MARBURY, Md. (May 12, 2025) – Boater Joshua McGeary of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 4 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on the Potomac River. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. McGeary earned $11,127, including the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus, for his victory. Most of the action came early for McGeary, who took advantage of the high tide to put an early limit in the livewell.
“I just wanted to go to a place where I knew there were fish – more or less a community hole,” he said. “We fished around there for the first two hours of the day.”
After that, McGeary strategically played the wind. He knew that the forecast called for the wind to build throughout the day, making it harder to fish and travel on the east side of the river. So he ran over to that side after leaving the community hole before the wind got too bad. After fishing there for a while, he jumped over to the west side midday to avoid the worst of the wind later in the day.
McGeary had his final weight by lunchtime – a good thing because, eventually, the tide pulled out so hard that getting bit was tough in the afternoon.
“I was going to areas that I knew were protected from the wind and areas I knew that traditionally hold fish,” McGeary said. “I didn’t have much practice for this tournament, so I just was fishing off my gut. And it worked out. I caught over 20 keepers today, and I just whittled my way up. I never really had a big fish. I just had a good solid five-fish limit.”
For McGeary, the ChatterBait bite was tough, but he still caught two of his weigh fish on the vibrating jig. The rest came on a Texas-rigged X Zone Adrenaline Bug. Most of his fish came off various types of hard cover.
“It was just one of those days where I was in a groove, making a lot of right decisions,” McGeary added. “It just worked out.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Joshua McGeary, Mount Pleasant, Pa., five bass, 18-4, $11,127 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd: Ryan Lachniet, Gum Spring, Va., five bass, 18-2, $2,064
3rd: Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., five bass, 17-10, $1,377
4th: Safulla (Safu) Rana, Manassas, Va., five bass, 17-0, $1,538
5th: Brian Mullaney, Ijamsville, Md., five bass, 16-2, $825
6th: Aaron Dixon, Bel Alton, Md., five bass, 15-12, $757
7th: Jason Orecchio, Andover, N.J., five bass, 15-4, $688
8th: Peter Yanni, Gaithersburg, Md., five bass, 15-2, $619
9th: Jay Clingenpeel, Bridgeport, W.Va., five bass, 15-1, $1,116
9th: Tom Bateman, Welcome, Md., five bass, 15-1, $516
Safulla (Safu) Rana of Manassas, Virginia, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $575. Cole Bernier of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, won the co-angler division and $2,064 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 11 pounds, 11 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Cole Bernier, Saylorsburg, Pa., three bass, 11-11, $2,064
2nd: Gerald Dam, Pine Plains, N.Y., three bass, 11-4, $1,032
3rd: Chris Slater, Boston, Mass., three bass, 10-9, $975
4th: Marvin Stith, Piscataway, N.J., three bass, 10-6, $482
5th: Hayward Thaxton III, Hagerstown, Md., three bass, 10-4, $413
6th: David Paszkiewicz, Kearny, N.J., three bass, 9-15, $478
7th: Pat Kendrick, Bumpass, Va., three bass, 9-14, $344
8th: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., three bass, 9-2, $292
8th: Nathan Routzahn, Myersville, Md., three bass, 9-2, $292
10th: Richard Obrien, New Market, Md., three bass, 9-1, $241
Chris Slater of Boston, Massachusetts, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $287, catching a bass that weighed in at 4 pounds, 15 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
In addition to winning the event, Joshua McGeary of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, has the early lead in the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Cole Bernier of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.
The next event for BFL Northeast Division anglers will be held July 12, at the St. Lawrence River out of Massena, New York.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-potomac-51225.html
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