Ott DeFoe is doing something very different from a majority of his peers.
He’s fishing boat docks.
There is a good reason but somewhat uncommon cause for DeFoe’s confidence in the docks.
He says the docks are creating current breaks that in turn attract the bass. Bass, of course, are current oriented because moving water creates feeding opportunities. Bass feed on baitfish as they are swept by an ambush point.
Those ambush points for DeFoe are boat docks.
“Docks nearest deeper water are better,” he told me yesterday. “I’m focusing on main lake oriented docks.”
DeFoe is pitching and casting a white Terminator jig to the docks. That’s a common summertime strategy with a twist. He’s casting to the shady spots but the key attractant, again, is the current. Normally that is shade.
Another unique twist is that DeFoe begins his day by targeting spotted bass.
“They are always good for a limit,” he told me. He’s still one fish shy of a limit but the catching continues.
Once he fills the limit he plans to try other patterns. Flipping a Berkley Havoc on a jig is one pattern. Another that he really wants to see work is a frog pattern. He’s confident that will happen as the water continues to recede.
Meanwhile, DeFoe has no reason to leave the docks. It’s a different pattern. It’s working. And not many other anglers, if any at all, are swimming jigs around docks with the mentality that current is the key attractant.
In practice DeFoe only caught one fish weighing about 3 pounds. Clearly, he’s on to something. DeFoe currently ranks fourth on the BASSTrakk leaderboard.