Family, fishing, and a first place finish for $20,000!

This weekend the West Virginia River and Rails Bass Festival took place out of St. Mary’s, WV on the Ohio River. This is the largest tournament hosted in West Virginia, with 125 competitors in a two-day event. Father son duo Ed and Wyatt Powell bested the field with a two-day total weight of 19.79 pounds. By winning this event they earned a $20,000 payday!

There is a story behind every tournament, however, this one stood out to me. Not because it is the largest payout in the state for a tournament at $20,000, but because the biggest win in the state this year revolves around an entire family working together for one goal.

Before we dive right into the Bass Festival, I believe it is important to jump back about two weeks to the practice for the BASS Nation of West Virginia Buddy Trail event.

“When it’s your time, it’s your time”, stated Ed. “About two weeks ago we had an absolutely incredible practice. But not only was I having an awesome practice, but Logan did also. He practiced every day for 2 weeks and that really helped us out.”

They were able to find a mix of spawning fish and pre-spawners that would help them in the upcoming buddy trail event where Wyatt and Ed (on separate teams) competed. This would end up helping them at the Bass Festival the next week.

In this tournament, Ed and Josh Milam finished 4^th and Wyatt and Matt Myers finished 7^th out of 50 boats.

After the Buddy Trail event, they continued their practice for the Bass Festival. Ed noted that one day they had a practice and it was “like great lake smallmouth fishing.” They caught 40-50 fish with a bag upwards of 20 pounds on the Ohio River.

“We had roughly 13 pounds on the scale before it died, so we started measuring the length and started to guess the weight based upon the inches of the fish. So we are very certain it was over 20 pounds.”

After this once-in-a-lifetime experience on the Ohio River, they began to expand upon what they had learned. They used baits with no hook points to ensure they did not hook any fish and sore mouth any for the actual tournament.

Ed had originally signed up with Logan but he had to go back to school during the tournament so he fished with his other son Wyatt in the event.

This was Ed Powell’s 10^th Bass Festival and he had come close to winning three other times but noted that he had a locking issue one year that potentially cost him the win.

During Day 1 of the tournament, they stuck to their game plan and went to the area they had over 20 pounds in practice. But once they fished there they had trouble catching them again. They ended up catching two fish off of the area but both of them were solid fish. They scrapped that game plan and went to catch a limit of spotted bass. Even after trying to catch a limit of spots they only caught two more keepers.

Ed noted that earlier in the week it was very easy to catch a limit of spots. They decided to lock back down early but the lockmaster decided to hold the lock doors open for a long period of time almost making them late to check-in. At the end of Day 1, they only brought in four keepers to the scale but their four keepers went 8.36 lbs.

On Day 2, the issues with locking worried them so they were afraid to lock up so they ran almost 100 miles away from their starting spot the day before. Logan Powell had told his dad about two fish on a bed he had found earlier in the week. He had found them Monday and they were afraid the fish had moved on from spawning. They decided to start on a “community hole” but it didn’t pan out. They left and went to look for those two-bed fish Logan had found in practice but couldn’t seem to find them.

As Ed picked up his trolling motor to leave he saw the big fish that they had been looking for swim by the head of his trolling motor. He watched where the fish went and told Wyatt that if they stayed, he knew they would catch that fish. Before he knew it, he picked up his fluke and set the hook into her. They got the fish in the boat and kept on fishing for the other of the two that Logan had found.

Next thing they know they see the other fish swim by the corner of a dock and as Ed reaches down to pick up another rod, Wyatt hooks the fish. They get it in the boat and it’s another good one. At this point they know they need to make a move and catch the rest of their limit.

They run down to fish a rock pile and have no luck until something tells Ed to pull out a popper. First cast he catches a pound and half spot to add to their limit. But the very next cast is where the action starts. Ed fires his cast out there with a popper and begins to work his bait. A big smallmouth explodes on the popper. They fight the fish as it jumps and thrashes but they get it in the boat. This smallmouth ended up weighing 3.8 pounds to anchor their bag.  

They fished around and ran down to a spot that Ed and Josh had done well the weekend before in the Buddy Trail event and ended up catching a 1.3 spot then headed back to check in with about 30 minutes left. They pull into a spot close to the ramp and begin to fish and as they pass another boat going down the same bank as them in the opposite direction, they hook up again and catch a 2 pound largemouth that made a good cull.

Little did they know that Day 1 leader Scott Bayless had just fished down that bank just 15 minutes earlier, and by not catching the fish that the Powell’s caught, he had lost the tournament.

1^st place – Wyatt and Ed Powell weighed in a two day total of 19.79 pounds.

2^nd place – Scott and Jessica Bayless weighed in at 18.53 pounds.

3^rd place – John and Johnathan Thompson weighed in at 16.89 pounds.

4^th place – Dustin Dennis and Matt Cronin weighed in at 15.61 pounds.

The biggest takeaway from this story is the fact that the whole Powell family played a role in the win. Ed, Logan, and Wyatt all contributed to the win in one way or another. Not to forget, that Mrs. Powell let them all go fishing. During my interview with Ed, I could tell that he was trying to emphasize the team effort that they had. Wyatt and Ed would not have won if Logan hadn’t found the two good fish spawning on Monday before the tournament. Wyatt’s unique bait choices also helped set them apart from the rest of the field.

Ed remarked that, “before we even made a cast Saturday, God knew who was going to win. We were just fortunate enough that it was in His will for us to win this time.”