Mid-Atlantic Division

Potomac River Recap

On April 26th, 2008, thirty seven teams from the Mid-Atlantic division of The Fishers’ of Men National Tournament Trail competed on the famous tidal waterways of the Lower Potomac River, launching within minutes of our nation’s capital. This fishery consistently ranks as one of the top 10 destinations in the U.S. for quality bass fishing, in both numbers and size and although it sometimes shows the effects from the immense tournament pressure it receives, it still continues to pump out quality fish!

Amidst the 1000 or so tournament boats on the water that day, our field of talented anglers managed to catch 123 fifteen inch plus largemouth bass for a total weight of just under 360 pounds! A testament to the quality of the fish was that this is almost an average of 3 pounds per fish with many being the “buck” bass, due to the fact that we had missed the spawning moon phase, altogether. Nearly half the field managed 5 fish limits with most reporting catching 30-50 twelve to fourteen inch “throwbacks”, a tough thing to do when most weigh over 2 pounds! With ideal weather and tides, teams reporting catching fish both north and south, some sitting tight all day on specific “community” holes while others ran the tides. Fish were being caught in typical early spring fashion, on everything from rattletraps and spinnerbaits over the grass to jigs and soft plastics around docks and wood. Some teams even reported catching bass by “sight fishing” while others were on patterns involving rock rip-rap.

Showing they are a force to be reckoned with anywhere in the USA, from Northeast Pennsylvania, fresh off their FOM Delaware win, Randy Follmer and Ken Ansbach made it back to back weekends of winning 1st place! What is even more impressive is that due to tidal conditions, they fished for totally different patterns and areas than the week previous. For their 19.23 pound sack, they took home over $1200.00!

Coming in 2nd place via their 5 fish bag that weighed in at 19.08 pounds, anchored by the second biggest bass of the tournament at 6.02 pounds, was the team of Jack Whisted and Tom Purvis. They reported catching their bass south on senkos near docks. Claiming 3rd place and the early lead in the “Rookies of the Year” race was Jim Everhart and Rich Welden, with their weight of 18.90 pounds while returning 2007 Points Champions, David and Greg Wilder, looked to start their repeat as they finished in 4th place with 18.83 pounds, their bag anchored by the biggest bass of the tournament at 6.03 pounds, just 100th of an ounce ahead of the 2nd place bass! Rounding out the top 5 and taking the early lead in the “Adult/Junior” race were George and Wayne Fortner with 5 bass weighing in at 17.79 pounds!

Finishing in 6th place, from the North Appalachian division, with a weight of 15.81 pounds, were Rex Johnsonbaugh and Randy Yarnall. 2007 Rookies of the Year, Roy Bolling and Al Hogan used their 7th place weight of 15.38 pounds to claim the final check. Don Hamer and Dan Martin finished in the unfortunate position of “one out of the money” in 8th place while Rob Hager and Joe Tomaloff placed in 9th. Rounding out the top ten with their weight of 14.07 pounds was the team of Harden and Fernandez from the VA-East FOM division.

Special thanks to Pastor Tim Bean and his staff, our great hosts at Marbury Baptist Church, who have always been our most loyal supporters in the ministry arena. As is always the case with any Fishers’ of Men event, we were excited about the opportunity to gather together for an awesome night of fellowship, great door prizes, an awesome meal of baked ham, roast beef, all the fix’ins plus desserts till you burst! After going thru pre-tournament planning, we were blessed with a great message from Andy Lee, newly appointed assistant director, who shared his personal testimony of a path of denial, challenges, and ultimately acceptance of Jesus Christ as his savior. Giving hope to anyone and eliminating excuses for all of the 91 guests in attendance, 1 individual accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior while 13 others rose to the challenge to do more with their faith, so much so that they rededicated themselves to a renewed commitment to return to God and follow Jesus in all areas of their lives!

There are four events left in the 2008 schedule for the Mid-Atlantic division schedule and that means you still have plenty of time to make the big East Regional Championships which you do not want to miss this year as their will be over $50,000 in cash and prizes awarded including a brand new Triton / Mercury bass boat package. I cannot emphasize how important it is to make these next events and all you have to do to be eligible is to have fished in at least 3 of the 5 Mid-Atlantic 2008 tournaments.

Tidal Susquehanna Flats – May 31st, 2008
Upper Bay North – July 12th, 2008
Nanticoke River – August 2nd, 2008
Upper Bay South – August 30th, 2008

(For more information, make sure to visit http://www.sfvu.com/fishersofmen or http://www.fomntt.com or call the FOM Area Tournament Director at 410-256-2966 or e-mail him at igodwin@fomntt.com )

Another big thanks to Patrick Bright from Smallwood State Park, for making use of his facility such a flawless success.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our national sponsors: Triton Boats, Mercury Outboards, Shakespeare, Pflueger Reels, X-Tools, Strike King Lure Company, Kistler Custom Fishing Rods, Solar Bat, SOSpenders, Gary Yamamoto, Marshall’s Marine, Lowrance, Keel Shield, Berkley, Motor Guide, Stanley Jigs, Mizmo Bait Company, Dual Pro Chargers, Buckeye Lures, Deka Marine Master Batteries, Jacob’s Glass, All Star Rods, Poor Boys Baits, Rejuvenade and Keep Alive Oxygen Infuser.

The North Appalachian division is blessed to have the following sponsors, The SFVU Business Group and its non-profit charitable giving foundation, Fishing Dreams Unlimited. http://www.FISHERMENSHEAVEN.com where every FOM Member in the nation gets “members only” treatment, discounts and special exclusive items and apparel (http://www.fishermensheaven.com/store/FOMdiscount.htm). We also want to thank Trey at Kistler Custom Rods, Gary at Solar Bat Polarized Sunglasses, Troy at Mizmo Tubes, Randy at RoboWorm Finesse Handpoured Soft Plastics, Joe at Secret Weapon Spinnerbaits and Buzzbaits, Sam at Penetrator Slick Coated Tungsten Weights, Mike and Steve at McCoy Line, Kerry at the TTI-Blakemore Fishing Group, Andy at JC’s Lures, Eric at Scent-Tec, the makers of “Speedy Reel” and the National Promotions Team at Choice Hotels and Cracker Barrel restaurants, all of which help support your division locally. A special note of appreciation to Brad Finch with Finch Services, your source for your next John Deere product as well as Jim Herr of Herr’s Snacks. In addition, special thanks to Sharon and Bev from Prize Webworks for the great job they do with our website and Nancy from Nandel Graphics for the beautiful custom apparel and hats. All of these great Christian businessmen and women lead by example as they help support our ministry and I would ask that you consider supporting them with your next purchase.

Finally, no tournament circuit can make it without great volunteers and we desperately need more for this division, please give prayerful consideration to how you might serve? I want to pass on my gratitude to Andy Lee who accepted the responsibility of being the assistant director this year.