TYLER, Texas – Same state, same story, different lake.
Ott DeFoe is the 2022 General Tire Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops Champion after another impressive sight-fishing performance on Lake Palestine. While DeFoe was busy winning $100,000 for finishing on top of SCORETRACKER®, Alton Jones Jr. added $100,000 of his own for catching the biggest bass of the Championship Round with his 6-pound, 4-ounce largemouth.
For the fourth time in the last two years, DeFoe has an MLF event win on a Lone Star State lake. He won Stage Three of the 2020 Bass Pro Tour on Lake Fork, the 2021 Stage One on Sam Rayburn Reservoir, the 2021 Heritage Cup in Waco, Texas, and now 2022 Heavy Hitters on Lake Palestine. While he hails from East Tennessee, DeFoe has found a second bass-fishing home in Texas.
“My affection for the state of Texas seems to grow with every tournament I fish here,” DeFoe joked. “I think I perform so well here because I can fish super shallow and there’s a ton of fish. You don’t have to find the best spot on the lake to win in Texas, you just have to hunker down in an area and figure out how to catch them. If you can do that, most of the time you’re going to do well.”
The General Tire pro was running out of time and was looking up at Justin Lucas in first place with only 35 minutes remaining. DeFoe needed at least a 3-pound scorable bass to jump ahead of Lucas. Fishing in the back of a pocket, DeFoe pitched a Bass Pro Shops Fin-Eke worm with a 3/8-ounce weight at a bedding fish and was able to set the hook.
The fish weighed in at 4-10, pushing DeFoe ahead. Just eight minutes later, DeFoe added a 3-10 to push his total weight to 16-6. Lucas was unable to make up the 12-ounce deficit before time expired. While he only was able to catch four bass all day, DeFoe knew that he has the sight-fishing prowess to win the event.
“I was 100% set on sight fishing for bedding fish today,” DeFoe said. “That’s what I did all week and it worked out for me again today. I was consistent all week using my Texas-rigged worm and a Tokyo rig with a 4.5-inch swimbait. Those two baits did all my damage.”
One big bass check isn’t enough, so Jones had to go win an even bigger one on Thursday. The Texas pro earned $50,000 on Wednesday for catching an 8-3 in the Knockout Round, and he added on another $100,000 for catch the biggest bass of the Championship Round—a 6-4.
Doing some quick math, that’s $150,000 just for catching big bass. Tack on $15,000 for finishing fifth overall and it’s safe to say that Jones made the short drive back home to Waco, Texas, with a big smile and a big check.
“Earning $150,000 in a week for catching big bass isn’t a bad week of work,” Jones said with a smile. “Sight fishing in the springtime is my favorite thing to do in the world, kind of like my dad. He taught me a lot about sight fishing and it really paid off this week.”
Jones caught his big bass on Thursday the same way he caught his big bass on Wednesday — with an unreleased bait that’s coming out at iCAST. The Geecrack Bellow Shad will be released to the public in July, but Jones is already giving the bait $150,000 worth of publicity thanks to his performance on Palestine.
“It’s going to be my signature bait, so catching a fish on a bait with my name on it that isn’t even out yet is pretty amazing,” Jones said.
The minimum weight for a scorable bass was increased from 2 pounds to 3 pounds for the Championship Round on Thursday. With the increase in weight, the anglers struggled to light up SCORETRACKER® as much as they had throughout the earlier rounds.
There were only 24 scorable bass caught in total on Thursday, and there was only a 4-5 difference between first-place DeFoe and fourth-place Fletcher Shryock. The average scorable bass registered weighed 3-14. Jones had the highest average weight per bass with 4-11.