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Fishing’s ‘World Series’ aptly named
The 2014 Bassmaster Classic will take place Feb. 21-23, and they rightfully call it the “World Series of Bass Fishing.”
No other tournament puts so many top anglers together to compete for big money and the life-altering experience that comes with being named a Classic Champion. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to prepare for this major fishing event?
A lot of the contestants, including Alton Jones, winner of the 2008 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell, traveled to Alabama in December to pre-fish the 69,000-acre Lake Guntersville, located along the banks of the Tennessee River in Northeast Alabama and the site of this year’s Classic. Read More
3rd: Big Move for Jones
BassFan.com > Day 4: 5, 22-03 (20, 76-06) Jones was another guy who accomplished his primary objective for the week as he nailed down his place in the post-season (the Top 8 on the final points list automatically advance).
"It's always good to achieve a goal you've set, and to move up to 3rd place today made it all the sweeter," he said. "I'm very pleased and very thankful about the way things went this week.
"I'm also very excited for Chris Lane for making the Classic and winning this tournament. It's great when you can have a good finish and also help a friend."
For the final 2 days, he and Lane took turns drifting a 250-yard stretch of current Jones found in practice that was loaded with big bronzebacks. The four stringers they caught combined to weigh nearly 88 pounds.
He caught 16 keepers today, only one of which weighed less than 3 pounds. Read More
4th: Jones was Hog-Tied
Bassfan.com Day 4: 5, 17-10 (20, 71-08) Jones was surprised that he was unable to gain any ground in the standings despite catching more than 17 1/2 pounds.
"That's just a testament to how strong this river is fishing right now," he said. "I had a couple of chances to upgrade – I had a 4-pounder that I swung in that bounced off my graph and got away and another big one that I never saw that pulled off.
"Overall, I'm really pleased, though. It was a great week."
He had no company at all today as he fished below the Jones Bluff Dam.
"There was nobody else there – not even a local. It was really a peaceful day down there. It was almost surreal, like I wasn't even in a big tournament."
Alabama River 2nd: Jones Bouncing Around
BassFan.com - "The key for me is just keeping my head down and fishing," he said. "I don't have a magic spot where I can just sit there and wail on them, but I do have a pattern that's producing better-than-average bites. I'm getting 10 to 12 bites a day and most of them are 3 pounds-plus.
"I can say that I'm fishing primarily with 50-pound braid and when I get a good one, I'm swinging it into the boat. The water's still so flooded up that I think there's a lot of fish I can't access, so I'm actually hoping it'll come down."
He's catching all spots and his biggest today was a 4 1/2-pounder.
"I missed a couple bites that I never got hooked up with and my biggest one, when I swung it in, it came off and bounced off the windshield and landed on the floor of the boat. I had another one close to 4 pounds stay on even though my rod was caught up in some vines.
"I'm hoping I can get at least 18 pounds tomorrow," he continued, "but I'll just have to keep catching one here and one there."
Chapman rides rapids for lead
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alton Jones and Brent Chapman stood side-by-side. They were the first two Bassmaster Elite Series pros in line to weigh in Friday, the second day of the Alabama River Charge presented by Star brite.
Jones sized up Chapman’s weigh-in bag. “I'll go first,” Jones told Chapman. “I want to lead for at least one minute.”
Jones had it right. His 20 pounds, 4 ounces earned him a fleeting look at the hot seat. Chapman’s 23-5 handily beat him. Chapman’s two-day total was 41-1 to Jones’ 36-10 — a 4-7 difference.
Jones had nothing to feel bad about. Together the two squashed the hopes of the other 98 Elite pros who followed them to the scales. No one knocked them out of first and second. Read More
