NEENAH, Wis. (Sept. 16, 2024) – It was a fight to the finish as four new teams hit the water Monday with no practice, no information and no real game plan during the second event of the 2024 Team Series in Neenah, Wisconsin. Two-man teams were driven to the boat ramp by Major League Fishing officials Monday morning, where they were given maps of Lakes Poygan and Winneconne before setting out to break down the fishery. But it didn’t take long for teams to get on the juice and start lighting up SCORETRACKER®. While boat docks were the preeminent player during Match 1 on Sunday, teams spent the majority of the day Monday flipping grass during Match 2 of the Elimination Round at the Heritage Cup.
Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches – made up of Casey Ashley of Donalds, South Carolina, and Terry Scroggins of San Mateo, Florida– rose to the top of the leaderboard early in the day, holding the top spot all of Period 1 before falling back in Period 2 after going an hour and half with zero scorable bass. They regained and held the top spot for most of Period 3 but couldn’t hold off a hard charge by TEAM REDCON1 – Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, South Carolina – who took over the top spot with 45 minutes left in the third period. Both teams now move on to the Knockout Rounds, with Ashley/Scroggins competing on Wednesday and DeFoe/Montgomery competing on Thursday.
It was a slow start to the morning for Team REDCON1 who started their day bouncing around the north side of the lake without making much headway. At the end of Period 1, they were in third place with four bass weighing a mere 4-1 on SCORETRACKER®.
The tandem made a move to the southeast corner of the lake late in the morning, transitioning to pitching along cane grass lines, a move that proved fortuitous for the duo. They got all the way up into first place at the end of Period 2 before falling to second behind Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches.
That’s when Montgomery picked up a vibrating jig and the team went to work targeting boat docks, going on an afternoon flurry to rally in the final period, stacking up 13 scorable bass for 21-9 in the final 45 minutes of competition.
“What a day,” said Montgomery. “We had a whole lot of nothing for most of the day, but it ended up being a big day. We had that one stretch around the islands where Ott was just cremating them early on, but we struggled the majority of the day. Once we got on those docks though, everything changed.”
The duo worked seamlessly together, with Montgomery hooking up with most of their third period bass and DeFoe picking up the stragglers behind him.
“The key bait for me today was a Bass Pro Shops Wacky Stick-O Worm, black and blue laminate, on a VMC Redline Series Weedless Wacky Neko Hook,” said DeFoe. “I threw that on a Johnny Morris Platinum Signature Spinning Rod with a Platinum Signature Spinning Reel and 10-lb Bass Pro Shops XPS Braid and a 12-pound XPS fluorocarbon leader.
“That was a really good back-up bait to Andy’s bladed jig skipping around these docks here at the end of the day,” DeFoe continued. “He went on a heck of a run, and we were able to catch a lot of fish and get the win.”
Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches may have finished in second place, but they had the most consistent day from start to finish. The duo got into the cane grass early in the morning and stayed with it all day, catching them off the outside edges early, then moving into really thick grass as the day progressed.
“What a roller coaster of a day,” said Scroggins. “We went from being on top, to totally sucking in the second period, to turning out pretty good.
“We left an area that we shouldn’t have left looking for greener pastures and trying to find something new,” Scroggins continued. “We went back through a grass line that had produced earlier in the day, and it just wasn’t producing again, so we figured we needed to run new stuff.”
That move opened up the door for Team REDCON1.
“We were just about two minutes late getting into that area, but that allowed Ott and Andy to get the jump on us,” said Scroggins. “But we still caught them good and are looking forward to teaming up again for the Knockout Round.”
The top two teams from Elimination Round Match 2 at the Heritage Cup that now advance to the Knockout Round are:
1st: Team REDCON1, 30 bass, 53-13
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 19 bass, 35-4
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 11 bass, 18-9
2nd: Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, 22 bass, 50-14
Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C. nine bass, 21-10
Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla. 13 bass, 29-4
Eliminated from competition are:
3rd: Team 7 Brew Coffee, 22 bass, 37-9
Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 14 bass, 23-3
Ryan Salzman, Huntsville, Ala., eight bass, 14-6
4th: Team U.S. Air Force, seven bass, 17-12
Matt Lee, Dayton, Tenn., five bass, 11-14
Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., two bass, 5-14
Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 81 bass weighing 160 pounds even caught by the four teams during Elimination Round Match 2 on Lakes Poygan and Winneconne on the Fox River Chain. Teams U.S. Air Force and Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches tied for the Berkley Big Bass of the day with both Casey Ashley and Jesse Wiggins catching bass weighing 3 pounds, 12 ounces.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/mlf-poygan-winneconne-91624.html
Major League Fishing (MLF)