Schmitt wins American Fishing Series event on Potomac River

Miller wins co-angler title, $10,000

MARBURY, Md. – Pro Bryan Schmitt of Deale, Md., caught a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds Saturday to win the FLW American Fishing Series Northern Division tournament on the Potomac River with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 54 pounds, 5 ounces. For his victory, Schmitt earned $25,000 and a 198VX Ranger boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Yamaha outboard motor.

“I was flipping a black and blue jig all week long,” Schmitt said. “I found some isolated grass clumps and fished one area the entire week and it paid off. I was about 15 minutes south of the launch site and just stayed put.

“The tide was key in my fishing this tournament; I had about an hour window in the morning when the tide was going out and the fish were biting good and then I got another hour window later on in the day when the tide came back in. Today was a shorter fishing day so we didn’t get that extra change and I thought it was really going to hurt me, but I still managed to catch a limit and win this thing.”

Rounding out the top-10 pros were:

2nd: Bill Chapman, Salt Rock, W. Va., 15 bass, 51-10, $8,500

3rd: Thomas Wooten, Huddleston, Va., 14 bass, 51-9, $6,000

4th: Chad Hicks, Rockville, Va., 15 bass, 50-15, $5,000

5th: Peter Yanni, Gaithersburg, Md., 13 bass, 45-11, $4,500

6th: Terry Olinger, Hume, Va., 13 bass, 44-15, $4,000

7th: Mike Hicks, Goochland, Va., 14 bass, 44-10, $3,500

8th: David Barker, Emmitsburg, Md., 15 bass, 44, $3,000

9th:Josh Querrey, Summersville, W.Va., 15 bass, 42-5, $2,500

10th: Allan Engelmeyer, Severn, Md., 12 bass, 34-13, $2,000

Bill Chapman caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Friday – a 7-pound, 2-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $300.

Frank Miller of W. Nanticoke, Pa., won the Co-angler Division and $10,000 cash, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 44 pounds, 2 ounces.

“The key to my success this week was being able to make changes and fishing slow”, said, Miller. “The fish were real lethargic and I just had to do everything real slow.

“My first day I was using a frog, the 2nd day I changed to a jig, and today I threw a mix of everything, my keepers came on senkos and frogs. I think the other thing that made a difference for me was that I fished differently than my partners. I caught a really nice fish yesterday on grass between docks while my partner was concentrating on the docks themselves.”

Miller caught five bass weighing 11-7 Thursday while fishing with pro Bill Chapman, to open the tournament in 15th place. On Friday he added five more bass weighing 20-4 to make the top-10 cut in first place while fishing with pro Rock Monteith of Columbia, S.C. Finally, on Saturday, he sealed the win with five bass weighing 12-7 while fishing with Bryan Schmitt.

Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers were:

2nd: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., 14 bass, 41-5, $4,000

3rd: Lynn Johnston, Peterborough, Ontario, 14 bass, 40-13, $2,000

4th: Edwin Jackson, Marshall, Va., 14 bass, 39-3, $1,750

5th: Gary McClain, Chesapeake, Va., 13 bass, 34-1, $1,500

6th: Claude (CG) Hicks, Rockville, Va., 12 bass, 32-12, $1,250

7th: Dave Kovack, Lancaster, Pa., 12 bass, 31-7, $1,000

8th: Russ Hamilton, Jr., Manassas, Va., 11 bass, 31-6, $900

9th: Andrew Luxon, Richmond, Ky., 13 bass, 31-3, $800

10th: Larry Church, Keysville, Va., nine bass, 30, $700

Larry Church caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – an 8-pound, 5-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $200.

The top pro and co-angler based on point standings from each of the FLW American Fishing Series divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast and Texas – will qualify for the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup. The top 50 pros and co-anglers from each division also qualify for the American Fishing Series Invitational on Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Ala., Nov. 4-6, with the winning pro and co-angler also advancing to the Forrest Wood Cup.

About FLW Outdoors

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. FLW Outdoors has also taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing awarding the largest prizes in the history of fantasy sports. FLW Outdoors memberships are available featuring numerous benefits including Player’s Advantage. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FantasyFishing.com.