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MCBA Charter Captain Bryan Schmitt owns the Potomac - Congratulations! (September 13, 2025)

Well, not the whole river but well enough to score a victory on the Potomac River...

(From the MajorLeagueFishing.com website) -- September 13, 2025 • Jody White • Toyota Series

MARBURY, Md. – To the surprise of nobody who pays attention, Bryan Schmitt closed out the win in the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Northern Division event on the Potomac River. The seventh Toyota Series-level win of his career, it’s his fourth win on the Potomac alone and further cements his status as the best tidal fisherman in America.

The victory also extends his own record for Toyota Series wins, which he first set in 2021 when he won at Lake Toho.

Sacking up bags in the mid-teens every day, Schmitt weighed 15 pounds, 4 ounces on Day 3 – his biggest bag of the week – for a 44-15 total. In second, Samuel Fish made a valiant run up the leaderboard with 17-7 on the last day for 43-9. Christian Greico tallied 43-4 for another great Potomac finish.

Diverse game plan leads to consistency for Schmitt

While most everyone else in the field bounced up and down the leaderboard, Schmitt simply crept up every day until he was where he needed to be. A master on the Potomac, he used all his wiles this week, fishing grass, rock and everything else.

“It was a no-brainer approach,” he said of Day 1. “With the clouds, I had a couple small grass stretches that I think were overlooked. They might not have had a ton of fish, but they had some chunks, some decent 3-pounders. I really leaned on them hard Day 1. It was shallow hydrilla, and that was all winding my swim jig.”

Then, Schmitt added a fish on a drop-shot off a dock post, and he kept the mix up rolling from there.

“The day before the tournament and Day 1, we had clouds,” Schmitt said. “That kind of triggers a bite. When you reverse that here and the sun finally pops out, it gets tough. Day 2, I wasn’t able to catch any fish in the morning in the grass – I had to rely on some hard structure, docks, a couple isolated deep logs. And at the end of the day, for like 2 1/2 hours, I punched mats, and one was a good one.”

Day 3, Schmitt continued to tap his encyclopedic Potomac knowledge...

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