|
Greenville, SC. – This is the one…the winner-take-all tournament where the only thing that matters is victory, and it all came down to the final pass across the weigh-in stage in the Bi-Lo center Sunday. Just being in the mix on the last day of the Classic is a common goal that each 50-man field shared when the event started.
Unfortunately, unless you managed to make it to the top 25 Saturday you were most likely working a sponsor’s booth over at the Classic Expo. In reality, unless you were inside the top 10 at the conclusion of the second day of competition – actually more like the top five – your chances of being the last man standing were slim.
The weather is always a factor in every tournament, and the Classic was no exception this week at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell. Conditions flip-flopped every single day of the event making pattern fisherman wince in pain as they tried to make daily adjustments.
Alton Jones was the guy the other 24 anglers were all chasing Sunday morning after the Waco, TX angler surged up from the 10th-place spot to claim the lead the day before. On his heals were some of the biggest names in the sport – one of them being the baddest man in the business.
Looking for his first Classic title in11 attempts, Alton needed just over eight pounds to clinch the win by the time he reached the scales. With a five-fish limit weighing 13-7 Sunday, Alton’s dream was realized. His final combined weight of 49-7 gave him a five-pound cushion over second place and the title of Champion of the 38th Bassmaster Classic.
Mississippi pro Cliff Pace opened the week with a limit weighing nearly 19 pounds, but like most, he saw his weights decline over the course of the next two days. He managed to scrape together a limit weighing 11-0 on the final day – enough to unseat VanDam from the lead, but with a total weight of 44-5 only enough for second place.
Kevin VanDam is rarely far from the top of any tournament he’s in, and his 18th Classic was no different. Starting the final day of competition in fourth place, he came to the stage needing just 10-7 to claim the lead. VanDam laid 11-7 on the scales instead giving him a momentary lead, but his combined weight of 43-8 over three days forced him to settle for a third-place finish.
Bobby Lane proved that the Open guys mean business as he remained in contention all three days. Lane brought a limit weighing 12-10 in his final effort, but lost four ounces due to a fish care penalty. His three-day combined weight of 42-7 was good enough to finish his first Classic in fourth place.
Greg “The Hack Attack” Hackney managed to remain consistent all week, regardless of the weather. By bringing 10-12 to the Bi-Lo center Sunday, Hackney managed to finish in fifth place with a three-day total weight of 41-7 for his best Classic appearance in five previous attempts.
Oklahoma pro Jeff Kreit showed up all week long in his fifth Classic appearance. Starting the day in fifth place, Kreit only managed three fish Sunday for 9-4, giving him three-day total weight of 40-15 and 6th place overall.
1st Place: Alton Jones
In 11 tries, bass fishing’s brass ring had eluded the affable pro from Waco-land…until today. “This is the fulfillment of a dream I’ve had since childhood,” Alton told The BASS ZONE. “Alton Jr. practiced with me all week long, so he really feels like this victory is partially his – and I think that’s just awesome!”
While prior to the event Alton may not have shown up on anyone’s fantasy radar, it’s only because no one asked him. “I had a good practice,” he said. “I really felt like if things went well, I would be a contender at the end of it.
“You never really know for sure, and I couldn’t have imagined that I would win it, but everything in life is in God’s timing. I suppose you might just say that it was my time to win.”
During practice, Alton mined the mid-depth areas with a Cotton Cordell Spoon just adjacent to ditches and channel swings. It was in these areas that he was confident transitioning bass would hold while gorging on blue-back herring. “I found most of the spots that I ended up fishing during practice last week, and just busted them on the Spoon.
“It wasn’t until later in the week that I figured out I could pick up the jigs and catch them when the spoon bite died. I knew that I’d found where the quality fish were positioned during practice.”
Though Alton is deadly in skinny water, he’s equally comfortable out deep structure fishing. During the Classic, his plan was to be shallow enough to be “at home” when the transitioning fish started to set up for their feed. “I wanted to fish as shallow as I could but still be off the bank, if that makes sense,” he said. |
|
|
“Most of these bass at Hartwell spend the majority of their time chasing herring and suspending over the flooded timber. So what I did was find the outside edge of the timber adjacent to channel drops. I would literally position my boat parallel to the timber and make long casts to the edge. If they were there, I could call my shots.”
