It was during practice two weeks ago that Schmitt found a location he had never fished before. It was an area that was easily overlooked as it was a spot where in the past grass had never grown. The only way he found this sweet grassy patch was on his depth finder.

“I was very lucky to find this spot and then to have it all to myself for three days,” said Schmitt. “I was fishing the mouth of a creek mid river. I think the area was holding post spawn fish that were coming off the bank, I was in about 3- to 4-feet of water. I fished the area all three days, exclusively on the final two days.

            “It got tough today, especially in the afternoon,” continued Schmitt. “All the boats and jet skis muddied the water and it was a slow pick once the traffic started. I probably caught 25 keeper fish today but I had 15 of those fish in the first hour and then slowly gained ounces throughout the day.”

            Schmitt indicated that all his fish came off black and blue jigs.

     The top 10 pros on the Potomac River were:

            1st:      Bryan Schmitt, Deale, Md., 15 bass, 52-8, $37,554

            2nd:      David Hooker, Stafford, Va., 15 bass, 45-4, $14,083

            3rd:      Jason Tibbetts, Centreville, Va., 15 bass, 43-15, $9,388

          4th:      Robert Grike, Dumfries, Va., 15 bass, 43-0, $8,450

            5th:      Terry Olinger, The Plains, Va., 15 bass, 42-7, $7,511

            6th:      Mike McDonald, Randleman, N.C., 15 bass, 42-3, $6,572

            7th:      Shayne Berlo, Fairfax, Va., 15 bass, 42-0, $5,633

          8th:      Rodney Mosley, Woodbridge, Va., 15 bass, 40-1, $4,694

          9th:      Gilbert Gagner, Highgate Springs, Vt., 15 bass, 38-7, $3,755

            10th:     James Steiner, Levittown, Pa., 15 bass, 37-6, $2,817

      Complete results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.

Gagner caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division on Friday – a 6-pound, 2-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $274.

Josh Demaury of Troutville, Va., won the co-angler division and a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 37 pounds, 3 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers on the Potomac River were:

            1st:      Josh Demaury, Troutville, Va., 15 bass, 37-03, Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower outboard

            2nd:      Derek Brown, Charlottesville, Va., 15 bass, 36-1, $4,787

            3rd:      David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., 15 bass, 34-0, $3,830

            4th:      Lenny Baird, Stafford, Va., 15 bass, 33-2, $3,351

          5th:      Scott Macrobbie, Linthicum, Md., 15 bass, 31-2, $2,872

            6th:      Thomas Bavaro III, Joppa, Md., 14 bass, 30-3, $2,394

          7th:      Andy Dick, Wilmington, Del., 15 bass, 30-2, $1,915

            8th:      Alex Antipenko, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11 bass, 28-13, $1,436

          9th:      Billy Dehart, Burlingame, Calif., 13 bass, 26-15, $957

            10th:     Marvin Reese, Gwynn Oak, Md., 12 bass, 26-13, $766

Andy Dick caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Friday – a 5-pound, 6-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $182.

The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments where competitors are vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Strike King Angler of the Year title, which allows them to fish the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup.

The next EverStart Series Northern Division event is scheduled for July 18-20 on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The City of Plattsburgh and the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau will be sponsoring the event.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the EverStart Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.