MORGAN CITY, La. — The last thing on the mind of Alton Jones Jr. was winning the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Central Open on the Atchafalaya Basin.
Also meaningless was near the lead in the Central Open point standings leading to the 2017 Bassmaster Elite Series. Jones moved into second place prior to this tournament, after winning the Central Open held a few weeks ago nearby on the Red River.
No interest in winning the tournament or keeping near the top in the points. What else could be more important?
For Jones it was just getting back into contention for the Elite Series. After Day 1 doing so was in jeopardy.
Jones experienced a tough day that dropped him from the lead into 11th place in the points. Only the top 5 finishers after tomorrow get invites to the Elite Series.
“Last night I talked to dad and we went over it,” he said. “It didn’t look good unless I had a big catch today.”
He did. After coming up one bass shy of a limit, Jones rebounded with 5 bass weighing 12 pounds, 8 ounces. After two days he boosted his weight to 20-9.
“Yesterday I didn’t fish clean, didn’t have the chance to catch a big bag,” he said. “I lost some crucial keepers.”
The turnaround came with an in-the-trenches final push. Jones put away everything but a flipping stick and hunkered down.
“I knew the best way to come back was to punch mats, just focus on one good strength of mine,” he admitted. “The biggest difference was that I fished clean.”
Translated, that meant converting all seven bites into catches, five of which came back with Jones to the scales.
For the clean fishing he tapped deeply into his mental strengths.
“Not falling asleep at the wheel was the key,” he added. “When you go two hours non-stop without a bite when flipping you’ve got to be on when it happens.”
Jones fished to make every flip count, just like it was the last of the year. It was.
“This was my last tournament day, my last shot, so I wanted to make the most of it,” he said. “I think I did.”
To be sure, Jones must wait until at least tomorrow to find out if he joins his father in next season’s Elite Series.
Old water, new tricks
Earlier this year Greg Hackney won the BASSfest tournament held on Lake Texoma. With the win came an automatic berth in the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro.
So why bother fishing this week?
The answer is Hackney planned to compete in this very tournament when it was originally scheduled in February. Flooding postponed the event and changed the date to October. For Hackney that was a blessing in disguise.
“I planned to fish for spawning fish in familiar areas,” he said. “Now, I’m fishing an area here where I’ve never before caught a bass.”
“That’s a cool deal because I’m just learning a ton of things I never knew about,” he added.
Lesson learned? There is always room to learn, regardless of your skill level.
“After the dates changed I just came here and practiced like I would for any tournament on a strange lake,” he said.
That’s partly correct, considering the fact that Hackney knows many nuances of an area open to the tournament encompassing nearly 1,000 square miles.
How it all came together, so far, was focusing on areas getting less pressure from other anglers.
“This place fishes really big, obviously, but there are a few choice community holes I wanted to avoid. “I don’t like fishing in a crowd so that eliminated some of the most popular, productive areas.”
Hackney described his area as less than ideal, but holding enough potential to put him into contention to win.
“The deal is my area has no pressure from other anglers,” he said.
The pressure is coming from above on the leader board.
In first place is another Bassmaster Elite Series pro whose season is on the line.
Fred Roumbanis missed qualifying for the Classic by just two spots in the point standings of the Elite Series. That makes closing out the win tomorrow a must.
Roumbanis leads with 35-15 and Hackney follows in second with 29-10. Both anglers also feel pressure from below.
Cliff Crochet, another angler considered a local, even more so than Hackney, is in sixth place with 28-2.
Give or take a lost or caught big bass, this tournament could come down to the wire, with more than a win on the line.