DeFoe's morning on Okeechobee

Day 1 leader Ott DeFoe prepares to take-off on the second morning of the A.R.E. Truck Caps Bassmater Elite at Lake Okeechobee. A Pop Tart is a critical part to that routine.

Dave Mercer calls DeFoe’s number, and he heads towards the lake.

He hits the throttle and heads to his first spot.

We find DeFoe in the thick stuff looking for his fist bite of the morning under a semi-dense layer of cloud cover.

It doesn’t take long, and he hooks up with his first fish.

It’s small, but it might keep.

He swings it aboard …

The fish resists …

But it will start DeFoe’s day.

After dropping the fish into livewell, he jumps back to the front deck and gets back to work.

He makes several casts as he works along side and through the emergent vegetation that literally covers the shoreline of Lake Okeechobee.

And he hooks up again.

It’s not a big one, but it looks like it may count.

DeFoe lifts the fish into his boat.

And taps the deploy button for his Minn Kota Talons.

Another small fish, but it’s long enough to count towards his slowing growing Day 2 weight.

Back to work.

Another bite, and this one sounded big.

DeFoe leans back hoping to keep leverage on the fighting bass …

But the hooks pull free and the fish escapes. We all agree, it was a bigger fish for sure, but how big we’ll never know…

There are a good number of crappie fishermen that have been fishing the hay grass. They use long rods to quietly drop small jigs into the holes that exist inside the weed clumps.

DeFoe continues to precisely place each cast.

He said there was substantially more activity in this area when compared to the first day, but he was only able to catch a single big bass from this spot. So far, they’ve all been small, albeit numerous.

He hooks up again.

Looks like a comparable fish to what he already has in his livewell.

The bass goes airborne …

… and does its best to resist.

DeFoe uses the momentum to swing the bass aboard.

It continues to thrash.

But, DeFoe is the victor.

Another small bass, but it is just big enough to take a ride in DeFoe’s livewell.

Back at it.

He quickly hooks up again.

His fourth keeper of the day, but not much bigger than the others.

And again … But not a keeper.

Cast after cast.

And he sets the hook on another one.

There’s a little more meat on this one, but not by much.

Certainly a keeper that will nicely round out his limit.

It’s certainly not the kind of fish he needs to catch in order to maintain his lead, but it is a start, and he’s happy about it.

Just down the way is Andy Montgomery. He temporarily pulls up his trolling motor to clear it of weeds that collect around the prop while navigating the dense water vegetation.

The two anglers/friends briefly pass each other asking about the morning’s productivity. Shortly thereafter, Montgomery stows his gear to make a near 30-mile run.