Here we are at stop No. 8 of the Bassmaster Elite Series at the Potomac River, and I’m excited to get back on the water. It’s been an up and down year for me with a couple of really good finishes and a couple of bad ones as well, so I need a good event here to gain some AOY points. Qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic is still a possibility and I’m going to try my very best to do just that.
The Potomac River is a lot bigger than I expected. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since most tidal fisheries are large but this place really has it all when it comes to bass cover – and lots of it. Grass, wood, rock, docks whatever you want to fish it’s here. I’ve tried a little bit of all of it during the three days of practice and probably will do so again during the tournament.
Practice was pretty tough for me for the most part. I had some bites and found two areas that have some fish in them so I’m going to just hunker down and try to make the most of them. Being from Tennessee I don’t feel I have enough experience on tidal fisheries to try and “run the tides” so to speak, so I’ll just stay put, and when they get ready to bite, hopefully I can put my bait in front of them.
I’ve got 10 rods rigged up for Day 1, and they’ll probably all get some use at some point. I normally am a pretty simplistic guy and like to narrow it down to as few rods as possible, but different tides require different baits so my deck will be littered with MHX rods of all shapes and sizes. From a crankbait to a jig to a topwater I’ve got them all ready to go.
There is one rod though that if I can get it working and find the right stretch at the right time things could get good in a hurry. That rod is my MHX-FP-936 punching rod. I’ve got it rigged up with a 1-ounce tungsten weight to get through the mats here this week. Most of the mats here are not super-thick so a 1-ounce is about perfect. I may not get many bites this way but I know the big ones live in that grass so it’s certainly something I will be trying on game day.
The rest of my punching setup is a high speed reel, I use an 8:1:1, 60 lb. Vicious No-Fade braid, and a 4/0 Mustad 3x Grip Pin Max flipping hook. I’ll put my favorite beaver-style baits on and go to work.
Punching is a blast but takes some practice to master. Here’s a video I did last year that might help you get started…