Toyota Series angler James Maupin of Stanardsville, Virginia, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 13 pounds, 13 ounces to win the three-day Toyota Series at the Potomac River tournament in Marbury, Maryland. Maupin’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 40-11 earned him the win by a 7-ounce lead over second-place angler Todd Walters of Kernersville, North Carolina, and earned Maupin the top payout of $24,293 in the second tournament of the 2020 Toyota Series Eastern Division.
Maupin was ecstatic just to make a top 10 in a field with Potomac hammers like this event featured, but to win was even more special.
“This win means a lot,” Maupin said. “It definitely makes all the hard work worth it to know I can compete with these guys.”
The two areas Maupin spent the majority of his time on this week were Greenway Flats and Mason Neck. Each area had a 200-yard stretch that he would work back and forth, no matter the tide, and each produced fish throughout the day.
“I’m not very familiar with tides, so I just put my head down and fished,” said the 42-year-old angler. “I got on this bite Wednesday and it was so consistent. When the sun would peek out I couldn’t get a bite going, but when it was cloudy I had success throwing a spinnerbait down those grass lines. Thankfully it was consistently cloudy all three days of the tournament.”
The bread and butter for Maupin was a 3/8-ounce Terminator spinnerbait with two gold willow blades. He had two identical spinnerbaits rigged on the deck, one on 15-pound-test fluorocarbon and the other on 20-pound-test to help the bait run lower or higher in the water. When the sun came out, especially on day two, Maupin ran a V&M swim jig with a Zoom Fat Albert Twin Tail Grub as a trailer to get a few bites.
As a brick mason by day, Maupin is more than happy to see fish pay the bills for a change. Though he may not be ready to dive into fishing full-time, he’s excited to keep competing at this level.
“This is seriously one of the greatest moments of my life,” said Maupin. “It’s just amazing. I’m going to use this check to pay off my house, so it’s cool to say I was able to do that by fishing. I’m not sure what I’m going to fish next year, but I definitely want to keep it going.”
The top 10 pros on the Potomac River finished:
1st: James Maupin of Stanardsville, Va., 15 bass, 40-11, $24,293
2nd: Todd Walters of Kernersville, N.C., 15 bass, 40-4, $9,413
3rd: Bryan Schmitt of Deale, Md., 15 bass, 38-4, $7,288
4th: Wayne Vaughan of Chester, Va., 14 bass, 37-14, $6,139
5th: Michael Hall of Annandale, Va., 14 bass, 32-9, $5,532
6th: Kurt Mitchell of Milford, Del., 15 bass, 31-7, $5,059
7th: Danny Kirk of Bartow, Ga., 12 bass, 30-15, $4,251
8th: David Williams of Maiden, N.C., 14 bass, 30-15, $3,644
9th: Cody Pike of Powhatan, Va., 12 bass, 27-12, $4,037
10th: Joseph Thompson of Coatesville, Pa., 11 bass, 26-8, $2,429
A complete list of results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
Pike took home an extra $1,000 as the highest finishing FLW PHOENIX BONUS member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $35,000 per event in each Toyota Series tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the FLW PHOENIX BONUS contingency program can be found atPhoenixBassBoats.com.
James Roten of West Jefferson, North Carolina won the Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of 12 bass weighing 27 pounds, 9 ounces. Roten took home the top prize package of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard motor.
The top 10 co-anglers on the Potomac River finished:
1st: James Roten of West Jefferson, N.C., 12 bass, 27-9, Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat w/115-hp outboard
2nd: Michael Duarte of Baltimore, Md., 12 bass, 26-3, $3,165
3rd: Jarrod Egolf of Frederick, Md., 13 bass, 24-1, $2,532
4th: Gary Haraguchi of Phoenix, Ariz., 14 bass, 22-2, $2,215
5th: Lenny Baird of Stafford, Va., 11 bass, 21-6, $1,899
6th: Jeff Mellott of Warfordsburg, Pa., nine bass, 19-1, $1,582
7th: Logan Fitzpatrick of Pennsville, N.J., eight bass, 18-13, $1,266
8th: Jason Hinger of Timberlake, N.C., 11 bass, 18-3, $1,808
9th: Derek Brown of Charlottesville, Va., nine bass, 13-15, $949
10th: Tony Toombs of Drakes Branch, Va., eight bass, 13-15, $791
The Toyota Series at the Potomac River was hosted by the Charles County Board of Commissioners. It was the second of three regular-season tournaments in 2020 for Eastern Division anglers. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will take place on Sept. 24-26 – the Toyota Series at Clear Lake in Clearlake, California. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.
The 2020 Toyota Series consists of eight divisions – Central, Eastern, Northern, Plains, Southeastern, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division. Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Championship for a shot at winning $235,000 cash, including a $35,000 FLW PHOENIX Bonus for qualified anglers. The winning co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower outboard. The 2020 Toyota Series Championship will be held Dec. 3-5 on Lake Cumberland in Burnside, Kentucky, and is hosted by the Somerset Tourist & Convention Commission and the Burnside Tourism Commission.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Toyota Series on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, FLW and its partners conduct more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Zimbabwe.
FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show while Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. Acquired by Major League Fishing in late 2019, FLW is expanding its programming in 2020 to the Outdoor Channel and the Sportsman Channel as well as on-demand at MyOutdoorTV (MOTV).