By MLF Communications Staff
NEENAH, Wis. – Lake Butte des Morts was the playing field Wednesday for the three two-man teams competing in Match 1 of the Knockout Round at the Team Series Heritage Cup. After competitors spent the Elimination Round competing on Lakes Poygan and Winneconne earlier this week, Lake Butte des Morts offered competitors numerous new areas to explore and slightly different conditions.
Despite the change in competition waters, fishing was generally the same as teams relied mainly on frogs, wacky rigs and flipping jigs to break down the 8,500-acre fishery.
It was a closely contested day – just 3 1/2 pounds separated the bottom two teams – but as time expired, it was the Team REDCON1 duo of Ott DeFoe and Andy Montgomery that stood alone atop the leaderboard. Team REDCON1 caught 18 bass weighing 27 pounds, 14 ounces to pace the field and advance to the Championship Round on Friday. Also advancing in second place was Team Knighten Industries – Kelly Jordon and Keith Poche – who boated 13 bass totaling 22-13.
Team REDCON1 and Team Knighten Industries now advance to Friday’s Championship Round to compete against the top two finishing teams from Match 2 of the Knockout Round on Thursday. Eliminated from competition was Team WIX Filters – David Dudley and Dave Lefebre – who caught 10 scorable bass weighing 18-2.
“Man, we can finally breathe,” Montgomery said as the third period came to an end. “I thought this one was tracking toward an easy day, but we had to work for it today. We did just enough and we are 2-for-2. But the one that matters the most is two days from now. We want to be 3-for-3.”
“It was a hard day of fishing, no doubt,” DeFoe said. “We had to battle, and we ended up catching 18 – just over half of what we caught the other day. It was tough. But we made it to the Championship Round, and that is such a good feeling.”
“We had to work for every dang fish we caught. We had 18 fish, but we made 180,000 casts today,” Montgomery joked.
Team REDCON1 started out the day fishing cane grass, mixing it up and throwing a hodge-podge of lures. DeFoe weighed in scorable keepers on five different baits, the majority coming on a stick-worm, while Montgomery caught fish mainly flipping a jig.
“At the end of the day, we came back and were fishing some of the little grass mats back in a canal,” DeFoe said. “It just looked like it would have a good population of fish in it. Andy and I talked, and we thought we could come in and beat out a few bites. I picked up a frog, and it got a few of those bites and was able to give us just enough cushion to make it through.”
The key bait for DeFoe at the end of the day was a Terminator Walking Frog Jr., which he fished on a Johnny Morris Signature Series 7-foot, 2-inch heavy-action rod paired with a Johnny Morris Platinum high-speed 8:3:1 reel with 50-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS braid.
For the second consecutive day of competition, the Team Knighten Industries duo of Jordon and Poche advanced as the No. 2 team on the day.
Poche mainly threw topwaters, catching five bass on a frog and adding two more scorable smallmouth on a popper. Jordon committed to a soft-plastic stick worm, adding six keepers as the duo targeted a large grassy area in the northwest portion of the lake for the majority of the day.
“There was a hole in the grass that was our bread and butter,” Poche said. “I honestly didn’t think it had enough, but it had just enough, and we were able to kind of build off of it.”
“I fish better when it’s intense, but I’m enjoying it, and that was the case for us today,” said Jordon. “We found this grassy area, and it turned us on to a few things. There was a key stretch near the end and we managed to catch several from it. It was a tough day, but a great day.”
Anglers depart the host hotel in Neenah each morning as early as 5:30 a.m. CT. They are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 8:45 a.m.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney break down the extended action live every day of competition from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT. MLFNOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
