MANNING, S.C. (April 18, 2008) - Pro Ott Defoe of Knoxville, Tenn., caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces Friday to widen his lead in the Stren Series Southeast Division bass fishing tournament on Santee Cooper. With a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 69-12, he holds a 4-pound, 12-ounce lead over his closest competitor heading into the final day of competition.
"I had to change up a lot today," said Defoe, who has won more than $151,000 in FLW Outdoors events. "In my primary area today, I caught a limit, but it didn't weigh but maybe 10 or 12 pounds. It was kind of disheartening."
Defoe said he hadn't had much luck catching bedded fish during the first two days of competition, but Friday was different. Defoe targeted the bedded fish with a green pumpkin Berkley PowerBait 7-inch Shaky Worm rigged wacky-style on 8-pound-test line, a rig Defoe said he had fished during all three days of competition.
"I changed up and had an area I hadn't been to that I really needed to go to," Defoe continued. "When I got to the new area, there were some pretty good fish up on the beds. And I still had a 13-incher I needed to cull, and I did that right away with a 2 ½-pounder."
Defoe said he caught 12 keepers during the day, including six on the bed. Defoe said three of the fish he weighed in on Friday were bedded fish. "It was about 12:15 when I left my primary area," Defoe said. "My new area was kind of out of the way. It was kind of a gamble. I told my co-angler, 'I really hope I'm not messing up, but I've got to go check somewhere else.' It ended up working out."
Rounding out the top five pros are Team Snickers pro Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala. (15 bass, 64-03); Brett Mitchell of Timmonsville, S.C. (15 bass, 62-14); Ken Ellis of Bowman, S.C. (15 bass, 59-00); and Timothy Little of Acworth, Ga. (12 bass, 56-11).
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 55 pounds, 4 ounces in the Pro Division are Dale Evans of Ridgeville, S.C.; Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla.; Lex Costas of Daniel Island, S.C.; Hal Cercopely of Alcolu, S.C.; and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C.
Mark Hutson of Moncks Corner, S.C., earned $231 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 7-pound, 10-ounce bass he caught. Overall there were 446 bass weighing 1,394 pounds, 3 ounces caught by pros Friday. The catch included 56 five-bass limits.
Jason Ober of Johnstown, Penn., leads the Co-angler Division in the chase for a top award of $35,000, including a 198VX Ranger if contingency guidelines are met, thanks to a three-day total of 13 bass weighing 39-07.
"I've drawn some excellent competitors in the tournament and been able to adjust to what's going on," said Ober, who is fishing in his second season of Stren Series competition. "I've caught a few fish sight fishing and some on a spinnerbait.
"Yesterday afternoon I kind of figured something out," Ober continued. "I've been fishing for post-spawn fish guarding fry while my pros are fishing for bedded fish."
Ober said he targeted the post-spawn fish by throwing a weightless trick worm and fishing it slowly. Ober said he was confident his approach would work on the final day of competition.
"The hard part's over," Ober said. "What I mean by that is that everybody in the top 10 is around fish. And the most important thing is just to be around fish. I may not be able to catch 25 pounds, but I can catch another 8 to 12 pounds just by being around them."
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Ty Solis of Albany, Ga. (nine bass, 34-00); Larry Breckenridge of Dothan, Ala. (nine bass, 30-13); Greg Hamblin of New Albany, Miss. (11 bass, 30-06); and Patrick Cook of Johnsonville, S.C. (nine bass, 28-11).
Also clearing the top 10 cut weight of 25 pounds, 4 ounces in the Co-angler Division are Ken Golub of Pittsford, N.Y.; Gill Bistrow of Columbia, Ala.; Brad Rodrigue of Pierre Part, La.; Aaron Fahnestock of Enterprise, Ala.; and Mike Morris of White, Ga..
Solis earned $122 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 7-pound bass he caught.
Overall there were 192 bass weighing 510 pounds, 14 ounces caught by co-anglers Friday. The catch included four five-bass limits.
The top 40 co-anglers from each Stren Series division will also advance to the championship, where they will fish for as much as $70,000. The highest-finishing co-angler from each division at the championship will then advance to the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off at 7 Saturday morning from John C. Land III Landing located at County Road S-14-260 in Summerton, S.C. Saturday's final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 2010 Paxville Highway in Manning beginning at 4 p.m. The takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.
Stren Series tournaments are four-day events consisting of two rounds. The entire field competes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At the conclusion of Friday's weigh-in, the field is cut to the top 10 pros and co-anglers based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weights. These anglers continue competition Saturday, with the winners determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.