Sacking 18 pounds, 6
ounces of Wheeler Lake bass, Bassmaster Elite Series rookie phenom Ott
DeFoe of Knoxville, Tenn., took the first-day lead at the Dixie Duel,
the June 16-19 regular-season finale. He led fellow Tennessean David
Walker by just 4 ounces.
DeFoe, who leads the
Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race, also raised the stakes Thursday in
the overall points race to the postseason. If DeFoe can finish the Dixie
Duel even close to how he started, he could find himself inside the Top
8 cut for the July Toyota Trucks All-Star Week postseason.
“It’s game-on now,” said the 25-year-old pro. “I want to make that postseason.”
And, while two anglers
more seasoned than DeFoe battled Thursday for points to capture the
Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year crown, the rookie put
himself in contention not only for the postseason, but for the Dixie
Duel trophy and its $100,000 prize. He’d also win an instant 2012
Bassmaster Classic qualification — a prize DeFoe has enough points to
claim already.
DeFoe has serious
challengers for the points and the Duel’s top prizes: Walker of
Sevierville, Tenn., was second Thursday with 18-2. Only 1 ounce behind
Walker was Chad Griffin of Cresson, Texas, third with 18-1. Paul Elias
of Laurel, Miss., pinned down fourth place with 17-5, and Russ Lane of
Prattville, Ala., weighed 16-6 for fifth place.
DeFoe started his day
with at least one thing most others in the Elite field did not: private
water, a shallow area. He said his morning bite geared up slowly, and
his first fish was a small keeper — so small, it turned out later to be
the one he culled in exchange for a 4-pounder.
He changed locations once, he said, and built up his bag over the day, still without having to share with anyone else.
“Both places I fished
today were all mine,” he said, adding he’d found them during a previous
event on Wheeler Lake. He said he has confidence the area will produce
for him again Friday, especially because he intentionally laid off it
early Thursday.
“And then I got dumb-lucky, too, and stopped on the way in, and caught a 3 1/2-pounder. That didn’t hurt,” DeFoe said.
Walker, after ending in
98th place at last week’s Bassmaster Elite Series event in Arkansas,
showed the field on Thursday what a 180-degree recovery looks like. His
first-day weight alone could prove to be what pushes Walker back above
the final cutline for the 2012 Bassmaster Classic, a standing he lost
after his Arkansas River bomb.
Unlike DeFoe, Walker’s sharing water.
“Wheeler Lake has a lot
of ledges, but is famous for having a few really good ledges,” Walker
said. “It’s not a surprise (to have to share). Everybody knows exactly
what to look for, and with the Elite Series, the lake ends up fishing
small. To find something nobody knows about? That’s an anomaly here.”
He said he caught a
4-11, his largest bass, on his first cast. That was the sign he needed
that the day would go his way, he said.
“To me, it (the catch)
was quite a relief,” Walker said. “To finish here in the Top 20 like I
need to, I knew I had to catch a limit and get one big fish. When I got
it on the first cast, the pressure was gone and I knew then that I had
the hard part over with.”
Walker has appeared in
six Bassmaster Classics, but not since 2006. Now 46, he was a successful
FLW Tour pro for years, but dropped that circuit after 2010 to fish the
Bassmaster Elite Series and have a chance at the Classic title once
again. At 46th in points, Walker needs to move up about 10 ticks. Thanks
to double-qualifiers, the cutline now hovers at 36th-37th place.
Griffin said he had a limit soon after 8 a.m. and was culling up by 8:15. He had mirror anchor fish, each 3-15.
“By 10 o’clock, I was wrapped up and done,” he said. “I went and sat under a dock and tried to take care of my fish.”
Griffin said he’s not
sharing water, and that the spot is likely to replenish enough to do him
good on Friday. He said he’s dragging a 6 1/2-inch Hag’s Tornado
ringworm on a 3/4-ounce shaky head jig with a 5/0 hook, a jig by Ezee
Jigs.
Griffin checked in an
hour early because he was concerned about fish care. He knew he’d incur
one 8-ounce penalty for the one he lost.
“After the practice I had, I knew 18 pounds was pretty good and I didn’t want to lose any more,” he said.
Edwin Evers of Talala,
Okla., and Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., left as the only two
contenders for the 2011 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year
crown, fished Thursday for points. VanDam ended the day well ahead:
eighth place to Evers’ 43rd.
“I covered a lot of ground. It’s not easy out there at all,” VanDam said.
VanDam has only to stay
even with Evers to snap up the 2011 crown, which would be VanDam’s
fourth consecutive and seventh of his career. But for Evers, just being
on pace with VanDam wouldn’t help. Evers has to make up the 55 AOY
points VanDam has on him — and, of course, add at least one more to tip
the total his way — to win his first AOY title.
Both Evers and VanDam will compete Friday. The outcome after two days could decide the AOY crown.
“Anything can happen tomorrow,” VanDam said. “It’s a long ways from over.”
The largest bass weighed
on Thursday was a 6-1 by Marty Robinson of Lyman, S.C. At tournament’s
end, the best single fish over four days will win a Berkley Big Bass of
Tournament bonus of $500. The big fish might prove to be the bass that
helped Robinson earn enough points to get into the 2012 Bassmaster
Classic, his first qualification.
The Dixie Duel taking
place on Wheeler Lake out of Ingalls Harbor in Decatur, Ala., will be a
designated drop-off point on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19, for
donations to Tackle the Storm. Any type of usable tackle will be
collected by the Decatur Convention and Visitors Bureau and distributed
to children affected by the April 27 tornadoes that devastated many
areas of Alabama.
For more information about the Bassmaster Elite Series Dixie Duel, go to
www.bassmaster.com.