All week long Alton would use a one-two punch of the C.C. Spoon early and a combination of Booyah jigs as the spoon bite deteriorated. “I was just trying to stay focused all week, so I would set doable goals,” he said. “I would constantly remind myself to catch the next bass, or to make every cast count. In fact, I would actually say those things out loud all day throughout the event.”
|
|
|
With a target on his back going out of the launch site as the leader Sunday, Alton called an audible. “I reversed my rotation today hoping to improve my timing,” he said, “and my first two spots that I went to were fruitless…so I’m getting a little stressed.
“I finally hit a little stretch where I caught two on back-to-back casts. Sometime around lunch I ran back up to Portman Shoals Marina and boated a couple of fish to finish out my limit. I never had another bite the rest of the day.”
With a limit in the box, Alton finally allowed himself to think that maybe, just maybe, he’d done enough to seal the deal. “At that point, on my way in, I thought that I might have an outside shot at winning the Classic,” he shared. |
“As poorly as I’d done today compared to the other days, I just never dreamed before lunch that I had a chance. But coming in with a limit – and two of them over three pounds – I started to think that just maybe it was my turn.”
With weather changing the bass’ feeding habits daily (if not hourly), had the deep timber bite eroded on the final day, Jones suggested that he didn’t have a back up in the wings – it was truly all or nothing. “I never really had a ‘plan b’,” he explained. “My game plan was simply do keep doing what I’d done all week.
“My problem was that one of my deals – the C.C. spoon – was only working for 30 minutes early each day – and the window kept getting progressively smaller each day of competition. Once that bite was gone, I had to switch to the jigs. They wound up account for most of my meat this week.”
| Alton added that, as always, execution was paramount to winning. “I only caught five today,” he said. “Execution was definitely important coming down the stretch. You can’t win at this level if you lose fish, it’s just that simple.” |
|
|
That statement is odd considering the fact that the spoon is a known fish dumper. “One of the problems with the spoon is that you lose a lot of fish,” Alton explained. “My philosophy is that spoon fish don’t get line shy, so when I hook one – to keep from losing it – I just winch it to the boat as fast as possible.”
Alton also added that being comfortable in his equipment allowed him to fish with complete confidence. “Being in your own boat is kind of like having a home field advantage,” he said. “I just knew exactly how everything was organized and how it was set up, so I just want to applaud BASS in allowing us to use our own equipment. It’s just a huge step forward.”
Regarding what he’d accomplished Sunday, Alton hadn’t really had enough time to digest the magnitude of it all. “I don’t really know how I feel right now,” he explained. “The biggest thing that I’m feeling right now is humility. I really don’t feel worthy to be in the same class of these guys who have one it before.”
Winning Baits:
¾ ounce C.C. Spoon in silver/17-lb Silverthread Fluorocarbon
½ ounce Black and Purple Alton’s Go-To Jig and a Pig Skin Jig both tipped with a YUM 3.5 Inch Chunk in Black & Blue
“I would downgrade my line with the jigs because I was so far down into the trees that I wanted to be able to get bites, but still have the power to get them out of the rough stuff. The 14-pound Silverthread Fluorocarbon is a good combination of both of them.”
Rod/Reel:
Spoon: 6’6” Kistler Magnesium TX/ /Ardent SX1000.
Jigs: 7’0” Kistler Med/Heavy/14-lb Silverthread Floro/Ardent SX1000.
Key to the win:
“Without a doubt, it was my side-imaging unit from Hummingbird. Without it, I would never have been able to find those outside edges of the timber. I had 30 feet of visibility on both side of the boat and it just put me on my game.
“Something else that was just real important was stealth. From my MinnKota trolling motor to the long casts I was making – both were just critical.”
“At the end of the day, it really all came down to just sticking with my plan. You could have the right bait and the right equipment, but without being in the right spot you would just beat yourself up. I found a plan and stuck with it.”
|
