OXFORD, Ala. (Major League Fishing) — The Fishing Clash Team Series will be back in action starting Wednesday for the third event of the 2025 slate, the Folds of Honor Patriot Cup Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches. After the first two events of the season took place in Michigan and Wisconsin, the Patriot Cup will take the 12 competing tandems south to Oxford, Alabama.
Teams were re-drafted for both the Patriot Cup and the season-ending Summit Cup (which will take place in November), so while there are a few familiar duos in this week’s field, most of the pairings are unique.
Here’s a look at some of the teams and storylines to watch across the six-day event. Catch all the action each day on the RFD-TV Now Livestream at MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) apps, Game & Fish TV, and the Major League Fishing channel on Rumble. In addition, the final period of each day will air live on RFD-TV.
Connell hoping for home-field advantage
At the first Team Series event of 2025, the Challenge Cup, Dustin Connell and teammate Adrian Avena just missed out on the win, finishing second. Then, Jacob Wheeler and Mark Daniels Jr. – Connell’s close friends and traveling companions – took home the trophies at the Heritage Cup.
Suffice it to say Connell is especially motivated to claim his first Team Series title. He’s teaming up with Wheeler for Team O’Reilly Auto Parts at the Patriot Cup in an attempt to do so.
“I really would love to win one,” Connell said. “Jacob and Mark ended up winning that one, and I’d love to go back-to-back with me and him.”
The two anglers with the most career Bass Pro Tour wins, Connell and Wheeler make a formidable duo on paper. However, they teamed up twice for Team Series events last year without a victory. They failed to advance past the Elimination Round in the Challenge Cup (although Connell had to stop fishing for a while after getting hooked in the hand), then advanced to the Championship Round of last year’s Patriot Cup, where they finished third.
Connell is confident that he and Wheeler will work well together.
“I always enjoy fishing with Jacob,” he said. “He’s my best friend, and we fish very well together. His style is very similar to mine, and I think we both love this time of year. I love fall time in Alabama. I think it’s going to be a very good week.”
Bolstering Connell’s optimism is the fact that he could have a bit of a local advantage. The Alabama native lives about 90 minutes away from Oxford, and while he and the rest of the field don’t yet know which fisheries they’ll compete on, he has spent at least a little time on all the nearby waterways. He’s hopeful that his prowess targeting Alabama spotted bass will come in handy.
“I understand spotted bass fishing, and I understand what they do this time of year,” Connell said. “And if we’re going to some lakes around that area, I would say 8 to 10 years ago, I fished a lot in that region. I fished all around that area. But I haven’t been up there in a long time.”
Regardless of where the anglers compete, Connell expects them to have to work a bit to figure out the fisheries and generate bites. However, for teams who find feeding fish, he predicted some explosive topwater action.
“Fall time is very tough, because the water is typically clear,” he explained. “We’re in a drought situation in Alabama; we haven’t had any rain. So, the water gets clear, the fish get smart, and it can be very tough. I expect tough fishing next week.”
DeFoe, Montgomery looking to start new streak
One of the familiar tandems who will share the boat again at the Patriot Cup is Team BUBBA - Ott Defoe and Andy Montgomery, who are coming off a fourth-place finish at the Heritage Cup that broke a five-match winning streak for the two close friends. They won all three of their days on the water in last year’s Heritage Cup victory, then won their Elimination and Knockout Matches this year before stumbling in the Championship Round.
DeFoe said they’re eager to start a new run.
“We hated to see that go,” he said. “But definitely excited to get back in the boat together and try to kick it back off again. We love fishing together and love these events. No practice, just showing up and going – that’s our favorite thing.”
So far, DeFoe and Montgomery have only ever fished together in Wisconsin. Like Connell, DeFoe expects a slower bite in Alabama. However, that might not be a bad thing.
For one, he noted that preparing to target both largemouth and spotted bass isn’t as difficult as gearing up for the possibility of largemouth and northern smallmouth. Plus, there won’t be as much pressure to find the bite and keep the pedal to the metal all day like they had to do during the Heritage Cup. When DeFoe and Montgomery won the Knockout Round on Big Arbor Vitae Lake last month, all three teams on the water topped the 100-pound mark, an experience DeFoe called “so stressful.”
“When you’re going to Wisconsin, the fishing is going to be pretty good,” he said. “Alabama in October, it’s probably not going to be absolute fire. It’s going to be one of those where 20 to 30 pounds is probably going to look pretty good at the end of the day. So, it is a little bit of a stress reliever to know that you’re not going to have to go out and most likely catch 100 pounds to move on.”
Other teams to watch
- A threat to win every time he takes the water, Alton Jones Jr. has proven to be especially adept in Team Series competition. Last we saw Jones, he teamed up with his father, Alton Jones Sr., to win the Challenge Cup on the St. Clair River. A year ago, he finished second in both of his Team Series starts, including at the Patriot Cup, where he competed alongside DeFoe. This time, the Joneses are split up, with the elder Jones representing Team B&W Trailer Hitches alongside James Elam. Jones Jr., meanwhile, will fish with Jake Lawrence on Team Knighten Industries – a scary duo on paper. Both anglers finished in the top five of the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year standings on the Bass Pro Tour in 2025.
- Bryan Thrift will look to defend his 2024 Patriot Cup win, but he’ll have to do it with a new partner. Thrift, who won in Texas last year alongside Jeff Sprague, will team up with BPT rookie Colby Miller on Team YETI.
- If Connell is correct and local knowledge does pay off in this event, there are two other teams to keep an eye on that include Alabama natives. Jesse Wiggins will share the boat with Edwin Evers for Team 7Brew Coffee, while Greg Vinson and Bradley Roy will represent Team Fishing Clash.
- This could be the penultimate tournament and the final Team Series event for Skeet Reese. The Bass Fishing Hall of Famer has retired from touring competition, but he’ll take the water alongside Justin Cooper for Team Kubota this week. Reese is slated to return for one last event in 2026 – he qualified for B&W Trailer Hitches Heavy Hitters on Florida’s Orange Lake.
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