Top 5 Baits for Potomac River Bass: How the June Bass Pro Tour Was Won

Here are the top 5 baits that dominated the June 2025 Bass Pro Tour on the Potomac River. How did Ott DeFoe earn his fifth BPT trophy?

How did Ott DeFoe earn his fifth BPT trophy, and what were the Top 5 bass lures that produced on the final day? | Photos by Phoenix Moore | MLF

Reading Tides and Fishing Shallow Pays Off on the Potomac

The June Bass Pro Tour (BPT) Potomac River event was a competition of reading the tides better than then everyone else, and fishing shallow water baits around cover. Vibrating jigs, Texas-rigged soft plastics and wacky-rigged soft stick baits all made the list, while unlike most tournaments of the past couple years, there wasn’t a single mention of a ball-head jig with a minnow among the top 10 finishers.

Veteran angler, Ott DeFoe’s final day total of 32 bass for 78 pounds, 11 ounces topped second place finisher Ron Nelson by nearly 27 pounds. To secure his fourth regular season (fifth total) Bass Pro Tour victory, DeFoe went way up a shallow creek in the backwaters of the Potomac and caught fish on a stick worm and a jig.

Top 5: What Worked Best on the Potomac River in June

Following is a breakdown of the five most effective baits used by the Top 10 finishers at the 2025 BPT on the Potomac River in Maryland.

1. Wacky-Rigged Soft Plastic Stick Bait: The Bite Getter

Even though half of the final day field, talked about catching key fish on a soft-plastic stick bait, James Elam was the only angler willing to show his bait to the camera. Of course, he was also the only angler not wacky-rigging his bait. | Major League Fishing

In a “count-every-keeper” tournament format like the BPT, try to imagine a better bait for getting a lot of shallow water bites than a wacky-rigged soft plastic stick bait. I don’t think I can.

While five of the top ten pros included a soft plastic stick bait as one of their most productive baits, clearly the winner of the event, Ott DeFoe used it best. Specifically, he said he used a Bass Pro Shops Stik-O Worm in the color Sooner Run (which at this time does not show up as a color option for the Stik-O on the BassPro.com website—I imagine they’re working on correcting that.) DeFoe said he rigged that on a VMC RedLine Neko Hook.

Also of note, James Elam was the only angler in the top 10 who was Weightless Texas-rigging his soft plastic stick bait, rather than wacky-rigging it.

2. Vibrating Jig: Cover Water to Find Active Bass

Here's a good look at Cole Floyd's vibrating jig. | Major League Fishing

Again, if I was guessing what would work in a shallow water tournament where you were trying to get a lot of bites, a vibrating jig would be a pretty easy bet. For those times where you’re trying to cover water quickly, looking for active biters, throw the vibrating jig. Once you’ve located some fish, mop up the area with that wacky-rigged stick bait. And, repeat.

Third place finisher Bradley Roy had the best finish of the bunch with a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer in white and chartreuse. I was fishing it everywhere – around docks, shallow grass, and laydowns, and the fish just moved a little bit further out as the water came out of the back of the creek,” said Roy.

The Rest of the List

Numbers three through five on this list, were actually a tie, with three mentions apiece from the top 10 anglers.

3. Texas-Rigged Soft Plastic: Reach Bass Buried in Cover

“I started each day punching, flipping some, and could get 10 or so bites in the first period and land eight or nine of them,” Nelson said. | Major league Fishing

Runner-up Ron Nelson used a Texas-rigged soft plastic bait, specifically a black and blue, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver with a 1-ounce weight and 3/0 Owner Jungle Flippin HD hook. Nelson was the only one of the three anglers to credit Texas-rigs who was using a full 1-ounce weight for punching. The others were describing more standard pitching/flipping weights like 3/8-ounce.

“I started each day punching, flipping some, and could get 10 or so bites in the first period and land eight or nine of them,” Nelson said. “I was fishing main-river stuff and targeting stopping points before the fish would migrate further into the creeks with the tides. It wasn’t a hot bite – just a steady bite – and you’d get into little groups of them.”

4. Swim Jig: Draw Strikes Out of the Grass

Speaking of Ron Nelson, after his Texas-rigged punching and flipping baits, he said working the swim jig over stretches a grass was responsible for a lot of key fish.

“My buddy Fletcher or ‘Bubba’ makes those jigs for me, and they’re hand-tied, and the lighter weight was key to keep it higher in the water column,” Nelson said.

5. Shallow Crankbait: Fire Up Schools of Fish

Keith Carson said a soft plastic stick bait was his go-to, but this Berkley Frittside 5 shallow crankbait was his backup. | Major League Fishing

Three anglers used a shallow crankbait to finish the Potomac River BPT tournament in the top 10. Of them, ninth place Spencer Shuffield was the only angler to only mention hard baits for catching his bass. He threw a Yo-Zuri 3DR-X SR50 crankbait in shad color and a Yo-Zuri Popper. The other nine anglers all had some form of soft plastic in their arsenals.

Shuffield said, “I was fishing the popper over shallow grass flats when the tide was high, then targeting the inside edges of grass when the tide would get lower. The crankbait was better when I was around groups of fish sitting in 5 to 6 feet of water during low tide.”

Where and Why These Bass Baits Produced

The five baits listed here are all designed to excel in shallow water cover situations. For this event, that’s exactly where the bass were. Tournament winner Ott DeFoe described it like this.

“All of the major tributaries have a lot cooler water because it’s flowing, and then you have big pad flats and cover going in for bass to relate to,” he said. “With the extreme heat we had here, I believe it was a driving factor in why so many bass were up there. It also seemed like new fish were coming every day.”