NEENAH, Wis. (Sept. 20, 2024) – The final four teams were thrown a curveball Friday at the Team Series Heritage Cup. While they had spent the week targeting mostly largemouth in stained water on several lakes in the Fox River system earlier in the competition, the two-man teams now turned their sights to Green Lake – a crystal-clear, 7,900-acre spring-fed glacial fishery with a maximum depth of 236 feet – a far cry from the shallow, stained water the teams had been fishing earlier in the event.
With no prior knowledge of where they were fishing in the Championship Round, no practice and only a 30-minute ride around before the competition began, it was anyone’s guess how the day would shape up. And while the offshore smallmouth in deeper water were certainly enticing to several of the teams, it was flipping and pitching shallow docks that won the Championship Round on Green Lake.
Team REDCON1 – made up of Ott DeFoe and Andy Montgomery – got off to a good start early in the day, catching eight scorable bass in Period 1, before taking the lead from Team Star Tron – Grae Buck and Martin Villa – midway through the second period. Despite a hard-charge late in the third period by Team Builders First Source – Alton Jones Jr. and Alton Jones Sr. – Team REDCON1 finished the day atop the leaderboard to take home the Heritage Cup. The duo ended the Championship Round with 29 bass weighing 55-8, 5-7 ahead of Team Builders FirstSource, who finished the day with 31 bass weighing 50-1, good for second place.
After winning their Knockout Round on Wednesday, the REDCON1 tandem enjoyed a day off to regroup before the Championship Round. The duo spent the entire day Friday bouncing around the fishery targeting shallow boat docks.
“Period 2 was really good for us,” said Montgomery. “We made a heck of a run about midway through and got a little bit of a cushion between us and second place. It was a grind, though. Even though we were keeping pace, we felt like we just had to keep fresh docks in front of us all day long.”
DeFoe agreed that was key to being around bigger numbers of fish that were willing to bite.
“Don’t get us wrong, we’d still get bites at docks where we’d already caught a couple,” DeFoe said. “But moving and hitting fresh docks and keeping fresh fish constantly in front of us was really important to our success today.
“Green Lake has such clear water, so it was easy to see the fish and see what they were doing,” DeFoe continued. “The fish we found had definitely been caught before. They weren’t really aggressive, and we had to almost trick them to get them to follow the bait.”
The type of docks seemed to make a big difference as well for the entire field of competitors. While the fishery is full of both largemouth and smallmouth bass, the fish were not distributed randomly.
As teams took turns targeting boat docks throughout the day, it became apparent that the longer docks on shallow, flat portions of the bank produced significantly more fish than the steep banks with shorter docks in deeper water. Team REDCON1 made hay on those long, shallow docks.
“The setup that really caught the numbers for us was a 4-inch wacky-rigged stick worm on a spinning rod, using a No. 2 VMC Weedless Neko Hook. That hook was really key,” said DeFoe. “I was throwing it on a 7-foot, 1-inch Johnny Morris Platinum Signature Spinning Rod with 10-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS Hyper Braid and a 12-pound XPS Fluorocarbon leader.”
Montgomery spent the day skipping a swim jig under the docks, letting it fall to the bottom, while DeFoe followed behind him with the wacky rig, a combo that worked great for the duo.
“My whole setup was a skipping rod on a skipping reel with a skipping bait,” Montgomery said, laughing. “Ott is deadly with a spinning rod, and I feel like I can get the job done with a baitcaster. It was definitely a one-two punch. There’s no way either one of these baits alone would have won this thing by itself.”
DeFoe caught a largemouth weighing 4-9 in the final period, a fish that not only added to their weight but bolstered their confidence to finish out the Championship Round on top. While the close friends and traveling roommates had a 10-pound lead over second place going into the third period, that fish was one of many that secured their fairly slim margin of victory.
“We worked hard. I mean every day of this thing, we worked hard,” said a choked up DeFoe in his post-game interview. “My dad had heart surgery two weeks ago and it was tough leaving him so soon after his surgery. My wife Jennie’s there with him. But it was still tough. Dad, I love you. This is for you.
“And this guy right here is my best buddy in the whole world,” DeFoe continued, giving Montgomery a hug to celebrate their victory. “I think I ended up catching the biggest fish, but Andy caught most of the bigger fish throughout the day and we got it done.”
“It’s been a tough year for me, man,” said Montgomery. “This dude’s just one of the most steadfast people in my life. Him and my wife, they just don’t change.”
The duo said they enjoyed spending the week competing together on the boat, not something they get to do very often.
“We know what we have is a God-given talent and we give Him all the glory,” said DeFoe. “Every day of competition this week, we made good, key decisions.”
“And we flat out assaulted some reeds and some docks,” Montgomery added, laughing while reaching for the Heritage Cup trophy. “Where’s the money at, that’s what I’m worried about. You can’t trade this for a cheeseburger.”
The top four teams at the Heritage Cup Championship Round finished:
1st: Team REDCON1, 29 bass, 55-8
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 16 bass, 28-3
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 13 bass, 27-5
2nd: Team Builders FirstSource, 31 bass, 50-1
Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 21 bass, 32-9
Alton Jones Sr., Lorena, Texas, 10 bass, 17-8
3rd: Team Star Tron, 12 bass, 28-8
Grae Buck, Green Lane, Pa., five bass, 10-12
Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., seven bass, 17-12
4th: Team Knighten Industries, nine bass, 16-7
Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas., five bass, 9-7
Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., four bass, 7-0
Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 81 bass weighing 150 pounds, 8 ounces caught by the four teams competing in the Championship Round on Green Lake. Martin Villa caught the Big Bass of the day with a smallmouth weighing 4 pounds, 12 ounces.
The competition water for each day was top-secret and only revealed to the anglers after they arrived at the boat ramp each morning.
The Cup featured 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they entered the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Round advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams competed each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams competed in a one-day shootout to determine which team was the winner of the 2024 Heritage Cup.
The 2024 Team Series is comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour pros competing from the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2024.
The next Team Series event – the Patriot Cup – will take place Oct. 24-29. The location for the event will be announced to anglers thirty days prior to the start of the event.
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Major League Fishing (MLF)