MARBURY, Md. – Warmer temperatures and a lack of wind of Sunday created a more finicky fishery for the 150 anglers competing on Day 2 of the MLF Invitational at the Potomac River. Local favorite Martin Villa of Charlottesville, Va. started the day in third place, but brought a limit to the scale weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces, to jump to the top of the leaderboard and bring a 1-05 lead into the final day of competition. Over the first two days, Villa has weighed in 10 bass totaling 34-06.
The full field of 150 anglers concluded the two-day opening round on Sunday, with only the Top 50 pros based on their two-day cumulative weight now advancing to Monday's final round.
The tournament is still up for grabs, as even 21st place has more than 30 pounds and is less than 4 1/2 pounds back from Villa. Nick Hatfield of Greeneville, Tenn. (33-01), Michael Neal of Dayton, Tenn. (32-11), Cody Spetz of Hollister, Mo.0 (32-9) and Deale, Md.'s Bryan Schmitt (32-01) round out the Top 5 competitors.
Villa has been banking on specific pieces of hard cover at specific times. He’s also running the tide and making a lot of effort to get on exact places – he checked one spot five times Sunday before it was free of boats.
“I’m missing a grass bite – and I know it’s the 1-2 punch that you need on this fishery – let me rephrase that, the big-fish grass bite,” Villa said. “It usually revolves around the topwater, but it just seems that when the tide is high they don’t really want to hit it, and when the tide is low I’m not really trying to be in the grass because I’ve been fishing hard cover. And the places where the better fish are, they’re pulling off of the spawn. So, there are fish coming through every day, so hopefully there are some more there tomorrow.”
Villa’s best spot is a perfect confluence of his skills.
“It’s a dominant lie,” he said. “I have one cast that in the past two days I’ve caught 20 fish off of. The worst part of it was there was another tournament boat – not ours, a local team tournament – that was on it all morning. I went five times for it, and the fifth time they were 100 yards away.”
With low tide moving back another hour on Monday, Villa isn’t going to have much time at prime time.
“I know that if I’m going to win this thing, it’s going to come down to the last couple of casts,” he said.
Of course, he could figure out the grass bite, which would make him pretty hard to handle on the final day.
“I’m going to have to search deep and think of where my starting spot is,” he said. “I do have a patch of grass up north that I got bit in, and it’s been historically good for me. I’m really confident in this patch, but the northwest wind blew it out these last two days. I fished it one day in practice, made one 15-minute pass and caught four, one that was 4 1/2. I’m hoping it calmed down enough. There is enough grass in there where it should clean out quickly, and if I can get there in the morning and catch them, I may not leave. Because typically you can sit on that school all day.”
The Top 50 pros advancing to the final day of competition are:
1st: Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., 10 bass, 34-06
2nd: Nick Hatfield, Greeneville, Tenn., 10 bass, 33-01
3rd: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 10 bass, 32-11
4th: Cody Spetz, Hollister, Mo., 10 bass, 32-09
5th: Bryan Schmitt, Deale, Md., 10 bass, 32-01
6th: Troy Stokes, Trenton, Mich., 10 bass, 31-10
7th: Blake Hall, Rogersville, Ala., 10 bass, 31-09
8th: Cody Meyer, Star, Idaho, 10 bass, 31-08
9th: Flint Davis, Leesburg, Ga., 10 bass, 31-02
10th: Kyle Weisenburger, Columbus Grove, Ohio, 10 bass, 30-15
11th: Jim Moynagh, Shakopee, Minn., 10 bass, 30-13
12th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 30-11
13th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 10 bass, 30-09
14th: Andrew Loberg, Rocklin, Calif., 10 bass, 30-08
15th: Wayne Vaughan, Chester, Va., 10 bass, 30-06
16th: Wyatt Frankens, Corrigan, Texas, 10 bass, 30-05
17th: David Walker, Sevierville, Tenn., 10 bass, 30-03
18th: Austin Culbertson, Moberly, Mo., 10 bass, 30-02
19th: Robert Nakatomi, Sacramento, Calif., 10 bass, 30-01
20th: Pete Ponds, Madison, Miss., 10 bass, 30-01
21st: Terry Olinger, Louisa, Va., 10 bass, 30-00
22nd: Eric Panzironi, Longwood, Fla., 10 bass, 29-14
23rd: Travis Harriman, Huntsville, Ark., 10 bass, 29-12
24th: Blake Felix, Warsaw, Mo., 10 bass, 29-08
25th: Eddie Carper, Valliant, Okla., 10 bass, 29-05
26th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 10 bass, 29-03
27th: Jack Daniel Williams, Kingsport, Tenn., 10 bass, 29-01
28th: Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C., 10 bass, 29-00
29th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 10 bass, 28-15
30th: Kyle Hall, Granbury, Texas, 10 bass, 28-14
31st: John Duarte, Middle River, Md., 10 bass, 28-12
32nd: Jordan Collom, Canyon Lake, Calif., 10 bass, 28-12
33rd: Joshua Weaver, Macon, Ga., 10 bass, 28-11
34th: Michael Catt, Jacksonville, Fla., 10 bass, 28-11
35th: Joe Wieberg, Freeburg, Mo., 10 bass, 28-08
36th: Jason Vance, Battle Ground, Ind., 10 bass, 28-07
37th: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 10 bass, 28-05
38th: Jeremy Southerly, Fulks Run, Va., 10 bass, 28-05
39th: Cole Hewett, Orange Park, Fla., 10 bass, 28-04
40th: Braxton Setzer, Wetumpka, Ala., 10 bass, 28-03
41st: Mike McClelland, Blue Eye, Mo., 10 bass, 28-00
42nd: Matt Greenblatt, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., 10 bass, 27-15
43rd: Charlie Reed Jr., Gloucester, Va., 10 bass, 27-13
44th: Ramie Colson Jr., Cadiz, Ky., 10 bass, 27-12
45th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 27-11
46th: Cody Pike, Powhatan, Va., 10 bass, 27-10
47th: Tyler Stewart, Dubach, La., 10 bass, 27-10
48th: Kyle Minke, Lindstrom, Minn., 10 bass, 27-09
49th: Hunter Eubanks, Inman, S.C., 10 bass, 27-08
50th: Christian Greico, Tampa, Fla., 10 bass, 27-08
