Team REDCON1 (DeFoe/Montgomery) catches 30 scorable bass totaling 53 pounds, 13 ounces to win Elimination Round Match 2, top two teams move on to Knockout Rounds

NEENAH, Wis. (Sept. 16, 2024) – It was a fight to the finish as four new teams hit the water Monday with no practice, no information and no real game plan during the second event of the 2024 General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Two-man teams were driven to the boat ramp by Major League Fishing officials Monday morning, where they were given maps of Lakes Poygan and Winneconne before setting out to break down the fishery. But it didn’t take long for teams to get on the juice and start lighting up SCORETRACKER®. While boat docks were the preeminent player during Match 1 on Sunday, teams spent the majority of the day Monday flipping grass during Match 2 of the Elimination Round at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley .

Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches – made up of Casey Ashley of Donalds, South Carolina, and Terry Scroggins of San Mateo, Florida – rose to the top of the leaderboard early in the day, holding the top spot all of Period 1 before falling back in Period 2 after going an hour and half with zero scorable bass. They regained and held the top spot for most of Period 3 but couldn’t hold off a hard charge by TEAM REDCON1 – Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, South Carolina – who took over the top spot with 45 minutes left in the third period. Both teams now move on to the Knockout Rounds, with Ashley/Scroggins competing on Wednesday and DeFoe/Montgomery competing on Thursday.

It was a slow start to the morning for Team REDCON1 who started their day bouncing around the north side of the lake without making much headway. At the end of Period 1, they were in third place with four bass weighing a mere 4-1 on SCORETRACKER®.

The tandem made a move to the southeast corner of the lake late in the morning, transitioning to pitching along cane grass lines, a move that proved fortuitous for the duo. They got all the way up into first place at the end of Period 2 before falling to second behind Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches.

That’s when Montgomery picked up a vibrating jig and the team went to work targeting boat docks, going on an afternoon flurry to rally in the final period, stacking up 13 scorable bass for 21-9 in the final 45 minutes of competition.

“What a day,” said Montgomery. “We had a whole lot of nothing for most of the day, but it ended up being a big day. We had that one stretch around the islands where Ott was just cremating them early on, but we struggled the majority of the day. Once we got on those docks though, everything changed.”

The duo worked seamlessly together, with Montgomery hooking up with most of their third period bass and DeFoe picking up the stragglers behind him.

“The key bait for me today was a Bass Pro Shops Wacky Stick-O Worm, black and blue laminate, on a VMC Redline Series Weedless Wacky Neko Hook,” said DeFoe. “I threw that on a J ohnny Morris Platinum Signature Spinning Rod with a Platinum Signature Spinning Reel and 10-lb Bass Pro Shops XPS Braid and a 12-pound XPS fluorocarbon leader.

“That was a really good back-up bait to Andy’s bladed jig skipping around these docks here at the end of the day,” DeFoe continued. “He went on a heck of a run, and we were able to catch a lot of fish and get the win.”

Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches may have finished in second place, but they had the most consistent day from start to finish. The duo got into the cane grass early in the morning and stayed with it all day, catching them off the outside edges early, then moving into really thick grass as the day progressed.

“What a roller coaster of a day,” said Scroggins. “We went from being on top, to totally sucking in the second period, to turning out pretty good.

“We left an area that we shouldn’t have left looking for greener pastures and trying to find something new,” Scroggins continued. “We went back through a grass line that had produced earlier in the day, and it just wasn’t producing again, so we figured we needed to run new stuff.”

That move opened up the door for Team REDCON1.

“We were just about two minutes late getting into that area, but that allowed Ott and Andy to get the jump on us,” said Scroggins. “But we still caught them good and are looking forward to teaming up again for the Knockout Round.”

The top two teams from Elimination Round Match 2 at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley that now advance to the Knockout Round are:

1st:         Team REDCON1, 30 bass, 53-13
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 19 bass, 35-4
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 11 bass, 18-9
2nd:        Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, 22 bass, 50-14
Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C. nine bass, 21-10
Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla. 13 bass, 29-4

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:         Team 7 Brew Coffee, 22 bass, 37-9
Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 14 bass, 23-3
Ryan Salzman, Huntsville, Ala., eight bass, 14-6
4th:         Team U.S. Air Force, seven bass, 17-12
Matt Lee, Dayton, Tenn., five bass, 11-14
Jesse Wiggins, Addison, Ala., two bass, 5-14

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

Overall, there were 81 bass weighing 160 pounds even caught by the four teams during Elimination Round Match 2 on Lakes Poygan and Winneconne on the Fox River Chain. Teams U.S. Air Force and Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches tied for the Berkley Big Bass of the day with both Casey Ashley and Jesse Wiggins catching bass weighing 3 pounds, 12 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 at 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 will feature 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.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 17 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.