How Ott DeFoe got his first tidal win at the Potomac

Has Ott even made a top 10 ever in his career in a tidal fishery? He thinks not – so how ’bout that for his first one!

Ott doing well on the Potomac River could make sense because the Potomac can be cranked and has been won with crankbaits, which is Ott’s strength. But…he didn’t crank. Not even 1 fish on it.

Here’s how he got his 5th Bass Pro Tour win, which puts him 3rd on the most BPT wins list – behind Jacob Wheeler and Dustin Connell.

Going in and practice

> “Going in honestly I was just hoping for a solid finish…points to help qualify for Redcrest. That was kind of where my head was at.

> “I wanted to fish the creeks. That was my desire going in. I’m a river guy, I like being in current – it makes sense to me.

> “…I looked at the forecast and knew an extreme heat wave was coming that could make more fish go to those areas, seeking out cooler water coming in. It’s been a long time, but I’ve fished up there a lot and know what creeks typically have cooler water in them.

> “Chicamuxen Creek was the first place I went, then Neabsco [Creek, his winning area] might have been the next one. I didn’t spend much time in there. I got back in there about 10:00 the 2nd day of practice and the tide was coming out pretty good. I had 4-5 good bites on a buzzbait just burning through there…not even in the good part….”

He saw a bunch of fish too:

> “…there goes 1, there’s 2…I’d see them swimming around. I knew it had a good bunch of fish, and finding that many in there that quick I knew it was a good area, and I also knew the creeks were gonna play.

> “It made me lock in. I looked at not every creek on the river but most of them…that day and the rest of the next day.

> “From my previous time having fished there [Neabsco Creek] – it’s not far from takeoff, it’s not a top secret place…I was boat #17 which I thought might be early enough that I might be the first person there. It’s no wake…all the way to the back.”

Tournament

> “I was the first one at the bridge. Chris Lane was a little bit behind me, and Keith Carson was a little bit behind him. Chris ended up turning around and going somewhere else….

> “There’s a discharge deal in there [but] I wanted to fish the rest of the creek. The discharge is kinda the obvious thing. Keith started on the discharge and absolutely burnt them down. I was like, Dang I chose the wrong place!

> “I stayed back there until around noon or so. I had some other creeks I wanted to go check. I had around 40 lbs when I left and fished 1 other place…caught 30 lbs. It was a smaller area but I had it to myself and caught more out of there than I ever would have imagined.

> “I literally fished 2 creeks the whole day and caught 70 lbs. I didn’t expect the weights to be that big.

> “I caught 1 fish on a buzzbait, 1 fish on a wacky worm, a couple on a TX-rig worm, a handful on a bladed jig, and half or more on a 3/8-oz compact flipping jig.

> “Day 2 I was like, Man I’m only 10 lbs behind Keith, and if I could win the round [for the auto pass into the Championship Round], I would….

> “I rode back to the bridge…knew a few boats would be ahead of me. As I was getting to the bridge, another competitor got there before me as well. And then I could see another competitor already further back in the creek.

> “In my mind there’s about to be 4 of us in this area and it’s not very big. Mentally I kinda shifted gears – I have plenty of other places I can go and catch 20-35 lbs, and it’s a 15-minute idle to get back in there.”

He didn’t go to the 2nd spot he fished day 1 because the tide wasn’t right for it:

> “I had another creek I thought the fish would bite in [but] the whole 1st period I caught 1 fish. So I was kinda kicking myself at that point.

> “The tide was really jacked up that day. It was a foot and half higher high tide than it had been in all of practice and day 1 of competition, and we’d had a bunch of rain the night before and that morning.

> “Before you know it, the creeks I’m fishing are blowing mud…and I’m spinning out a little bit because I can’t catch anything.

> “I actually fished the river. I went to the Leesylvania boat ramp to try to catch some released fish to try and get my day going. And I was able to do that. I caught some fish there on a bladed jig…got the ball rolling. I was close [to qualifying for the Knockout Round] at that point but I didn’t have quite enough.

> “I went to the creek where I caught 30 lbs…even though the tide was going out it was still too high. I never had a bite. Then I went back to where I started and ended up catching 4-6 to get myself in.”

Knockout Round

> “After the 1st day having been so good, I felt like I had to go back [to the spot he shared with Keith] and see what’s left. I started in there and it was really good. Just fishing my way in I caught some.

