With Assist From Swindle, DeFoe Seals First Win

By BassFan Staff

At the 2011 Elite Series All-Star event, Ott DeFoe got a tip from Gerald Swindle about a place on the Alabama River that helped him go on to victory.

Today, it was another tip from Swindle that got DeFoe back on track after a rough morning at the Mississippi River. When Swindle encountered the day-3 leader in Pool 8 around 10 a.m., DeFoe told him he had zero fish. Swindle could tell DeFoe was starting to spin out.

“When I pulled up on him, you could see his expression and body language,” Swindle said. “I said, ‘Ott, you got ‘em?’ He said, ‘I’ve got nothing.’ I said I knew where some smallmouth are, maybe nine or 10 pounds, but they were biting when I left.”

Swindle tipped him off to the stretch of bank where he’d been catching fish on the Minnesota side of the river and even recommended DeFoe throw a white walking topwater bait.

DeFoe heeded the advice of the Angler of the Year points leader and caught his first keeper at 10 a.m. and added another soon after. With his dry spell broken, he went back to a stretch of grass that had been part of his daily rotation earlier in the tournament. He added a couple keepers there before heading back to the spillway where Lake Onalaska empties into Pool 8, the spot that produced a good portion of his weight all week, including the 6-01 brute that highlighted his day-2 stringer.

He capped off the day with a couple more fish, including a 3-pounder, that gave him the weight needed to hold on for his first win. His 12-01 stringer was, by far, his lightest of the week, but it gave him a 63-10 total, enough to fend off Seth Feider, who’d caught 13-08 to close with 62-07.

“At the end of the day, I caught some fish there late that did it,” DeFoe said on stage. “I didn’t honestly feel like I had a chance. I feel like I needed 14 or 15 pounds to have a chance because Seth is so good out here and knows this river so well. That’s why it’s so hard to believe this is happening right now.”

DeFoe has long been considered among the most consistent performers on the circuit, but he badly wanted to capture his first win.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “Six years is not that long for some of these guys. A lot of guys have fished out here a lot longer and lot of guys I have a lot of respect for that haven’t won one yet. It’s awesome. The Lord blessed me so much this week. When you catch a 6-pounder on the Mississippi River, it’s probably your time to win. There’s no other way to put it.”

Swindle said he didn’t think twice about offering up his spot to DeFoe.

“Ott’s the type of guy that if he gets a bite – it wasn’t the spot to win the tournament – but I knew if he could catch a fish or two and settle down, he’d be back in contention to have a chance to win,” he said. “You pull for all of these guys. I don’t pick one guy out to try to win. I’m trying to win myself. I wouldn’t pull against Edwin (Evers) or Ott, but I’d help them out if I could and today was one of those chances.”

Alton Jones finished 3rd with 61-14 after sacking 14-15 in Pool 9 today. Jordan Lee spent the day frogging again and came up with 13-10 to claim 4th with 61-08. Skeet Reese moved up one spot to 5th with a 14-01 stringer that gave him 58-05.

Here's a look at the totals for the rest of the finalists:

6. Edwin Evers: 58-00
7. Takahiro Omori: 57-00
8. Mark Davis: 54-14
9. Jared Lintner: 54-09
10. Casey Ashley: 54-01
11. Randy Howell: 53-11
12. Gerald Swindle: 52-13

Swindle wound up with 10-05 today and slipped two spots to 12th with 52-13. He’ll still take a commanding 43-point lead to the AOY Championship event next week. Only Swindle and Keith Combs have a shot to win AOY this year entering the final tournament.

All three pools that were available to the field this week proved their worth, but DeFoe prevailed by spending all four days in Pool 8. The constantly changing conditions after Friday’s massive rains kept everyone on their toes, but the bass continued to be grouped up in small areas, either under matted-out vegetation, around current breaks or on shallow bars and banks.

The AOY title and berths in the Bassmaster Classic will be settled next week when the Elite Series stages its first event in the state of Minnesota at Mille Lacs Lake, a fabled smallmouth venue. Competition days are Thursday, Friday and Sunday with Saturday serving as a day for fans to interact with anglers.

Spillway Produced Again for DeFoe

> Day 4: 5, 12-01 (20, 63-10)

Today was the first time in DeFoe’s career he’d left the dock on the final day with the lead. Things didn’t go as expected early on and he was spinning his wheels before he encountered Swindle.

“Until 10, it was pretty frustrating,” he said. “It only got slightly better for awhile, then at the end of day it came together.”

He heeded Swindle’s advice and visited the area he recommended, but ultimately got a couple bites off a nearby bank with the swimbait he’d been throwing along a concrete spillway.

