MARBURY, Md. (June 18, 2023) – Warmer temperatures and a lack of wind of Sunday created a more finicky fishery for the 150 pro anglers competing on Day 2 of the MLF Invitational Stop 5 tournament at the Potomac River . Local favorite, Martin Villa of Charlottesville, Virginia, started the day in third place, but brought a limit to the scale weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces, to jump to the top of the leaderboard and bring a 1-pound, 5-ounce lead into the final day of competition. Over the first two days of competition, Villa has weighed in 10 bass totaling 34-6.
The three-day tournament features a roster of 150 pro anglers competing for a top prize of up to $115,000 and an invitation to compete at REDCREST 2024. The full field of 150 anglers concluded the two-day opening round on Sunday, with only the top 50 pros based on their two-day cumulative weight now advancing to Championship Monday.
The tournament is still up for grabs, as even 21st place has more than 30 pounds and is less than 4½ pounds back from Villa. Pro Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tennessee (33-1), Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee (32-11), Cody Spetz of Hollister, Missouri (32-9) and Deale, Maryland’s Bryan Schmitt (32-1) round out the top five competitors.
Villa has been fishing hard, banking on specific pieces of hard cover at specific times. He’s also running the tide and making a lot of effort to get on certain exact places – he checked one spot five times today before it was free of boats.
“I’m missing a grass bite – and I know it’s the 1-2 punch that you need on this fishery – let me rephrase that, the big-fish grass bite,” Villa said. “It usually revolves around the topwater, but it just seems that when the tide is high they don’t really want to hit it, and when the tide is low I’m not really trying to be in the grass, because I’ve been fishing hard cover. And the places where the better fish are, they’re pulling off of the spawn. So, there are fish coming through every day, so hopefully there are some more there tomorrow.”
Villa’s best spot is a perfect confluence of his skills.
“It’s a dominant lie,” he said. “I have one cast that in the past two days I’ve caught 20 fish off of. The worst part of it was there was another tournament boat – not ours, a local team tournament – that was on it all morning. I went five times for it, and the fifth time they were 100 yards away.”
With low tide moving back another hour on Monday, Villa isn’t going to have much time at prime time.
“I know that if I’m going to win this thing, it’s going to come down to the last couple of casts,” he said.
Of course, he could figure out the grass bite, which would make him pretty hard to handle on the final day.
“I’m going to have to search deep and think of where my starting spot is,” he said. “I do have a patch of grass up north that I got bit in, and it’s been historically good for me. I’m really confident in this patch, but the northwest wind blew it out these last two days. I fished it one day in practice, made one 15-minute pass and caught four, one that was 4 1/2. I’m hoping it calmed down enough. There is enough grass in there where it should clean out quickly, and if I can get there in the morning and catch them, I may not leave. Because typically you can sit on that school all day.”
The top 50 pros advancing to the third and final day of competition at the T-H Marine Stop 5 at the Potomac River are:
1st: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 10 bass, 34-6
2nd: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 10 bass, 33-1
3rd: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 10 bass, 32-11
4th: Cody Spetz, Hollister, Mo., 10 bass, 32-9
5th: Bryan Schmitt, Deale, Md., 10 bass, 32-1
6th: Troy Stokes, Trenton, Mich., 10 bass, 31-10
7th: Blake Hall, Rogersville, Ala., 10 bass, 31-9
8th: Cody Meyer, Star, Idaho, 10 bass, 31-8
9th: Flint Davis, Leesburg, Ga., 10 bass, 31-2
10th: Kyle Weisenburger, Columbus Grove, Ohio, 10 bass, 30-15
11th: Jim Moynagh, Shakopee, Minn., 10 bass, 30-13
12th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 30-11
13th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 10 bass, 30-9
14th: Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., 10 bass, 30-8
15th: Wayne Vaughan, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 30-6
16th: Wyatt Frankens, Corrigan, Texas, 10 bass, 30-5
17th: David Walker, Sevierville, Tenn., 10 bass, 30-3
18th: Austin Culbertson, Moberly, Mo., 10 bass, 30-2
19th: Robert Nakatomi, Sacramento, Calif., 10 bass, 30-1
20th: Pete Ponds, Madison, Miss., 10 bass, 30-1
21st: Terry Olinger, Louisa, Va., 10 bass, 30-0
22nd: Eric Panzironi, Longwood, Fla., 10 bass, 29-14
23rd: Travis Harriman, Huntsville, Ark., 10 bass, 29-12
24th: Blake Felix, Warsaw, Mo., 10 bass, 29-8
25th: Eddie Carper, Valliant, Okla., 10 bass, 29-5
26th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 10 bass, 29-3
27th: Jack Daniel Williams, Kingsport, Tenn., 10 bass, 29-1
28th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 29-0
29th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 10 bass, 28-15
30th: Kyle Hall, Granbury, Texas, 10 bass, 28-14
31st: John Duarte, Middle River, Md., 10 bass, 28-12
32nd: Jordan Collom, Canyon Lake, Calif., 10 bass, 28-12
33rd: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., 10 bass, 28-11
34th: Michael Catt, Jacksonville, Fla., 10 bass, 28-11
35th: Joe Wieberg, Freeburg, Mo., 10 bass, 28-8
36th: Jason Vance, Battle Ground, Ind., 10 bass, 28-7
37th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 10 bass, 28-5
38th: Jeremy Southerly, Fulks Run, Va., 10 bass, 28-5
39th: Cole Hewett, Orange Park, Fla., 10 bass, 28-4
40th: Braxton Setzer, Wetumpka, Ala., 10 bass, 28-3
41st: Mike McClelland, Blue Eye, Mo., 10 bass, 28-0
42nd: Matt Greenblatt, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., 10 bass, 27-15
43rd: Charlie Reed Jr., Gloucester, Va., 10 bass, 27-13
44th: Ramie Colson Jr., Cadiz, Ky., 10 bass, 27-12
45th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 27-11
46th: Cody Pike, Powhatan, Va., 10 bass, 27-10
47th: Tyler Stewart, Dubach, La., 10 bass, 27-10
48th: Kyle Minke, Lindstrom, Minn., 10 bass, 27-9
49th: Hunter Eubanks, Inman, S.C., 10 bass, 27-8
50th: Christian Greico, Tampa, Fla., 10 bass, 27-8
Complete results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Pro Paul Gettys of Due West, South Carolina, earned Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass award with a largemouth that weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce.
Overall, there were 717 bass weighing 1,771 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 148 pros Sunday. The catch included 138 five-bass limits.
In MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitational competition, the full field of 150 anglers competed in the two-day opening round on Thursday and Friday in a traditional five-fish, weigh-in format. Only the top 50 pros based on their two-day cumulative weight now advance to the final round on Championship Saturday, where they will compete for the grand prize of up to $115,000, including the lucrative $35,000 Phoenix MLF Bonus for qualified anglers. The winner of the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitational T-H Marine Stop 5 at the Potomac River will be determined by the heaviest three-day cumulative weight and will receive an invitation to compete at REDCREST 2024.
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Major League Fishing (MLF) Archive