MARBURY, Md. (April 30, 2018) – Boater Jesepth Hughes of King George, Virginia, caught five bass weighing 21 pounds, 13 ounces, Saturday to win the 2018 FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division tournament on the Potomac River. For his victory, Hughes earned $4,948.
“I ran 15 miles south to Aquia Creek and fished two main patterns – targeting spawning fish in the mouth of Aquia and targeting prespawn fish that were moving out of the creek,” Hughes said.
“For the spawners I was just blind casting to where the beds usually are at, dragging a black and blue-colored Zoom worm. For the prespawn fish I had an area on a big flat – kind of a shell-bed hump with a few stumps. I worked that area with a ChatterBait.”
Hughes’ ChatterBait of choice was an Original Z-Man with a green-pumpkin-colored Strike King Rage Tail Craw. He said that he caught around a dozen keepers on the day – four dragging the worm, the rest on the ChatterBait.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:
1st: Jesepth Hughes, King George, Va., five bass, 21-13, $4,948
2nd: Matthew Caffi, Fairfax, Va., five bass, 19-1, $2,674
3rd: Tom Bateman, LaPlata, Md., five bass, 18-13, $2,026
4th: Safulla Rana, Warrenton, Va., five bass, 18-11, $1,255
5th: Gregory Wilder, Millersville, Md., five bass, 18-0, $990
6th: Ryan Powroznik, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 17-14, $907
7th: Kyle Hoffman, Harpers Ferry, W.Va., five bass, 17-11, $825
8th: Aaron Bartlett, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 17-8, $742
9th: Scott Banton, Midlothian, Va., five bass, 17-2, $660
10th: Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., five bass, 16-8, $577
Bateman caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces – the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $377. Lew Jenkins of Waldorf, Maryland, won the Co-angler Division and $3,051 Saturday after catching a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds even.
The top 10 co-anglers were:
1st: Lew Jenkins, Waldorf, Md., five bass, 18-0, $3,051
2nd: Roland Burton, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 17-11, $1,237
3rd: Jonathan Dietz, Corry, Pa., five bass, 17-4, $824
4th: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 17-3, $627
5th: Billy Brown, Dahlgren, Va., five bass, 16-11, $495
6th: Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., five bass, 16-10, $454
7th: Michael Nelms, Hartwood, Va., five bass, 16-3, $412
8th: Gregory Callas, Falls Church, Va., five bass, 15-13, $371
9th: John Henning, Lansdale, Pa., five bass, 15-8, $330
10th: Lewis Williams, Roanoke, Va., five bass, 15-7, $289
Jenkins caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division – a 5-pound, 8-ounce fish – that also earned him the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $377.