“That’s just the kind of guy he is,” he said of Swindle’s willingness to help during the heat of competition. “That goes for a lot of guys out here. We try to help each other out. If it’s a head-to-head deal, I’m probably not going to tell you where to beat me, but he was not in a position to win and he knew that.

“The exact place he told me to go I didn’t catch one right there, but I was like, ‘Okay, they’re on this.’ I went to a bank that looked like it, but more than anything it gave me confidence to go do something different. It wasn’t off-the-wall river fishing. It was river fishing 101. It was just a change of pace.”

His first fish was a 2 1/4-pound smallmouth, then he added a small keeper. He had four keepers, including one that barely measured 14 inches, when he decided to ride out the day where he’d had the most success.

“Swindle was a huge deal just to get the day heading back in the right direction,” he said. “The deal that sealed it was telling myself that I needed to go back to the spillway. I said, ‘Heck with this. I’m going to spend as much time there with the swimbait and I’m not doing anything else.’”

He was back at the spillway before 1 p.m., giving himself two hours to save his day and salvage a shot at the win. He caught two fairly quickly and was culling within 45 minutes.

He’d culled a couple more times before catching a 3-pounder with less than 5 minutes before he had to run back to check-in. He wound up weighing four largemouth and one smallmouth today.

“It’s weird,” he said when asked to describe what it feels like to have won. “Holding that trophy on stage, it felt like an out-of-body experience. It was like I was seeing it through someone else’s eyes. I’ve watched so many other guys do it. It feels good to be me.”

2nd: Feider Bummed

> Day 4: 5, 13-08 (20, 62-07)

It was a bittersweet finish for Feider, who was seeking to cap off his second season in the Elite Series with a win on a body of water he’s very familiar with.

“I’m definitely disappointed I didn’t win, but all in all it was a good week for everything,” he said. “I made it to Mille Lacs and got some good publicity so hopefully that helps with sponsors.”

What’s more, this week may change how he approaches future Elite Series events.

“It gives me more confidence to fish more like I do at home,” he said. “I’ve always been shooting for 50th and getting a check. I don’t think that works because of the all of the guys who do well go for the throat and when things don’t go right, they get 30th. When you you fish for 50th and things go wrong, you wind up in 90th.”

Feider, who’s bypassing AOY practice at Mille Lacs on Monday in order to fish a local tournament at Lake Minnetonka, felt like he had the chances to beat DeFoe without receiving any help from another competitor.

“It is what it is,” he said. “Ott caught the fish and I should’ve caught them better. I had the opportunities to do that. That’s the way it goes. Maybe someone will do that for me sometime.”

He split his time between pools 7 and 8 today and everything “went really smooth,” he said. He again targeted shallow sand drops with a swimjig and Carolina rig.

He started in Pool 7 again and his first fish was a 3 1/2-pound smallmouth to set the tone. He’d been catching a small limit each day early, then upgraded later on. Later in the day, he was going to head further up river in Pool 7, but saw a barge coming downstream toward the lock. He did a U-Turn and locked through to Pool 8 where he had some spots he hadn’t gotten a chance to fish yet.

“As soon as I got through the lock, I had 12 pounds and figured I’d made it to Mille Lacs,” he said. “I got down to 8 and caught a decent one and lost a nice one. About 10 minutes later, I culled with a big one, but I was still not thinking I had a chance to win.

“I had my eyes on the prize all day, I didn’t even get nervous until I got back on shore. I thought it was over and I didn’t have a chance. Then, I heard Ott only had 11 pounds. When I heard that, that’s when I got nervous.”

3rd: Jones Accomplished His Goals

> Day 4: 5, 14-15 (20, 61-14)

Jones made the long-distance run to Pool 9 for the fourth straight day and hammered the same spot he’d fished on days 1-3. He caught another 40 keepers, a mix of smallmouth and largemouth, off the rocky patch in the middle of the river and it carried him to his best finish of the season.

More importantly, he locked himself into the Bassmaster Classic, meaning he can approach next week’s AOY event with a more relaxed mindset.

“I accomplished all the goals I set for myself this week,” he said. “Number 1, I wanted to finish strong and have momentum to carry into next year and the Classic. Number 2 was to make the Classic and not have any pressure at the AOY. That’s a great luxury. The pressure’s off and I can go try to only find giants and try to win there.”

Still, he said it stung a little falling short of what would’ve been his second full-field Elite Series win.

“I’m really happy for Ott,” he said. “Coming within a couple pounds of winning and not winning, it’s hard, but when you’re taking more risks going through locks and being in the situation I was in, I was really pleased with it.”

4th: Another Top 10 for Lee

> Day 4: 5, 13-10 (20, 61-08)

Lee came up with his fourth straight top-10 finish this week, but he’s trying to temper his frustration with confidence gained from putting himself in position to contend for wins.