> “Each day we had more incoming tide…so it gave you the ability to fish further and further back, which is great especially in a creek like that. The very 1st day…a beaver dam there, the high tide was even with the top of the dam. After that big rain…I could troll right over the beaver dam [and fish further back].

> “On that day I expanded my area because it had just been up to the beaver dam. I caught fish for another 200 yards, and fished another 200 yards and didn’t catch any…maybe I got away from them.

> “So I came back out and stayed in the Neabsco til I had about 48 lbs [on a jig]. [Then] I wanted to go check other places to see if other competitors were there or to see if there was more potential….

> “The 1st place I went to, Keith Poche comes floating down the creek…I turn around and leave. I checked another place and caught 4 in 15 minutes, all on a bladed jig. Now I have another place in my pocket if I need it.”

Championship Round

> “[In his primary creek] after 2 days I knew I had beat on them in there, and Keith had been in there a good bit. I’ve got those other places in my mind because I knew they had potential. But…because it’d been so good to me…I decided to [start in the Neabsco].

> “I talked to Keith…I just had that feeling that he probably wasn’t gonna start in there. Zack Birge had fished in there the 2nd day and ended up winning the round out of there, and neither one of those guys came back there the final day….

> “I felt if I had that whole creek to myself, I probably had a legitimate shot to win.

> “I fished a different section of it. I went across the beaver dam and caught a couple. The next 100 yards I didn’t catch any, but in the next 150-200 yard stretch I caught some…and they were nice ones.I got back there almost to where I turned around the day before and caught 2 more.

> “…up the creek there’s a pretty 90-degree bend. I didn’t go up there the day before. [This time he did and] caught a 3-06, a 2-04…I caught 8-9 lbs out of that hole. I went up a little further and caught another one. It was absolutely loaded.”

Baits

All his fish the final day were caught on a jig (about 2/3 of them) and a wacky rig:

> Jig: 3/8-oz compact flipping jig (gp with a little orange) with a cut-down craw trailer (gp and tails dyed orange). The whole rig was maybe 3-3.5″ long total.

> 7′ 4″ H Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris CarbonLite Tech Series Draggin Rod, BPS CarbonLite Tech Reel (8.3), 20-lb BPS XPS Fluoro.

> Wacky rig: BPS Wacky Stik-O (sooner run), #1 VMC RedLine Weedless Neko Hook, 10-lb BPS XPS Braid to 12-lb BPS XPS Fluoro, BPS CarbonLite Spin Reel (3000), 7′ 2″ M BPS CarbonLite Tech Series Wacky Rig Spin Rod.

> Why that ‘sooner run’ color: “It’s like a dark watermelon with red flake. I always like watermelon/red in clear water. It’s a darker watermelon but is more transparent than a lot of watermelons.

> “I also put Thump Gel on both those baits. I just felt like on pressured fish, sometimes you can get a few more of them to eat it a little better. I used green, then chartreuse [after he ran out of green].”

Fishing deets

> Why he settled on the jig: “It was just working. A lot of the day the tide was rising so the fish were going up into the cover more. And we had pretty good color because of that rain we had. So [some places] it was too much color for a wacky worm, and too much current.

> “I could’ve caught fish on a bladed jig. The fish weren’t really that particular, you just needed to be efficient. The jig was just the most efficient option. Every cast I made with it was a useful presentation.”

> Jigging in the pads: “90% of the bites came when you’d pitch the bait in, and one of the pads…would rattle, and the fish would take off and go toward your jig. 1 hop or it might be a 2 hops, but he was gonna bite it right then.”

> Jigging in the back of creeks: “Fishing the wood stuff [up the creek] the water was real clear. I had fish where I would hop it [several times], then ‘bonk’. If I thought it was a really good spot, I would soak it.”

> Wacky worm: “At least half were sight-fish [roamers]. I’d let it drift with the current – wiggle it down through there with very little movement.”

Electronics

> “…the first day I used it a little bit, but after that I never turned my front graph on.

> “The Minn Kota Ultrex QUEST is real quiet…I caught a lot fish that I saw first. [When he saw one] I put my [Minn Kota] Raptors down, I put my bait in front of it, and caught a bunch of them being quiet and stopping the boat like that.”

Shoutouts

> “I give God all the praise and glory for it, above all. This week is pretty special. The 1st day of the tournament 6 years ago, I had heart surgery. And Sunday was the day I came home from the hospital after the surgery. So it was a pretty special week and a reminder of that time in our life.

> “That’s how important our faith is because it’s a reminder that you’re gonna spend eternity somewhere, and that choice is up to us.”