OCALA, Fla. — There wasn’t much drama at the top of SCORETRACKER® during Group A’s second day of qualifying at Kubota Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops. Yet it was far from a boring day on Orange Lake.
After building a big lead on Day 1, Terry Scroggins spent most of Monday scouting new water and hunting for a lunker bite that never came, but no one ever threatened his lead. The Florida native added 16 pounds, 7 ounces on the day, bringing his total to 78-10 and winning the round by nearly 25 pounds over Cole Floyd.
The real excitement came farther down the standings. Monday saw five anglers who started the day below the Lucas Oil Cut Line climb into the top eight and advance to the Knockout Round. Takahiro Omori got his boat stuck and missed nearly half the competition day before catching a clutch 6-pounder in the final minutes to make the cut. And the trophy bass factory kicked out yet another double-digit largemouth – a 10-1 that earned Ott DeFoe $10,000 in Berkley Big Bass cash.
Full results can be found here.
Scroggins adds more spots to arsenal
While Scroggins didn’t achieve his top objective of catching the Berkley Big Bass, he still had a productive day. He started in the same area where he caught most of his Day 1 weight, then ran all new water from there. He “feels pretty good” about the fact that he conserved some areas that he can revisit during the Knockout Round and found a few more that have potential.
“I just ran around the lake trying to find some more groups of fish and trying to catch a Heavy Hitters fish,” he said. “I didn’t do that, but I did find a couple areas that I think look promising. I didn’t have to hit any of my other stuff – I saved it – so that should be good.”
Scroggins, who lives about an hour away from Orange Lake and knows the fishery well, doesn’t think anyone is likely to find a magical, unpressured group of fish at this point in the competition. Already a small lake at about 12,500 acres, it’s fishing much smaller than that due to the low water level. So, having multiple different areas he can rotate could be important.
“I feel like at this point you’re probably going to have to deal with some pressured fish,” Scroggins said. “The lake’s not that big. I’ve been all the way around it. I’ve been inside and outside and everywhere you can go, and I’ve got a couple areas that I feel like there’s some fish in. Other than that, it’s tough.”
Even though he’s been splitting it with Floyd and Omori, Scroggins plans to revisit his starting spot from the past two days to open the Knockout Round. From there, he has a few more areas in mind where he feels like he can get a number of bites.
His primary focus, of course, will be qualifying for the Championship Round. Ideally, he’ll be able to stack up enough weight early that he can spend the afternoon searching for a big bass (which pays $30,000 in the Knockout Round) without having to worry about the cut line.
“Every day is a different day out there, but I feel like, where I’m catching them at, I don’t think I can catch a Heavy Hitters fish, but I can advance to the next round,” Scroggins said. “I’m going to have to mix it up and do a little bit of both on Wednesday.”
DeFoe salvages event with big bite
For much of his two days on Orange Lake, DeFoe found the fishing tough. He boated four scorable bass in the opening period of Day 1, then caught just one over the next four periods.
However, with less than an hour before lines out on Monday, DeFoe got a $10,000 bite, illustrating the beauty of Heavy Hitters – you’re always one cast away from a big payday. His 10-1 one-upped a 9-10 that Ron Nelson had caught less than 10 minutes earlier for Berkley Big Bass honors.
The second 10-pounder DeFoe has ever caught, it marked his first time winning one of the boosted big-bass payouts at Heavy Hitters (even though he won the event in 2022). DeFoe caught the lunker flipping hydrilla with a Bass Pro Shops XPS Crawdigy Bug Jr. in the “best of both worlds” color with a 1/2-ounce weight and a 3/0 VMC Redline straight-shank flipping hook.
While he would have loved to advance to the Knockout Round, DeFoe views the week as a success. He spent a day wrangling gators with Bass Fishing Hall of Famer Shaw Grigsby, caught his second 10-pound bass and leaves Florida with a five-figure paycheck.
“This is a fun event,” he said. “Not a lot of pressure; no points. Just coming trying to have a good week, win some money, and I got to have a good time and do a lot of fun things while I was here. And I’m leaving with some jingle in the pocket.”
Omori’s rally headlines wild final minutes
After he totaled an even 35 pounds on eight scorable bass on Day 1, Monday figured to be a low-stress day for Omori. He’d only need to catch one or two scorable bass to cement his spot in the Knockout Round; then he could use the rest of his day to look for a second straight $10,000 bite.
Instead, Omori failed to catch a scorable bass in the first period. Partway through Period 2, he tried to access a backwater pond but beached his bass boat in shallow water. An air boat had to come to the rescue – first shuttling Omori, his boat official and his camera operator to shore, then dislodging the boat, then taking the trio back. Omori still had to serve a 15-minute penalty for requiring official assistance before he could make another cast.
All of that caused Omori to miss about three hours of competition time. He finally resumed fishing with about 30 minutes left, then promptly fell to the wrong side of the cut line. But with less than 2 minutes before lines out, a 6-3 engulfed his topwater walking bait. Omori’s only scorable bass of the day, it was enough to send him to the Knockout Round, continuing a dream season in which the 55-year-old has earned his first Bass Pro Tour win, finished second at REDCREST, caught his first tournament 10-pounder and learned that he’ll be inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
That wasn’t the only drama around the cut line, though. Dave Lefebre had climbed all the way from 15th place at the start of the day into eighth, but Omori’s fish pushed him to the wrong side of the cut. Lefebre boated a 3-5 of his own in the final seconds to jump back into the top eight and push Bryan Thrift out of the Knockout Round field. A day after he caught just two scorable bass for 6-4, Lefebre caught four bass over 5 pounds, totaling 33-10 on seven scorables.
Ultimately, the last four fish that hit SCORETRACKER® all carried major significance – DeFoe’s $10,000 10-pounder, followed by a 6-13 that put Lefebre inside the top eight and knocked Omori out, followed by Omori’s aforementioned 6-3, then Lefebre’s 3-5.
More to come at Heavy Hitters
The 16 anglers in Group B will return to the water Tuesday and fight for the eight remaining spots in the Knockout Round. Advancing not only keeps anglers alive to win the Heavy Hitters championship belt; it also gives them a shot to win even bigger Berkley Big Bass prizes. The biggest bass of the Knockout Round will pay $30,000, then both the winner and the angler who catches the biggest bass during the Championship Round will earn $100,000.
Keep watching all the action on the MLFNOW! livestream from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET each day through Thursday at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps and the Major League Fishing channel on Rumble.