“I was a little disappointed,” he said. “I’m obviously happy with a good finish. Being close again, when I saw how close it was, I was thinking back to a fish or two that missed my frog that could’ve made it better, but that’s part of it. I’m extremely happy.

“Catching 61 pounds and for all those fish to come out of four places the size of a bass boat – to catch that kind of weight where I was fishing was pretty awesome.”

He caught all of his weigh fish on a frog this week in Pool 8 – he caught 15 non-keepers flipping – and started to sense his areas were starting to fade Saturday.

“Today was the second day after that big front and it may have been just the weather,” he said. “On that river, I just think there’s so many fish around there. I didn’t think you could really fish them out. I didn’t beat on them on days 1 and 2. I caught some and would leave. I think it was more the weather than anything. It really didn’t help that I was ripping them out of their home every day, though.”

5th: Top 5 For Reese Hurt So Good

> Day 4: 5, 14-01 (20, 58-05)

Reese planned to soak his hands in hydrogen peroxide tonight. They were pretty sore as a result of catching upwards of 200 fish during the tournament.

“My hands hurt, but that’s a good problem to have,” he said after posting his second top-5 finish of the season.

He moved up eight spots in AOY points and locked up a berth to next year’s Bassmaster Classic.

After logging two finishes in the 30s in the other Elite Series events at La Crosse, Reese spent most of his week in Pool 8, combing shallow areas with a swimjig and Carolina rig.

“I found a couple areas that had primarily smallmouth on them,” he said. “I wound up getting stuff dialed in. It was fun.”

Notable

> Day 4 stats – 12 anglers, 12 limits.

Final Results

1. Ott DeFoe -- Knoxville, TN -- 20, 63-10 -- 110 -- $102,000
Day 1: 5, 17-07 -- Day 2: 5, 17-11 -- Day 3: 5, 16-07 -- Day 4: 5, 12-01

2. Seth Feider -- Bloomington, MN -- 20, 62-07 -- 109 -- $25,000
Day 1: 5, 13-01 -- Day 2: 5, 19-05 -- Day 3: 5, 16-09 -- Day 4: 5, 13-08

3. Alton Jones -- Lorena, TX -- 20, 61-14 -- 108 -- $22,000
Day 1: 5, 14-11 -- Day 2: 5, 15-12 -- Day 3: 5, 16-08 -- Day 4: 5, 14-15

4. Jordan Lee -- Grant, AL -- 20, 61-08 -- 107 -- $15,000
Day 1: 5, 17-02 -- Day 2: 5, 16-02 -- Day 3: 5, 14-10 -- Day 4: 5, 13-10

5. Skeet Reese -- Auburn, CA -- 20, 58-05 -- 106 -- $14,000
Day 1: 5, 13-08 -- Day 2: 5, 14-11 -- Day 3: 5, 16-01 -- Day 4: 5, 14-01

6. Edwin Evers -- Talala, OK -- 20, 58-00 -- 105 -- $13,500
Day 1: 5, 16-13 -- Day 2: 5, 13-15 -- Day 3: 5, 11-07 -- Day 4: 5, 15-13

7. Takahiro Omori -- Emory, TX -- 20, 57-00 -- 104 -- $13,000
Day 1: 5, 13-05 -- Day 2: 5, 13-12 -- Day 3: 5, 18-04 -- Day 4: 5, 11-00

8. Mark Davis -- Mount Ida, AR -- 20, 54-14 -- 103 -- $12,500
Day 1: 5, 16-04 -- Day 2: 5, 11-14 -- Day 3: 5, 14-12 -- Day 4: 5, 12-00

9. Jared Lintner -- Arroyo Grande, CA -- 20, 54-09 -- 102 -- $12,000
Day 1: 5, 15-04 -- Day 2: 5, 13-12 -- Day 3: 5, 14-01 -- Day 4: 5, 11-08

10. Casey Ashley -- Donalds, SC -- 20, 54-01 -- 101 -- $11,500
Day 1: 5, 17-10 -- Day 2: 5, 12-12 -- Day 3: 5, 13-03 -- Day 4: 5, 10-08

11. Randy Howell -- Guntersville, AL -- 20, 53-11 -- 100 -- $11,000
Day 1: 5, 13-05 -- Day 2: 5, 13-13 -- Day 3: 5, 15-00 -- Day 4: 5, 11-09

12. Gerald Swindle -- Guntersville, AL -- 20, 52-13 -- 99 -- $11,500
Day 1: 5, 13-09 -- Day 2: 5, 13-07 -- Day 3: 5, 15-08 -- Day 4: 5, 10-05