CLEARLAKE, Calif. - April 13, 2003 - Alton Jones brought a little bit of Texas with him to California and walked away with the Bassmaster Tour bass fishing event on Clear Lake.
Jones of Waco, Texas took what is an excepted western technique, modified it with a certain Texas technique and overcame almost insurmountable odds and a field full of anglers with a home-field advantage.
Jones added a 1/32-ounce sinker and Texas-rigged a Yum Dinger, a Senko-style plastic stick worm normally fished weed-less and weightless, to boat a five-stringer totaling 22 pounds, 1 ounce to overtake first day leader Mark Kile of Payson, Ariz.
Jones finished with 38 pounds, 2 ounces to win. Kile weighed in 9 pounds, 14 ounces to finish in second with 34-11.
Luke Clausen of Verradale, Wash. was third with 30-9; Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif. was fourth with 27-13; Ishama Monroe of Patterson, Calif. was fifth with 27-4; and Tim Horton of Muscle Shoals, Ala. rounded out the top six with 14-6.
Jones comeback centered on two lost fish. One he lost on day three and one Kile lost on day four.
In Kile's case, he lost a fish he estimated to be in the 6-pound range with less than two minutes to go in the tournament.
"I've never seen anything so dramatic," said Jay Yelas, who was watching Kile during the final minutes of the tournament.
"He had the fish on and it was going crazy on the top of the water and then it just came off."
The timing of the lost fish along with an overall slow day was more than Kile had enough time to rebound from. Luckily for Jones, his lost fish came much earlier and on the third day.
"I hadn't made two flips that morning when a big fish bit," Jones said. "It was huge, big enough to saw through 50-pound braided line."
Jones, though, saw a positive in the fish.
"It was the most important lost fish I've ever had," Jones said. "It clued me into what the fish were doing and gave me the confidence to stick with what I was doing. I knew the fish would hit the Yum Dinger in other parts of the lake, but when you switch areas like we had to you never know.
"And with this deal you have to fish it so slow, you really need to have confidence in what you are doing. That gave me the confidence to stick with it. It's the classic example of what Rick Clunn says that the fish will tell you what to do."
Jones listened. Even though the fishes' advice started growing faint. He didn't catch any other big ones for more than 2 hours. He did catch a limit, but it was small. But he was three more holes through the course before he started catching bigger fish. He ended up with a16 pound, 10 ounce stringer.
Meanwhile, Kile was blowing the field away more than 8 pounds ahead of Jones.
"I really thought I was fishing for second," Jones said. "I didn't see any real way I could catch him."
Jones, though, knew if he had any chance of catching enough to finish second, he would have to stay well away from the fish that the rest of the field was fishing for. While many of the anglers in the top six, including Kile, who concentrated on the shallowest cover he could find, Jones dropped back and stuck with the deeper fish.
His move was in answer to the cold front, rainy conditions and pressure from the anglers. But it was also to try and target bigger bites.
"The only way I was going to make up the ground was to start catching the gorillas, and in any fishery that's where the bigger bites will be," Jones said.
Because of that depth, Jones rigged his Yum Dinger with a weight so that it would get to the bottom and stay there, rather than blow across the water in the wind.
"The weight was a real key," Jones said. "But it had to be the small weight or you couldn't take advantage of the action from the worm. But I had to have something or would take forever to get down there."
He fished the watermelon Yum Dinger on a 4/0 offset/wide gap Owner hook and 50-pound Spiderwire Braided Line.
Weigh-ins took place at Redbud Park in Clearlake.
Bassmaster Tour Clear Lake; Clearlake, Calif.
