SQT Trail 2024 Event #3 Potter and Torres win at Conowingo
The 3rd SQT Trail event took place on Saturday, June 22nd at Conowingo on a very hot day. Wendell Potter won the boater division with an impressive bag of 16.22 pounds for his limit. Josh Torres was paired with Wendell as his non-boater. Josh would win the non-boater division with 9.61 pounds for his best 3 fish. Josh also had big fish for the tournament with a 3.97 pound largemouth. Wendell did his homework and had them both on some good fish.
Wendell could not be reached for any information on his day on the water. However, I caught up with Josh and he gave me a great rundown of their day on the water together. Josh said his main baits were a Zoom trick worm in junebug color on an 1/8 oz. shaky head and various creature baits. The creature baits were the baby destroyer in California 420 and a baby D-bomb in green pumpkin or green pumpkin blue. Josh said, “I’d work those baits with a 1/4 oz. weight just pitching them into laydowns and working them very slowly was the key.”
At the beginning of the day, Wendell and Josh rotated between a series of laydowns. Wendell caught the first keeper fish and Josh caught one that barely measured. Josh would lose a good 2 1/2 pounder that broke him off in the prop of the boat. As they continued to work the laydowns, Wendell ended up catching some good ones for his limit.
After fishing laydowns, they worked another stretch of bank throughout the day that produced key fish for them. On this stretch, Josh caught his 2nd keeper, a solid 2 pound fish on the shaky head. They started working their way back down that stretch of bank and Josh switched to the bay D-bomb bait. Josh said, “I’d pitch towards the bank and worked the bait back slowly just bouncing it up and down in place very subtly as I slowly worked it back to the boat.” “The bites were subtle and most of my bites that day I did not even feel.” “I would yo-yo the bait in one spot, then drag it along and yo-yo it again and when they got it, I’d reel down and set the hook and they were there.” The bank produced a 3 1/2 pounder for Josh and then the got the big fish, a 3.97 pounder out of a tree on the baby D-bomb. Josh said he had a blast fishing with Wendell and he thanked him for putting them on the fish.
Randy Elliott took 2nd place in the boater division with 12.81 pounds. Finishing in 3rd place was Joe Puller with 10.62 pounds. Joe is leading the boater side in points going into the final SQT Trail event. Wendell Potter, with his win is sitting in 4th place going into the final event.
In the non-boater division, Jessie Colie took 2nd place in the event with 8.07 pounds and Jim Goins finished 3rd with 6.37 pounds. J. P. Harrell is leading the non-boater division by one point ahead of Josh Torres and Jessie Colie is in 3rd place only trailing Josh by one point. Both divisions are in a tight race going into the final event. The top 8 in both divisions will fish our State Bass Nation Championship in October.