Burner reel (7:1 gear ration), 20-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, 5/16-ounce weight, 4/0 Mustad Big-Mouth Tube Hook, Strike King Craw Tube (green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “I think the biggest thing was working extremely hard and making accurate casts. Those docks are tough to fish. A lot of fish were suspended under the foam and you needed to put it right in there.”

3rd: Gerald Swindle
> Day 1: 5, 12-00
> Day 2: 5, 14-04 (26-04)
> Day 3: 5, 10-07
> Day 4: 5, 11-14 (22-05)

During practice, Gerald Swindle figured his best bet for a victory was to flip shallow water, and he stuck with that pattern throughout the tournament. At times it was a struggle, but he found enough fish to stay in the hunt.

On day 1 he only had 1 keeper in the boat at 1:30, but he felt his pattern would produce if he stayed patient. He caught a pile in the last hour.  Every day it was an all-day battle to catch five.When the fish didn’t bite, he had to remind himself that they would eventually, if he stayed with it.

“I just had to hunker down and wait for it to happen. You have to fish your pattern and stay mentally strong.”

> Flipping gear: 7’4″ heavy-action Quantum Tour Edition PT Gerald Swindle signature rod, Quantum Tour Edition PT reel (6.3:1), 15- and 20-pound Berkley G-String line, Zoom Trick Worm (watermelon, green-pumpkin).

> Main factor in his success – “The biggest key for me was patience. I had to make myself slow down to get the strikes. When you fished slow, you’d get the big ones.”

4th: Jason Quinn
Day 1: 5, 9-02
Day 2: 5, 11-12 (20-14)
Day 3: 5, 8-06
Day 4: 5, 13-07 (21-13)

Like many other anglers, Jason Quinn figured the best bite would come in deep water. But once practice started, he discovered good fish were still shallow and he changed his mindset.

“The bluegill are usually done bedding by now, but this year they were still bedding and the bigger bass were still shallow up around the beds,” he noted. “They should have been back out there on deep structure.”

The first 2 days of the tournament, he concentrated on those shallow areas, but spectator traffic increased dramatically the final 2 days and he was forced to move to deeper water.  He found that many of the fish were still in transition from shallow to deep, so they were tough to locate, but on day 4 he found some schools and caught his largest sack of the tournament (13-07) with a crankbait.

Every day the offshore structure kept getting better and in another week and it would have been different.

> Deep cranking gear: 7’10” medium-action Team All-Star crankbait rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 8-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, Rapala DT 16 (shad) or 3/4-ounce Luhr Jensen Hot Lips (green back) crankbaits.

> Topwater gear: 6’6″ medium All-Star Topwater Special rod, Shakespeare Supreme casting reel, 17-pound Shakespeare Supreme Super Tough line, Brian’s Bees Prop Bee (bluegill).

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy All-Star Platinum flipping stick, Shakespeare Supreme casting reel, 20-pound Shakespeare Supreme Super Tough, 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten Jason Quinn jig.

> Main factor in his success – “I think the key to my success was staying focused and not letting everything around me affect me.”

5th: Mark Menendez
Day 1: 5, 11-07
Day 2: 5, 8-09 (20-00)
Day 3: 5, 8-14
Day 4: 5, 10-05 (19-03)

On the first day of practice, Mark Menendez tried to fish deep structure, but couldn’t find any fish. Then he moved in along the banks and spotted some bluegill beds with bass on them. Once he saw those beds, he knew that’s what he’d fish during the tournament.

He threw both topwaters and jigs, but didn’t get many bites during the first 2 days of the tournament.   He made the cut, but the last 2 days of the tournament weren’t any easier.

“The last day was excruciating,” he noted. “I was so worn out from the heat, it took me until about 10:30 to get in any kind of rhythm with my casting. In the last two holes, I caught my limit. They came on a topwater chugger.”

> Jig gear: 6’6″ medium-action Pflueger Trion rod, Shakespeare Supreme reel, 14-pound Shakespeare Supreme line, 3/8oz Strike King Premier Elite Jig (black/blue).

> Flipping gear: 7’6″ heavy Pflueger Trion rod, Pflueger President reel, 20-pound unnamed fluorocarbon line, 3/8oz Strike King Premier Elite Jig (black/blue).

> Casting gear: 7′ medium-heavy Pflueger rod, Shakespeare Supreme reel, 15-pound unnamed fluorocarbon, Strike King Spit-N-King (Arkansas shiner) or weightless Strike King 3X Plastic Bait – Zero (watermelon-red).

> Main factor in his success – “The key was being persistent and not panicking. Also, I only lost one fish. I fished a clean tournament.”

What a weird deal to be fishing Bluegill beds in July in NC, I have not seen bluegill beds in MN for weeks….

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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