Sunday, August 29th was the 6th qualifying of the DelMarVa Division of U.S. Angler’s Choice Tournament Trails, Inc..This event was held on the Upper Chesapeake Bay out of Anchor Marina in the North East River.
A full moon brought a high tide to greet the 60 teams who competed in this event and did not recede much throughout the day. Although usually predictable, tides on the Chesapeake can have a mind of their own at times causing many teams to rethink their strategy. Forget the tides…the Chesapeake is tough enough on it’s own given all of the available cover to cast to. Today’s teams reported catching their bass on trees, grass, rocks, docks, bulkheads, grass mats and drop-offs. The key to success on this day was rolling the dice that the selected cover would produce the winning weight.
5th place today belonged to the father/son tea m of Rich Martin and Dick Martin from Maryland. Winners of our first tournament on the Potomac River this year, Rich and Dick hauled 14.48 pounds of largemouth bass to the scales to win $550. Our 4th place finishers have now topped the $5000 mark in winnings this year. Current leaders in the AOY contest, Virginia’s Don Jones and Chuck Dent located 14.85 pounds of bass to win $635. Jerry Pyles and Charlie Garst from the western sector of Maryland took 3rd place honors with 15.38 pounds. Jerry and Charlie won an Upper Bay event last year and are tough to beat on the DelMarva trail. They were awarded $695.
Ken Enders and Danny Vass found themselves resting in 2nd place at the completion of weigh-in. Their limit of bass totaled 15.94 pounds and earned them plaques and $870 as the runners up. They now reside in the top 5 in the hotly contested AOY race.
Walter Ross and Willie Barrett fished a combination of grass, wood, and deeper water in order to locate enough quality bass to win this event. They concentrated on topwater baits and followed missed strikes with jigs and tubes. Their best 5 bass weighed 16.31 pounds and earned them $1740 for the victory. Congratulations!
Dennis McGirl and Rich Garner took Big Bass honors with a largemouth that weighed 5.30 pounds. They were presented with a plaque and $600 for that hawg! Way to go!
The DEKA Marine Master AGM Batteries were won by Thomas Snoddy and Burley Hudgins.
A special thank you goes out to Cliff Magnus. Cliff is always willing to help out a fellow member in distress and offered his Lowrance expertise to get one of the teams up and running with their X15. Thanks, Cliff!
The final qualifying tournament of the DelmarVa Division will be September 26 on the Potomac River out of Smallwood State Park. This will also serve as our Wild Card event and Regional Championship qualifiers will be announced following weigh-in.

U.S. Angler's Choice
DELMARVA
News