P r o S t a n d i n g s D a y 4
Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$ 1. Alton Jones Waco, Texas 10 38-02 175 $101,003 Day 1: 5 22-09 Day 2: 5 11-01 Day 3: 5 16-01 Day 4: 5 22-01 2. Mark Kile Payson, Ariz. 10 34-11 174 $40,000 Day 1: 5 18-13 Day 2: 4 20-13 Day 3: 5 24-13 Day 4: 5 9-14 3. Luke Clausen Veradale, Wash. 10 30-09 173 $24,000 Day 1: 5 22-08 Day 2: 5 16-09 Day 3: 5 17-10 Day 4: 5 12-15 4. Skeet Reese Auburn, Calif. 10 27-13 172 $21,000 Day 1: 5 23-09 Day 2: 5 13-01 Day 3: 5 15-00 Day 4: 5 12-13 5. Ishama Monroe Patterson, Calif. 10 27-04 171 $18,000 Day 1: 5 23-00 Day 2: 5 18-09 Day 3: 5 21-03 Day 4: 5 6-01 6. Tim Horton Muscle Shoals, Ala. 5 14-06 170 $16,000 Day 1: 5 23-08 Day 2: 4 14-04 Day 3: 5 14-06 Day 4: 0 0-00 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Bass Day 1 Mark Davis Mount Ida, Ark. 9-05 $1,000 2 Ken Cook Meers, Okla. 9-03 $1,000 3 Jack A. Gadlage Logandale, Nev. 6-13 $1,000 4 Alton Jones Waco, Texas 7-08 $1,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals Day #Limits #Fish Weight 1 0 0 0-00 2 0 0 0-00 3 6 30 109-01 4 5 25 63-12 ---------------------------------- 11 55 172-13
04/13/03 Bassmaster Tour BASS Angler of the Year Standings
------------------------------------------- Place Name St Pts ------------------------------------------- 001 Alton Jones Texas 1140 002 Roger Boler La. 1139 003 Jay Yelas Texas 1130 004 Shaw E Grigsby, Jr Fla. 1120 005 John Murray Ariz. 1113 006 Mark Kile Ariz. 1101 007 Mark Davis Ark. 1098 008 Bud Pruitt Texas 1095 009 Mike Wurm Ark. 1075 010 Elton Luce Jr. Texas 1066 011 Kevin VanDam Mich. 1063 012 Skeet Reese Calif. 1057 013 Zell Rowland Texas 1050 013 Kelly Jordon Texas 1050 015 Gary Klein Texas 1049 016 Ishama Monroe Calif. 1023 017 Mike Reynolds Calif. 1020 017 Jeff Reynolds Okla. 1020 019 Dustin Wilks N.C. 1019 020 Brent Chapman Kan. 1014 021 Tom Mann, Jr. Ga. 1013 022 Harold Allen Texas 992 023 Todd Faircloth Texas 988 024 Jeff Kriet Okla. 983 025 Jay Kendrick Tenn. 974 026 Tim Horton Ala. 949 027 Ron Shuffield Ark. 948 028 Randy Howell Ala. 943 029 Jim Bitter Fla. 933 030 Chad Morgenthaler Ill. 931 031 Kevin Wirth Ky. 929 032 Peter E. Thliveros Fla. 927 033 Edwin Evers Okla. 921 034 Jack L. Wade Tenn. 919 035 Curt Lytle Va. 909 036 Kenyon Hill Okla. 899 037 Matt Reed Texas 897 038 Gerald Swindle Ala. 896 039 Roland Martin Fla. 893 040 Jimmy D. Mize Ark. 892 040 Tommy Stiles Tenn. 892 042 Mark Menendez Ky. 890 043 Joe Thomas Ohio 882 044 Mark Tyler Calif. 881 044 David Wharton Texas 881 046 Terry Scroggins Fla. 875 047 Lance Vick Texas 859 048 Allen Armour Ga. 858 048 Takahiro Omori Texas 858 050 Pete Ponds Miss. 848 051 Woo Daves Va. 842 051 Guy H. Eaker N.C. 842 051 Stacey D. King Mo. 842 054 Dalton Bobo Ala. 832 055 Stephen Browning Ark. 830 056 Ben Matsubu Texas 825 057 Brian Snowden Mo. 820 058 Jack A. Gadlage Nev. 817 059 Robert Hamilton Jr. Miss. 815 060 Mike Auten Ky. 810 061 Dennis Kolender Calif. 