NEENAH, Wis. – Lake Butte des Morts was the playing field Wednesday for the three two-man teams competing in Match 1 of the Knockout Round at the General Tire Team Series Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley. After competitors spent the Elimination Round competing on Lakes Poygan and Winneconne earlier this week, Lake Butte des Morts offered competitors numerous new areas to explore and slightly different conditions.

Despite the change in competition waters, fishing was generally the same as teams relied mainly on frogs, wacky rigs and flipping jigs to break down the 8,500-acre fishery at the second General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops event of the season.

It was a closely contested day – just 3 1/2 pounds separated the bottom two teams – but as SCORETRACKER® expired, it was the Team REDCON1 duo of Ott DeFoe and Andy Montgomery that stood alone atop the leaderboard. Team REDCON1 caught 18 bass weighing 27 pounds, 14 ounces to pace the field and advance to the Championship Round on Friday. Also advancing in second place was Team Knighten Industries – Kelly Jordon and Keith Poche – who boated 13 bass totaling 22-13.

Team REDCON1 and Team Knighten Industries now advance to Friday’s Championship Round to compete against the top two finishing teams from Match 2 of the Knockout Round on Thursday. Eliminated from competition was Team WIX Filters – David Dudley and Dave Lefebre – who caught 10 scorable bass weighing 18-2.

Link to Hi-Res Photo of Knockout Round Match 1 Winners Team REDCON1 (DeFoe/Montgomery)
Link to HD Video Clip of Knockout Round Match 1 Highlights
Link to Photo Gallery of Knockout Round Match 1 On-The-Water Highlights

“Man, we can finally breathe,” Montgomery said as the third period came to an end. “I thought this one was tracking toward an easy day, but we had to work for it today. We did just enough and we are two for two. But the one that matters the most is two days from now. We want to be three for three.”

“It was a hard day of fishing, no doubt,” DeFoe said. “We had to battle, and we ended up catching 18 – just over half of what we caught the other day. It was tough. But we made it to the Championship Round, and that is such a good feeling.”

“We had to work for every dang fish we caught. We had 18 fish, but we made 180,000 casts today,” Montgomery joked.

Team REDCON1 started out the day fishing cane grass, mixing it up and throwing a hodge-podge of lures. DeFoe weighed in scorable keepers on five different baits, the majority coming on a stick-worm, while Montgomery caught them mainly flipping a jig.

“At the end of the day, we came back and were fishing some of the little grass mats back in a canal,” DeFoe said. “It just looked like it would have a good population of fish in it. Andy and I talked, and we thought we could come in and beat out a few bites. I picked up a frog, and it got a few of those bites and was able to give us just enough cushion to make it through.”

The key bait for DeFoe at the end of the day was a Terminator Walking Frog Jr., which DeFoe fished on a Johnny Morris Signature Series 7-foot, 2-inch heavy-action rod paired with a Johnny Morris Platinum high-speed 8:3:1 reel with 50-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS braid.

For the second consecutive day of competition, the Team Knighten Industries duo of Kelly Jordon and Keith Poche advanced as the No. 2 team on the day.

Poche mainly threw a topwater, catching five bass on a frog and adding two more scorable smallmouth on a popper. Jordon committed to a soft-plastic stick worm, adding six keepers as the duo targeted a large grassy area in the northwest portion of the lake for the majority of the day.

“There was a hole in the grass that was our bread and butter,” Poche said. “I honestly didn’t think it had enough, but it had just enough, and we were able to kind of build off of it.”

“I fish better when it’s intense, but I’m enjoying it, and that was the case for us today,” Jordon said. “We found this grassy area, and it turned us on to a few things. There was a key stretch near the end and we managed to catch several from it. It was a tough day, but a great day.”

The top two teams now advancing to the Championship Round at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley are:

1st:        Team REDCON1, 18 bass, 27-14
                Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 11 bass, 15-2
                Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., seven bass, 12-12
2nd:       Team Knighten Industries, 13 bass, 22-13
                Kelly Jordon, Flint, Texas, six bass, 9-14
                Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., seven bass, 12-15

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team WIX Filters, 11 bass, 19-6
                David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., six bass, 10-0
                Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., five bass, 9-6

Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 42 bass weighing 70 pounds, 1 ounce caught by the three teams competing in Match 1 of the Knockout Round on Lake Butte des Morts. Poche caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – a largemouth weighing 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

The Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley is hosted by the Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau and takes place over six days in the Fox Cities in Wisconsin. The competition water for each day is top secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning.

Anglers depart the host hotel in Neenah each morning as early as 5:30 a.m. CT. They are driven directly to the day’s competition area launch ramp by their officials. Competition begins on the water at 8:45 a.m.

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live every day of competition from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT. MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.

The Heritage Cup features 12 two-man teams, divided into three groups as they enter the one-day Elimination Round matches. Each of the three Elimination Round matches featured four new teams, with the top two teams from each match of the Elimination Round advancing to the Knockout Round on Days 4 & 5. In the Knockout Rounds, three teams compete each day, with the top two teams from each Knockout Round match moving on to the Championship Round on Day 6. In Friday’s Day 6 Championship Round, the final four teams will compete in a one-day shootout to determine which team will win the 2024 Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley.

The 2024 General Tire Team Series is comprised of four events – Challenge Cup, Heritage Cup, Patriot Cup and Summit Cup – featuring two-man teams of MLF Bass Pro Tour pros competing from the same boat. Each event features a roster of 24 anglers, teamed up and working together to claim part of a season purse of more than $720,000. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2024 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2024.

Television coverage of the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley will premiere on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour episodes in February 2025. New MLF General Tire Team Series episodes will premiere each Saturday morning on Outdoor Channel and posted to MOTV.

Proud sponsors of the MLF General Tire Team Series include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Barbasol, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, Builders FirstSource, C-MAP, Coign, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, General Tire, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Nitro Boats, Onyx, Plano, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala Baits, REDCON1, Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff, Star brite, Toyota, USAA, WIX Filters and YETI.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.