Faith

NEENAH, Wis. – Photo by PMoore - It was another fight to the finish Thursday on Lake Butte des Morts at the General Tire Team Series Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley, with only 2 pounds separating teams across the elimination line on SCORETRACKER® going into the third and final period. 

But, the second match of the Knockout Round ended with a tale of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’, with the Team Builders FirstSource father-son duo of Alton Jones Jr. and Alton Jones Sr. finishing atop the leaderboard with 21 bass weighing 38-7 to pace the field and advance to Friday’s Championship Round.  Also advancing is Team Star Tron – comprised of Grae Buck and Martin Villa – who ended the day with 11 bass totaling 23 pounds even to finish in second.

Team Star Tron started off with a bang at the top of the leaderboard, holding that lead throughout the first period and finding themselves neck and neck with Builders FirstSource midday. However, the Jones duo pulled ahead at the start of the second period and widened their gap throughout the remainder of the competition day. 

Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff & Pouches, made up of Casey Ashley and Terry Scroggins, fought back from a huge deficit period after only catching one scorable bass in Period 1. The tandem rallied and went on an afternoon flurry in Period 2 that brought them above the elimination line. That bite was short-lived, however, and the pair just weren’t around enough quality fish to survive the Knockout Round. 

Team Builders FirstSource and Team Star Tron now join Team REDCON1 and Team Knighten Industries to advance to Friday’s Championship Round. Eliminated from competition was Team Smokey Mountain, who caught 10 scorable bass weighing 21-3.

Team Builders FirstSource began the day targeting boat docks, boating one keeper out of a drainage pipe while catching everything else around retaining walls and boat docks the remainder of the day. 

“What a great day,” Jones Sr. said. “The conditions today really made a difference for us. The bass chased the bait a little bit today, whereas they wouldn’t chase anything in our Elimination Match on Sunday.” 

The father-son duo took over the top spot from Team Star Tron at the beginning of the second period and ended the period with an 8-pound lead. 

“We finished out the end of the day fishing some main-lake boat docks with wind blowing on them to see if any smallmouth were patternable,” Jones Jr. said. “We were just trying to figure out some new patterns and new possibilities. We assume we might be going to Lake Winnebago for the Championship Round, so we decided to come to the other side of the lake, because that was the closest we could get to Winnebago. 

“Honestly, I hope they send us to Green Lake and it’s a crystal clear, smallmouth smash fest,” Jones Jr. said. “But we had a good cushion toward the end of the day, so we started thinking through possible game plans for tomorrow.”

That strategy may or may not play out for the pair. While the competition waters for the Heritage Cup have included Lakes Poygan, Winneconne and Butte des Morts thus far, anglers won’t find out the competition waters for Friday’s Championship Round until they are driven to the ramp by competition officials Friday morning. 

“That’s the hard part, because we really don’t know what we’re going to do until we get there – and find out where ‘there’ is,” Jones Sr. added, laughing. 

Jones Jr. spent the majority of the day throwing an unweighted wacky rig on the shallow end of boat docks, while Jones Sr. threw a weighted wacky rig on the deeper end of the docks, a tactic that worked great for the duo. 

“We really just caught them junk-fishing today,” Jones Jr. said. “Whatever looked right, whatever presentation for the piece of cover in front of us. We caught a lot of fish on a wacky rig, but my biggest and best quality fish today came on a green-pumpkin-colored 3/8-ounce bladed jig with a green-pumpkin-and-white-colored prototype trailer that we’ve been working on for a while. 

“It just seemed like every time I got a bite, it was one of those 2 1/2- to 3-pound class fish, and with SCORETRACKERÒ as slow as it was, it’s been tough. So, catching those 2-pound or better fish has been really key, because bites have been really hard to come by,” Jones Jr. finished. 

Team Star Tron led most of the first period, starting the morning fishing the outside edge of cane grass with a ChatterBait and a wacky rig before moving to boat docks and catching a few fish there. They made another successful move, stacking up more weight targeting riprap before ending the day around willow trees in the third period. 

“I was super happy with our first period,” Villa said. “The rest of the day was a grind, but any time you’re at least catching them on pace with the other teams is a good deal. The bridge move we made was a good one. We made a lot of moves today while also trying to spend our time fishing, not just running around.” 

While they moved around the fishery more than any other team on Thursday, Team Star Tron strategically slowed their fishing down during Period 1, a decision that definitely played in their favor. 

The duo made a move right before the start of the second period that they hoped would continue to propel them up the leaderboard, but the hard-charging Jones duo had other thoughts in mind. Team Star Tron went the final 45 minutes without a scorable bass but were able to hold off Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches by a mere 1-13.

“We had a bite right after we made that move, before the first period ended, so we were hoping that would prove to be a good spot,” Buck said. “As the sun got higher, the bite started fading, so we had to try some different things. Thankfully it was enough to move us on to the Championship Round.” 

The duo credit a one-two punch to their success on the day, with Buck throwing a Z-Man ChatterBait and Villa sweeping up behind him with a wacky-rigged worm.

The top two teams now advancing to the Championship Round at the Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley are:

1st:          Team Builders FirstSource, 21 bass, 38-7
                  Alton Jones Jr., Waco, Texas, 13 bass, 25-14
                  Alton Jones Sr., Lorena, Texas, eight bass, 12-9

2nd:        Team Star Tron, 11 bass, 23-0
                  Grae Buck, Green Lane, Pa., six bass, 12-2
                  Martin Villa, Charlottesville, Va., five bass, 10-14

Eliminated from competition are:

3rd:        Team Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff and Pouches, 10 bass, 21-3
                  Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C., five bass, 10-1
                  Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla., five bass, 11-2

Complete results from throughout the week can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 42 bass weighing 82 pounds, 10 ounces caught by the three teams competing in Match 2 of the Knockout Round on Lake Butte des Morts. Jones Jr. caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day – only one of three smallmouth caught on the day – weighing 3 pounds, 2 ounces.  

The Knighten Industries Heritage Cup Presented by Berkley is hosted by the Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau and takes place over six days in the Fox Cities in Wisconsin. The competition water for each day is top secret and is only revealed to the anglers when they arrive at the boat ramp each morning.

The final day Championship Round will take place Friday featuring Team REDCON1 (Ott DeFoe/Andy Montgomery), Team Knighten Industries (Kelly Jordon/Keith Poche), Team Builders FirstSource (Alton Jones Jr./Alton Jones Sr.) and Team Star Tron (Grae Buck/Martin Villa).