801 062 Tim Loper Miss. 798 063 Luke Clausen Wash. 791 064 O. T. Fears III Okla. 790 065 Gary Yamamoto Texas 778 066 Denny Brauer Mo. 776 067 Mark Rogers Fla. 774 068 Ken Cook Okla. 759 069 Shonn Blassingame Texas 754 070 Dean Rojas Texas 751 071 Brett Hite Ariz. 749 072 Warren Wyman Calif. 745 073 Jimmy Reese Calif. 736 073 Rick Morris Va. 736 073 Rick Taylor Mich. 736 076 Casey Iwai Ariz. 732 077 Charlie Weyer Calif. 726 078 Robert Lee Calif. 722 078 Marty Stone N.C. 722 080 Ray Sedgwick S.C. 716 081 Jason Barber Texas 714 082 J. T. Kenney Md. 711 083 Kyle Mabrey Ala. 708 084 Kotaro Kiriyama N.J. 693 085 Yusuke Miyazaki Texas 681 085 Charles Hammack Texas 681 087 George Cochran Ark. 679 088 Koby Kreiger Fla. 655 089 Paul L Elias Miss. 653 090 Mark Rizk Ala. 648 091 Byron Velvick Nev. 645 092 Chad Brauer Mo. 641 093 Tom Biffle Okla. 640 094 Bernie Schultz Fla. 631 095 Todd Auten S.C. 618 096 Brooks Rogers Texas 607 097 Robert 'Duke' McCardleGa. 602 098 Mike O'Shea Calif. 593 099 Danny Kirk Ga. 578 100 Jarrett Edwards Colo. 577 101 Randall R Romig Pa. 555 102 Michael Iaconelli N.J. 549 103 Jason Quinn S.C. 548 104 David Fritts N.C. 547 105 Roger Schofield Ala. 527 106 Charlie Hartley Ohio 524 107 Danny Correia Mass. 521 108 Jody Cordell Ga. 518 109 Cody Bird Texas 513 110 Sean Hoernke Texas 511 111 Gerald Gostenik Mich. 507 112 David Mansue N.J. 501 113 Gregory Pugh Ala. 491 114 Frank Scalish Ohio 485 114 Morizo Shimizu Japan 485 116 Chris Price Md. 475 117 Tommy Martin Texas 473 118 Mike Hicks Va. 470 119 Rick Clunn Mo. 469 120 Larry Nixon Ark. 465 121 Keith Green Ark. 463 122 Lee Bailey, Jr. Conn. 454 123 Pete Gluszek N.J. 449 124 Mike Gough Fla. 447 125 Johnny Lesesne Ga. 438 126 Randy Yarnall Pa. 437 126 Eric Nethery Ga. 437 128 Michael Johnson Ga. 430 129 Scott Rook Ark. 428 130 Gabriel Bolivar Calif. 425 131 Ken Sheets Mo. 421 132 J Todd Tucker Ga. 417 133 Charlie Youngers Fla. 416 134 Chris Daves Va. 408 135 David Lefebre Pa. 405 136 Doug Garrett Ark. 399 137 Jim Murray, Jr. Ga. 389 138 Mark Tucker Mo. 387 139 Kim Stricker Mich. 385 139 Mark Duerr Wisc. 385 141 Darren Wolf Texas 382 142 Doug Gilley Fla. 381 143 Bo Fraser Va. 379 144 Randy Dearman Texas 377 145 Mark Sabbides La. 374 146 Rickie Harp Ala. 369 147 Aaron Martens Calif. 367 148 Dave Smith Okla. 365 148 Terry Segraves Fla. 365 150 Marty Fourkiller N.C. 362 150 Gerry Williams Fla. 362 152 Steve Geffs Calif. 361 153 Coby Carden Ala. 358 153 Tim Carroll Okla. 358 155 Aaron A. Hastings Md. 357 156 Greg Hoskinson Ky. 351 157 John Crews Va. 342 158 Homer Humphreys, Jr La. 338 159 Chuck Economou Fla. 332 160 David Foshee Fla. 327 161 Timothy Carini N.Y. 314 162 Jeff Magee Miss. 312 163 Davy Hite S.C. 288 164 Tom Dolin N.Y. 286 165 Art Ferguson III Mich. 274 166 Boyd L. Duckett Ala. 271 167 Wayne Jeffcoat S.C. 270 168 Walt Reynolds Fla. 241 169 Tim Sainato Mo. 240 170 Bill Berry Ind. 229 171 Danny White Ga. 193 172 Steve Sennikoff Texas 173 173 Ted Pate La. 125