All three teams catch more than 109 pounds, Knockout Round Match 2 set for Thursday

MINOCQUA, Wis. (Sept. 17, 2025) – In what many would argue was the most dramatic day in MLF Fishing Clash Team Series history, Team BUBBA’s Ott DeFoe and Andy Montgomery stormed from third place in the final minutes to win the Knockout Round on Big Arbor Vitae Lake at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies.

With just 17 minutes remaining, the top three teams were separated by only 5 pounds, setting up a nail-biting finish that had fans and anglers alike on edge. Team Fishing Clash (Keith Carson and Luke Clausen) sat in the lead at 109 pounds, 1 ounce, with Team 7Brew (Keith Poche and Zack Birge) close behind at 105-11 and Team BUBBA at 104-4. In the closing stretch, Team BUBBA landed six of the final seven scorable bass to surge into first, ultimately holding off Fishing Clash for the top spot by fewer than 3 pounds.

The top two teams – Team BUBBA and Team Fishing Clash – now advance to Friday’s Championship Round, while Team 7Brew Coffee was eliminated after all three teams topped the 100-pound mark.

DeFoe anchored the day with 48 scorable bass, including a 3-pound, 11-ounce kicker that proved pivotal. Both DeFoe and Montgomery leaned on a compact, 3/8-ounce jig paired with soft-plastic trailers, adjusting their approach when their usual wacky worm and Thunder Cricket patterns failed to produce.

“I don’t know the last time that I’ve caught more bass than that,” DeFoe said. “It was an incredible day of bass fishing. But interesting too – you couldn’t just catch them on everything. It was definitely a flipping deal, and we are lucky that we figured it out pretty quickly.”

Montgomery said that adjustment was the key difference.

“Normally Ott is behind me with a wacky worm while I go with the jig, but today those fish weren’t feeding high at all,” Montgomery said. “They wouldn’t take the wacky worm, and they’d hardly touch the (Strike King) Thunder Cricket. They wanted that jig down on the bottom. Once we figured that out, we just kept catching them. By far, that’s the hardest day we’ve ever had, but also one of the most fun.”

The emotional roller coaster of the day was evident in the final moments, as Montgomery and DeFoe realized they had completed the comeback.

“Oh my gosh, I feel like we just won everything,” an exhausted Montgomery said moments after lines out. “That was 6 hours of all-out fishing. If you couldn’t tell, catching 100 pounds of bass is a lot of work – and everybody was doing it.”

“That was so much fun and so stressful,” DeFoe added with a laugh. “If you want to come fun-fish somewhere, this is definitely the place to do it – just don’t bring a SCORETRACKER®.”

Team Fishing Clash also kept the pressure on all day, ultimately securing the second advancing slot by just over 2 pounds. Carson and Clausen leaned on a one-two punch of a compact jig and a weightless wacky rig, targeting boat docks early before shifting to wood cover as the day progressed.

Clausen’s steady production was critical, and his 2-pound, 4-ounce bass with 12 minutes remaining provided the final margin that sent Fishing Clash through to the Championship Round. Together, the duo boated 65 scorable bass for 111 pounds, 5 ounces, fending off a late charge from Team 7Brew Coffee to punch their ticket to Friday.

The top two teams from Knockout Round Match 1 at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies that now advance to Friday’s Championship Round are:

1st:        Team BUBBA, 73 bass, 114-4
Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 48 bass, 74-7
Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 25 bass, 39-13
2nd:       Team Fishing Clash, 65 bass, 111-5
Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 23 bass, 36-8
Luke Clausen, Spokane, Wash., 42 bass, 74-13

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:       Team 7Brew Coffee, 64 bass, 109-4
Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 22 bass, 33-8
Keith Poche, Pike Road, Ala., 42 bass, 75-12

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

Overall there were 202 bass weighing 334 pounds, 13 ounces caught by the three teams in Knockout Round Match 1 Wednesday on Big Arbor Vitae Lake. Team Fishing Clash pro Luke Clausen caught a largemouth weighing 3 pounds, 15 ounces that was the Berkley Big Bass of the day.

The three teams that will compete in Knockout Round Match 2 Thursday at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies are:

Team Ferguson:
Nick LeBrun, Bossier City, La.
Marty Robinson, Lyman, S.C.

Team O’Reilly Auto Parts
Mark Daniels Jr., Tuskegee, Ala.
Jacob Wheeler, Harrison, Tenn.

Team Star Tron:
Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill.
Marshall Robinson, Landrum, S.C.

The Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies is hosted by the Minocqua Area Visitors Bureau and takes place over six days in Minocqua, 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 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 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!® is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps, RFD-TV Now, Game & Fish TV and Rumble. The final period of every day of competition of the 2025 Fishing Clash Team Series is broadcast live on RFD-TV, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. CT.

The Heritage Cup featured 12 two-man teams divided into three groups as they entered 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 2025 Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies.

The MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops features four Cup events in 2025 – the Challenge, Heritage, Patriot, and Summit Cups – with 12 two-man teams of Bass Pro Tour anglers competing for a share of  $560,000 in prize money. Teams were formed through a selection process, where 48 team captains – based on Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) standings throughout the 2025 Bass Pro Tour season – selected a teammate. Teams will compete throughout the fall of 2025.

The MLF Fishing Clash Team Series Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Bass Boat Technologies will also air on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday afternoon starting Feb. 14, 2026. The complete television schedule for the Fishing Clash Team Series on Outdoor Channel will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Boat Technologies, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sport Apparel, Epic Baits, Ferguson, Fishing Clash, Knighten Industries, Kubota, Lowrance, Lucas Oil, Mercury, NITRO Boats, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Smokey Mountain Caffeinated Pouches, Star brite, Toyota, YETI and Zenni.

For complete details and updated information on the MLF Fishing Clash Team Series, 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, Discovery+, Discovery GO, Animal Planet, Outdoor Channel, VICE, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV and Game & Fish TV, 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 20 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.