The struggle for consistency

CHARLES COUNTY, Md. — Nothing illustrates the difficulty of day-to-day consistency on a tidal fishery like the following results this week from the Bassmaster Elite at the Potomac River presented by Econo Lodge:

—    Jacob Powroznik was in third place with 32-12 after two days, then caught one keeper weighing 1-4 to finish 35th;

—    Skeet Reese was in seventh place with 30-2 after two days, then caught one bass weighing 3-2 to finish 37th;

—    Mike Iaconelli was in eighth place with 16-1 after one day, then caught three bass weighing 4-5 to miss the two-day cut and finish 53rd.

Those are three of the top names in the sport, and three of the most experienced Potomac River anglers. If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. That’s the main thing you should keep in mind going into today’s Top 12 final.

All tidal fisheries are temperamental. But with the abundance of aquatic vegetation in the Potomac now, it’s more finicky than most.

“It’s like the fish have a giant condominium complex,” Reese said Saturday. “They’re are just going from room to room, hole to hole. Where they finally position themselves is where you get your bites.

“It’s not like you have hard targets that you’re casting at. You’re casting baits through sparse grass, and the fish are just roaming around.”

All the “hard targets,” like wood cover, have been hit now, and bass don’t quickly replenish on those places.

“Tidal fisheries to me are not that hard to figure out when you’ve got hard cover,” said Jason Christie, who enters Sunday in fourth place, almost eight pounds behind leader Justin Lucas. “But when you’ve got grass involved that’s 100 to 300 yards off the bank and the depth is about the same, the fish move in and out. It’s hard to find them, especially in August when they’re not wanting to bite that much.”

It’s as much about the “when” as the “where.” Christie has two small areas where he’s caught all his fish this week. He struggled most of Saturday. He’d fished both areas and had only one keeper in the livewell.

“I fished my second area an hour earlier and had no bites,” Christie said. “When I came back through the second time, I had four bites and finished with 13-15, just like that. It happened that fast.”

Keith Combs and Reese had been fishing the same stretch of grass. It’s the spot where Reese almost blanked Saturday and Combs caught 16-12 to move into fifth place.

“It’s kind of random,” Combs said. “Skeet caught ‘em in there the day before. I just pulled in there (Saturday), kind of randomly between Skeet and Todd (Faircloth). The whole place was dead. There was no activity.

“I caught a fish, then I started noticing all this bait – needlefish – just everything is

going crazy in this one stretch. In the next 30 minutes, I waylaid them. But once the tide completely bottomed out, the bait disappeared and I didn’t have anymore bites.” 

Justin Lucas may have found the winning formula this week at the Potomac River. The big parking deck dock near Washington, D.C., might be the rare combination of hard cover that replenishes. He’s built a comfortable lead there over the past three days. 

But no one is ever comfortable on tidal water that is fishing as randomly as the Potomac River is this week. 

“The grass is where the numbers of fish are,” Reese said. “Guys that are fishing grass are more likely to catch fish right now, unless you have a 300-yard dock like Lucas is fishing.”