August 24, 2017 by Jody White
Despite tougher fishing than a few weeks ago, day one of the Costa FLW Series presented by Plano on the Potomac River still showed off a very healthy fishery. In first, Gregory Wilder of Millersville, Md., started strong with 19 pounds even. About a half pound back, Jason Kervin of Auburn, Maine, is in hot pursuit with 18-7.
Wilder put up a pair of finishes below 150th to start the Northern Division season at Champlain and the 1000 Islands. Now, after a good start on his home waters, the Maryland anglers is looking for his third Costa FLW Series top 10 on the Potomac and perhaps his first FLW win.
Unlike many of the other leaders, the early morning bite wasn’t the key to the day for Wilder.
“I didn’t really start catching them good until 9:30, and I just plucked at them one at a time, it wasn’t fast,” says Wilder. “Today I was lucky to get the good bites.”
Wilder says he was throwing a popper and a Senko, and caught nine keepers on the day.
“Pre-fishing was terrible, so I’m happy,” says Wilder. “It was probably the cooler weather that helped, they were there, we just couldn’t stand it.”
The weather for day two looks to be pretty similar to day one, but with perhaps a little more sun. If Wilder can put together the right few bites again, he might be looking really good into the weekend.
Top 10 pros
1. Gregory Wilder – Millersville, Md. – 19-0 (5)
2. Jason Kervin – Auburn, Maine – 18-7 (5)
3. Mike Hicks – Goochland, Va. – 17-14 (5)
4. Scott Wiley – Bay Minette, Ala. – 17-11 (5)
5. William Kramer – Montgomery Village, Md. – 16-9 (5)
6. Bob Izumi – Milton, Ont. – 16-5 (5)
7. Tim Dube – Nashua, N.H. – 16-3 (5)
8. Bryan Schmitt – Deale, Md. – 16-2 (5)
9. Travis Manson – Conshohocken, Pa. – 15-14 (5)
10. Cory Johnston – Cavan, Ont. – 15-4 (5)
Perez leads the co-anglers
Richard Perez of Naples, Fla., walloped them on the co-angler side on day one, putting 15 pounds, 4 ounces in the boat and securing a lead of more than a pound over John Schultz.
Perez fished with Terry Olinger on day one, and the duo mined one spot for much of the morning.
“We had a great day, between us we probably caught close to 30 fish, and we culled quite a few times,” says Perez. “It slowed down a little bit after lunch, but we still caught a couple fish in the afternoon.”
Perez says he caught most of his fish on soft plastics and topwaters.
