MARBURY, Md. (April 23, 2018) – Boater Ronald Caldeira of Middletown, Delaware, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 6 ounces, Saturday to win the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Northeast Division tournament on the Potomac River. For his efforts, Caldeira took home $6,796.
“I caught them all on main-river points in the mouths of Mattowoman and Quantico creeks,” said Caldeira, who notched his first win in FLW competition. “I had five points that I cycled through, and each had pebble rock and sand. I think the big females were transitioning to the points right outside those main creeks, getting ready to spawn. I only had seven bites, but they were the right ones. Some of the fish were tanks – they’d been eating for a while.”
Caldeira said he used a Rapala DT-6 crankbait for bass in 3 to 5 feet of water and a Chartreuse and Black Back-colored Strike King KVD 1.5 HC Shallow Squarebill for bass in 1 to 3 feet.
“I’d start far off the point with the Rapala and then switch to the Strike King as I got shallow so I wouldn’t get hung up as much,” said Caldeira. “As soon the lure would bounce off the rock and free itself, that’s when they loaded up on it."
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Ronald Caldeira, Middletown, Del., five bass, 21-6, $6,796
2nd: Anthony Ebel, Davidsonville, Md., five bass, 19-12, $3,843
3rd: Rick McFaul, Phoenix, Md., five bass, 19-11, $2,134
4th: Jeremy Mathias, Monrovia, Md., five bass, 19-7, $1,352
5th: Brian Barnes, Seaford, Del., five bass, 18-14, $1,159
6th: Andrew Heivly, Malvern, Pa., five bass, 18-8, $1,063
7th: Kenny Garippa, Tobyhanna, Pa., five bass, 18-7, $869
7th: Matt Stoupa, Colonial Heights, Va., five bass, 18-7, $969
7th: Daniel Gray, Butler, Pa., five bass, 18-7, $869
10th: Thomas Arens, Purcellville, Va., five bass, 18-2, $676
Ebel brought a 6-pound, 3-ounce bass to the scale – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $945. Steven Frymoyer of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, won the Co-angler Division and $2,898 Saturday after catching five bass weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Steven Frymoyer, Wyomissing, Pa., five bass, 15-15, $2,898
2nd: Jodi Werner, Tatamy, Pa., five bass, 15-2, $1,449
3rd: James Easley, Middletown, Del., five bass, 14-13, $967
4th: Ethan Luta, Bradford, N.Y., five bass, 14-10, $676
5th: Michael Nelms, Hartwood, Va., five bass, 14-8, $780
6th: Michael Bahnweg, Union Dale, Pa., five bass, 14-7, $531
7th: Mark Fenstermaker, Allentown, Pa., five bass, 14-4, $483
8th: Richard Falcon, Arlington, Va., five bass, 14-1, $435
9th: Frank Hutchinson, Sewell, N.J., five bass, 13-10, $436
10th: Cherif Zaher, Orangeville, Pa., five bass, 13-7, $321
10th: Roland Gittings, Perryville, Md., five bass, 13-7, $321
Henry McKee of Haddon Heights, New Jersey, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The catch earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $472.