8th Place: Alton Jones  (7-10, 10-0, 11-9, 3-6: 32-9)
What was the biggest key to success this week on the Sabine River?
"The key to my week was my timing on day one.  On day one I decided to start in a different area and didn't make the decision to make a move to my key spot until later in the day.  I really would have liked to have had that first few hours on day one,  the morning was really critical in that area because of the tide. But moving to that area was the reason I was able to do well in this event."

What was your primary pattern throughout the week?
"I was flipping a YUM Wooly Bug, and casting a YUM Dinger weightless all week to anything that looked good in that backwater area."

What were your primary baits and tactics?
YUM DInger (Watermelon Candy), YUM Wooly Bug (Green Pumpkin-Purple Fleck) Read More

> Day 1: 5, 12-01- Alton Jones’ rule in tournament fishing is that he starts on his best stretch on day 1, no matter what. However, his best stretch of water at Grand Lake happens to be in an area of stained water and he felt that the dip in water temperatures might turn the fish off.

But he stuck to his rule and wound up pulling four of his five weigh fish out of the area, including a 4-pounder. But he thinks there’s more weight to be had there once the sun beats down on it for a while.

Those fish aren’t going to act right until it warms up,” he said.

He lost an hour of fishing time after coming back to the dock to swap out trolling motors. By the time he was back on the water, he didn’t have time to run to clearer water down lake, but he intended to fish it first on day 2.

“I found some fish in the clear water down lake so I will run there and try for them the first half of the day and hope to catch a limit,” he said. “Then, I’ll run to that dirtier water during the warmest hours and hope for a big one. I just needed to change up my timing.”

Like Christie, 2008 Bassmaster Classic champion Alton Jones also considers a Rogue to be one of his primary weapons in late winter and early spring when the water temperature is anywhere from the upper 30s to the low 50s.

Jones first discovered the magical qualities of the Rogue years ago during a tournament on Lake Seminole, located on the border of Georgia and Florida.  “It was one of those tournaments where the water temperature had dropped down to the 40s,” he remembered.

“I was flipping and pitching around the edges of a deepwater hole in a backwater area and my co-angler was throwing a Rogue out in the middle.  I chalked it up to luck when he caught his first five-pounder behind me, but it got my attention when he put a second five-pounder in the boat. That was the first time that I realized just how good a Suspending Rogue could be in extremely cold water.” Complete Article