BOOYAH Bait Company can Say it Louder and Prouder than ever, boasting to the world about pro staffer Alton Jones, winner of the 2008 Bassmaster Classic. Jones, who was fishing his eleventh Classic, used a combination of prototype BOOYAH Pigskin Jigs and A-Jigs (both coming soon to lurenet.com) to help him bring 49-pounds, 7 ounces to the scales over three days, topping his nearest competitor by more than five pounds.
The half-million dollar paycheck that came with the Classic victory vaulted Jones’ career earnings well past the $1.5 million mark. More significant, however, is the title of Bassmaster Classic Champion to add to an already impressive resume, which now includes five BASS wins.
Jones figured out a very solid pattern during his practice on Lake Hartwell, which straddles the Georgia/South Carolina border, and the pattern held up throughout the three-day tournament.
He was fishing a subtle line formed where the timber was cleared down to around 30 feet deep along the lake’s perimeter prior to impoundment, fishing the shallowest isolated flooded trees he could find within ditches leading back into pockets. The bass lie right along that edge, down in the ditches, as they prepare to move up onto the flats to spawn later in the spring, Jones explained.
Jones dressed both the Pigskin Jig and A-Jig with a 3 1/2-inch Blue Black Flake YUM Chunk and fished the jigs on 14-pound-test Silver Thread Fluorocarbon. He made long casts to most effectively sneak up on the fish and worked the baits exceptionally slowly. "I was fishing so slowly that each cast would take two or three minutes," he said.
Jones also caught an early limit on the first day of the tournament with a ¾-ounce Cotton Cordell CC Spoon, and the spoon was critical to Jones for locating his key areas during the practice period. The fish would only hit the spoon for the first half hour or so of the morning, though, so he relied on a jig for most of his fishing. The jigs also produced a larger grade of fish than the spoon, and he ended up culling most of his spoon fish on Day 1 and therefore stuck with the Pigskin Jig and A-Jig through the rest of the event.