Alton Jones' Pattern, Baits and Gear
Alton Jones likely has more experience on Sturgeon Bay than anyone in the BPT field. "I've fished a Bassmaster post-season event and an AOY Championship there, but even before that, it's a place I'd come to on my own if I was stuck up north with a week between tournaments," he said. "I've probably got 40 to 50 days on the water. "Anytime you've spent that much time playing around on a place, you learn a lot about it. And you're not hunkered down on fish like you are in a tournament, you're just exploring. When I found out this event had been diverted (from its original site at Lake Champlain due to coronavirus restrictions in New York), I was super-excited and hopeful. I knew that if I covered enough water that at some time I'd intersect a bunch of fish."
He caught the bulk of his weight from 8 to 12 feet of water, but some were swimming as shallow as 4 feet. He worked completely different areas on each of his first three competition days and was happy to discover that his fish from the Knockout Round stayed put for the finals. He caught most of his fish on a dropshot rig, but a tube was also a big player. "I alternated them - I could tell on Panoptix whether a fish was hot for a bait or not and if it didn't hit one, I'd try the other. Some would fire on one or the other and some wouldn't fire at all."I wouldn't make a cast unless I saw fish (on the graph). I put myself in target-rich environments and they wouldn't all bite, but some would." He said his wife, Jimmye Sue, played a big role in his success. "She's been my partner in everything I've done in this sport for the last 31 years," he said. "She makes all the reservations and launches me every day, and that's really important at a place like this where I'm putting in and taking out at multiple locations in the same day."
Gear:
Dropshot gear: 7' medium-action Kistler Helium 2 rod, unnamed spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid (main line), 8-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader material, size 1 dropshot hook, 3/16-ounce weight, various goby-imitating baits.
He used a 6'9" version of the same rod for the tube.
FLW Tour Lake Guntersville 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 7/20/20 (John Johnson)
