Virginia’s Highway 17 is a road refreshingly free of road trash, marked instead by white-framed churches named St. Matthews, crab traps and slate grey historical signs to indicate a huge number of America’s earliest roots are planted here.
Jump off 17 at Gloucester, wind your way over Cobb’s Creek and around the Bay’s other backwaters, and you can imagine seeing George Washington, Norman Rockwell and Ernest Hemingway sharing a biscuit – with crab meat on it – because everything around Chesapeake Bay – from French fries to breakfast biscuits – is available with meat from a soft-shell.
See photos of the Powroznik family hideaway.
Eventually, just before you run out of land, you’ll find your way to Port Haywood. Hang a left on Hamburg Road between the Island Stop store and Haskins Bayside Collision repair shop, go four miles to Potato Neck Road, and you’ll find the heart and soul of Bassmaster Elite Series pro Jacob Powroznik at a hurricane-ready home sitting on 1.7 acres of dirt his dad Dave hauled-in to stabilize the salty wet soil most said could never be built on.
“The lady we bought this land from didn’t even know she owned it,” grins Powroznik’s dad. “We tracked her down through court records and offered her a fair market price for it, even though she had no idea what it was worth.”
Dave was a concrete guy, and the massive driveway he poured has enough boats and graphically wrapped Toyota Tundras parked on it to mirror a roadside tournament hotel parking lot.
It’s a peaceful stopover for Kevin VanDam, Hank Cherry and Justin Lucas between Elite Series tournaments this particular August week. And of course, they’re here to fish – not for bass – but instead, the huge Cobia that swim from Florida to spawn throughout the summer in Chesapeake Bay.
No surprise, VanDam and his family catch the only Cobia of the week under Powroznik’s expert guidance before fishing turns unexplainably tough the next three days, even under ideal sunny skies and light winds.
“It’s just like sight fishing for bass,” says Powroznik, who seems to have superhero vision. “You want sun and real light wind. The sun helps you see them, and the wind makes them less spooky,” says Powroznik, who once boated a 79-pounder. “Cobia look like railroad ties lying just under the surface around these buoys – they’re colored about like an Aaron’s Magic finesse worm when you see them – sort of brown with a purple hue.”
There’s nothing finesse about the tackle. Live eels roughly 15-inch long, rigged on a 7/0 octopus hook, are cast on stout 7-foot Fin-Nor rods with size 60 Quantum Cabo spinning reels spooled with 50-pound braided line, tied to a 50-pound fluorocarbon leader.
At one point, Justin Lucas asks Powroznik if he’d rather catch a 10-pound bass from a spawning bed in a tournament, or a 60-pound Cobia. “I’ll take the Cobia all day – there’s no pressure with Cobia fishing – I’m having fun,” Powroznik is quick to answer.
In reality, much like the waterfowl he and his chocolate lab Scooby passionately guide clients to all winter, Powroznik takes Cobia every bit as serious as 10-pound bass. Three days of watching him cruise 20 miles of giant marker buoys the Cobia typically love to live around – to no avail – reveal his tenacity.
Powroznik is pretty much a one-track mind, fully focused on the end result, with no tolerance for fluff. Whether it’s lipping off to Justin Lucas over garage poker, barking at Hank Cherry about being a better first mate on the 23-foot Jones Brothers center console or shaking his head in disgust over a PR guy’s horribly inaccurate tosses in a game of driveway cornhole – Powroznik wants to win.
“I never had any doubt in my mind Jacob would be a pro angler,” says his dad resting comfortably under a blanket in a living room decorated with miniature lighthouses and spiritually-rich signs like “Pray When It’s Hardest to Pray.”
“Big Dave” is a fun-loving guy, a jokester, and his confidence in his son is not cocky. It’s simply factual. He himself is an accomplished angler that competed in the 2002 BFL All-American tournament and shared lots of success as Jacob’s partner in Priority Automotive Team Fishing tournaments.
Poppa Powroznik says his dream day of bass fishing would be casting red/black soft plastics to Potomac River grass lines in May, but he and Jacob have made a boatload of memories chasing salty Cobia too. “It seems like some of the best days Cobia fishing here have been when it’s just Jacob and I on the boat – I’m not sure why that it is – but it always seems to work out that way.”
The only car on the concrete drive belongs to Jacob’s mom Cindy. It’s a Toyota Camry with a sunroof and a kidney cancer awareness ribbon to reflect that not even a sandy patch of paradise is free of storms. “I pray a lot,” says Dave’s sweet bride of 41 years, before prepping the pork chops and mashed potatoes Hank Cherry requested for dinner.
Cherry, who’s tighter with the Powrozniks than a layer of paint on the back of a Livingston crankbait, assures me our time here is by no means an intrusion, but instead a pick-me-up. Momma J-Proz agrees. “My daughter Cassie says that every time Jacob and his fishing buddies come to visit, Dad gets to feeling better,” says Cindy.
“I really believe this place is a lighthouse for my son – a lighthouse for he and his fishing buddies,” she concludes.
Mom’s right, and based on the peace, love and pork chops she and this blue-shuttered lighthouse so comfortably afford – Jacob and his Bassmaster Elite Series fishing buddies will find their way back down Potato Neck Road frequently. Cobia are simply a weighty bonus.