April 23^rd and 24^th mark the dates for the Mr. Bass East TBF tournament.  Four members of The Bass Hounds team headed down for a few days of pre-fishing and then the two day tournament.  Boaters Rich Wolota and Brad Bressler left on Monday night and arrived at Smallwood state park Tuesday morning to start fishing.  Co-anglers Jeff Spencer and Derek Severns left Wednesday night and arrived Thursday in the am to fish a little and prepare for Fridays first day.

During the couple days of pre fishing, Rich had his spots and fish dialed in, a limit both days should have not been a problem.  Rich was having excellent luck with a Poor Boys darter jig, with a Poor Boys KISS Craw trailer, both in green pumpkin.  On the other hand Brad found fish, but not as many keepers as he had hoped for.  The size limit at the Potomac is 15” and most of the fish Brad was on were 14 ¾ inches.  Brad was catching a lot fish on Poor Boys Dixie Darter in black and also using green pumpkin.  Even though the fishing was slow as far as keepers went, the fishing overall was very, very good, each angler reported catching anywhere from 30 to 50 fish a day.

On day one of the tournament Rich went straight to the spot that he had found this week and was very happy to find that he had this area all to himself.  He was able to boat about 25 fish that first day but only two kept.  Rich said, “I broke off two fish early in the day, both were really good fish, I also missed a couple bites, I am pretty disappointed, but we will see what tomorrow brings.”  Brad started the day off with a keeper on his first cast, a largemouth weighing in at 3.81 lbs.  A great start he thought, then he caught 3 short fish in his next 5 casts.  Believe it or not Brad caught around 35 fish on day one but that first fish on his first cast was his only keeper.  Co-anglers Jeff and Derek did well, Jeff finished the first day off with 2 keepers for 5.41 lbs and Derek had 4 keepers for 10.23 lbs.  Both Jeff and Derek reported catching a lot of short fish, which seemed to be the way it was for most anglers.

Day two brought new hope of better results than the day before.  Brad started his day off by running to a new area in hopes of some bigger bites.  He did find them; Brad used his Poor Boys 4” tube in watermelon color to find these fish.  He ended the day with 3 keepers for 11.89 lbs.  Rich on the other hand went back to the spot that he fished the day before and today he did not lose or miss any fish.   Rich did indeed catch his limit and his five fish weighed in at 13.57.  Rich threw the same Poor Boys jig and trailer that he used the day before.  The co-anglers on the team did not fair as well, Jeff had two more keepers on day two for 6.11 lbs. and Derek had only one fish for 2.22 lbs.  Derek mentioned that he caught around 30 fish on day two, but only the one kept.

All said and done the trip did not produce the results the team had hoped for but everyone had a great time…Rich Wolota finished 15^th and Brad Bressler finished 22^nd in the anglers division…while Derek Severns finished 17^th and Jeff Spencer finished 21^st on the co-anglers side.   The team looks to improve on these finishes next month at the Western 6 Man Team event on Lake Erie June 26^th and 27^th.  The team would like to thank all of there sponsors,  Valvoline Oil, Strauss Automotive, Nervous Waters, Ardent Reels, Poor Boys Baits, Metal Menders, Fish Pittsburgh.com and Nowak Commercial Refinishes.