Alton Jones, who finished seventh in the Bassmaster Elite Series "Battle on the Border" at Lake Amistad, caught fine limits all four days; however, the highlight of the tournament for this Texas pro was a 29-pound, 10-ounce catch on Day 2, a day that definitely started out right.
"I knew where a big one was, so I pulled up on that spot to start the day and caught an 8-15 on my first cast!" Jones said.
Jones fished the entire tournament with large YUM Dingers and targeted bedding largemouths. On the first day, he fished 6-inch Dingers and caught 24 pounds. On Day 2 he fished 7-inch Dingers and caught 29 pounds. Day 3 brought challenges initially. Jones didn't have a quality fish at 11:00 a.m., and then he switched from a 1/16-ounce lead bullet weight to a 1/8-ounce XCalibur Tg Weight and caught 70 fish during the afternoon. A solid limit on Day 4 helped Jones secure a seventh place finish and compete a 95-pound, 6-ounce four-day total.
Jones, who introduced the original 5-inch YUM Dinger to the world in 2003 when he won a Bassmaster event on California’s Clear Lake with these baits before they had even been officially released, used two colors at Amistad, Green Pumpkin/Purple Flake and Watermelon Candy. He caught an abundance of large bass on both and didn't notice one to be more productive than the other.
The biggest benefit of using such big baits, Jones believes, was that it helped him cull smaller bass. "There are so many fish in this lake that if you fished a 5-inch bait you’d have trouble keeping the smaller buck bass away from it," he said.
Jones used 20-pound-test Silver Thread Fluorocarbon for leader material to contend with Amistad’s clear water and giant bass and added a 1/8-ounce XCalibur Tg Bullet Weight to his leader. The fish were generally bedding in 7 to 10 feet of water, he said.
Because of the clarity of the water, Jones stayed well back from beds and made long casts, as opposed to traditional "sight-fishing" tactics, which involve short pitches. Some casts were to known fish that he has pinpointed previously. Others were blind casts to potentially good spawning areas.
Bass fishing fans had long anticipated the inaugural Elite Series event at Lake Amistad, which straddles the Texas-Mexico border. A stunningly beautiful desert lake, Amistad is loaded with heavyweight bass, which was obvious by the bags that were brought in by the pros.
The Top 10 anglers all brought more than 90 pounds of bass to the scales over four days.
The second Bassmaster Elite Series event, also to in Texas, is the Lone Star Shootout. It will be held at Lake Sam Rayburn March 16 to 19.