DeFoe Hopes to Keep Momentum Moving in Stage Four

MLF pro Ott DeFoe is coming off of a sixth-place finish in Stage Three of the Bass Pro Tour. Photo by Garrick Dixon

April 5, 2019 • Mason Prince • Bass Pro Tour

It was quite the month of March for MLF angler Ott DeFoe. The Tennessee pro took home the 2019 Bassmaster Classic title in his home state the week before notching his first Top 10 finish during Stage Three of the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour.

It’s been a successful spring for DeFoe, but there’s still things he wishes he could improve.

“My season has been pretty good besides Stage Two in Texas,” DeFoe said of missing the cut on Lake Conroe. “I was pretty lost there from start to finish. I was just never around the fish. Other than that, I’ve been fishing pretty well and making good decisions when I need to make them.”

Let the Good Times Roll

DeFoe has really gotten something rolling in the past couple of weeks which he hopes can carry him into next week’s Econo Lodge Stage Four Presented by Winn Grips. In other sports, momentum can be a key factor of continued success. In hockey, it could be a hot goaltender. In baseball, a flamethrowing ace. But is it possible in a sport like professional bass fishing, where you consistently change lakes and locations that an angler could hit a hot streak?

DeFoe thinks so.

“Momentum is a real thing in fishing,” DeFoe asserted. “When you have a good tournament and make good decisions it kind of gets the ball rolling. It’s been that way for me this year and I hope I can keep it going.”

Talkin’ Tennessee

The General Tire pro calls Knoxville, Tennessee home, the same place where he won this year’s Bassmaster Classic on the Tennessee River. Shifting back to MLF competition the very next week on unknown North Carolina lakes, he was able to place inside the Top 10. Seeing his success on two completely different bodies of water was quite the eye opener for DeFoe.

Ott DeFoe with a 6-pound, 8-ounce bass he caught during Stage Three in North Carolina.

“The neat thing about winning the Classic and then going to North Carolina was that the Classic was at home on waters that I know really well,” DeFoe explained. “Then, going to North Carolina and never fishing there before and finishing in sixth was really cool. To have two tournaments back-to-back on two completely different fisheries and to have success at both was a really great feeling.”

Travel about 95 miles to the southwest from DeFoe’s home in Knoxville and you will find Lake Chickamauga just outside of Chattanooga, the site of Stage Four of the Bass Pro Tour. While it’s a lake in the Volunteer State, it’s not a body of water that DeFoe knows like the back of his hand, though he does have some experience there.

“Chickamauga is certainly not the lake I know best in Tennessee, but I have fished it a good bit and know the lake pretty well,” DeFoe said.

This will be the first MLF event on Lake Chickamauga, and the MLF veteran thinks that the more than 36,236 acres of water will prove to be a great stop on the Bass Pro Tour.

“I’m really excited to see how Chickamauga fishes in this format,” DeFoe said with anticipation. “It’s a place that has a lot of big fish in it, but it also has a lot of numbers. I think we will see guys do well who target big fish and guys who target numbers. It’s really anyone’s game.”

DeFoe and the rest of the Bass Pro Tour anglers return to action on April 9-14 for the Econo Lodge Stage Four Presented by Winn Grips on Lake Chickamauga in Dayton, Tennessee.