Ott DeFoe Wins MLF BPT Stage Six - Potomac River
Shop DeFoe's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Ott DeFoe's last regular-season Bass Pro Tour win was in 2021, which is a long drought for an angler who has been as excellent as he has throughout his career. He secured the win on the Potomac by fishing a small creek and using the high tide to his advantage to access extremely shallow water.
DeFoe found his winning area in practice, the first stop he made during the event. He theorized that the hot weather made the backwater creek so productive.
Fishing the extremely shallow, clear water, DeFoe caught several fish by visually casting to them with a Sooner Run-colored Wacky Stik-O Worm with a VMC RedLine Neko Hook. DeFoe's other top lures for the week were a green pumpkin-and-orange compact 3/8-ounce pitching jig.
Replay The Action
MLF Bass Pro Tour - Stage 6 - Top 10
2nd Place - Ron Nelson - 51lb - 11oz - 5,000
Nelson utilized a 1-ounce weight and black and blue Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with a 3/O Owner Jungle Flippin HD hook for those fish. Another of his keys was fishing grass stretches with a 1/4-ounce custom-made black and blue swim jig with a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper on the back.
3rd Place - Bradley Roy - 44lb - 11oz - $35,000
Roy caught most of the fish weighed with a white and chartreuse 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer. He was fishing it everywhere Š around docks, shallow grass, and laydowns, and the fish just moved a little bit further out as the water came out of the back of the creek. Roy also mixed in a drop-shot, buzzing toad, buzzbait and a handful flipping a beaver-style bait, but said the ChatterBait was the clear top producer. As far as what tide was best, Roy said it differed from what he was used to.
4th Place - Cole Floyd - 43lb - 11oz - $30,000
With wind and overcast conditions early in the week, Floyd caught fish on a 3/8-ounce Strike King Thunder Cricket with a chameleon-colored Strike King Rage Bug on the back. During sunny conditions, he flipped the same Rage Bug on a 5/O Hayabusa round bend hook with a 3/8-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten weight. Floyd also mixed in a black frog around docks and shady areas when the sun was high.
5th Place - Zach Birge - 41lb - 9oz - $25,000
Zack Birge won the Qualifying Round, automatically punching his ticket to the final day after catching 145-8 over the first two days. His pattern was simple; running creeks and covering water with a 3/8-ounce Z-Man/EverGreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer in ghost gill with a Missile Baits Spunk Shad in bombshell on the back. Another top producer was a 6-inch Strike King Cut-R-Worm in watermelon red on a 3/32-ounce weight and 5/O worm hook.
6th Place - Adrinna Avena - 40lb - 12oz - $23,000
7th Place - James Elam - 36lb - 7oz - $22,000
His top baits were a 3/8-ounce green pumpkin Z-Man/EverGreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer, a custom-made swim jig Elam pours with a Mustad hook, a shallow crankbait, an albino-colored soft plastic jerkbait and a 5-inch LIVETARGET ICT Stick Worm in blue purple. He rigged both soft plastic baits on a 4/O Mustad AlphaPoint Assault Wide Gap Hook.
8th Place - Keith Poche - 35lb - 7oz - $21,000
After winning at the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals James River event four days before this event, Poche kept it rolling and led after the first day on the Potomac with the same pattern. He ran far up a creek in search of cooler water. He started out with a Berkley Swim Jig and fished fast. Catching quite a few on a shaky head with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General and pitching a Berkley Pit Boss. On those, it was green pumpkin some days, and black and blue was better on other days. He rotated through those baits depending on where the fish were positioned during that time with the tide, flipping overhanging trees and swimming the jig down edges of the grass.
9th Place - Spencer Shuffield - 31lb - 1oz - $20,500
Shuffield caught em on a Yo-Zuri popper and a Yo-Zuri 3DR-X SR50 crankbait in shad patterns. He fished the popper over shallow grass flats when the tide was high, then targeting the inside edges of grass when the tide would get lower. The crankbait was better when he was around groups of fish sitting in 5 to 6 feet of water during low tide.
10th Place - Keith Carson - 30lb - 1oz - $20,000
Carson was using a 5-inch Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General in baby bass that he wacky-rigged. CarsonÕs primary area was in the same creek as DeFoeÕs, but he did explore other areas.
He was in some different creeks, but the main thing all week was trying to find moving water from the tide. He focused on pinch points and places where the tide would cause a little more current. The General was the main bait, but also caught some on a Berkley Frittside 5 in Lone Ranger in some other areas.
