BassFan.com - Although widely regarded as a shallow-water, sight-fishing expert, Texas pro Alton Jones, Sr., demonstrated Sunday that he also knows a thing or two about catching northern smallmouth. Jones caught 25 scorable smallmouth bass weighing 92 pounds, 13 ounces, to pace the field by 27 pounds after Day 1 for Group B at the MLF Bass Pro Tour regular-season finale at Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota.
Jones will bring a comfortable lead over second-place Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., into Tuesday’s second day of competition in the Qualifying Round for Group B. Connell landed 17 scorable bass – all smallmouth – weighing 65-13, while reigning Angler of the Year and 2022 points leader Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, rounds out Top 3 with 17 scorable bass weighing 58-13.
The 40 anglers in Group B will now have a day off on Monday, while the 40 anglers from Group A will wrap up their two-day Qualifying Round. Group B will finish their Qualifying Round on Tuesday.
“It’s humbling when you have a day like this,” Jones said in his post-game interview. “It was a great day – better than the other 39 guys today, and better than everyone that was on the water yesterday, too. So, I’m very pleased, and very thankful.
“I had a good practice, but that doesn’t always translate into a good tournament. This week it has so far,” Jones continued. “I was able to move around to a lot of different places today and get bit, so I’m feeling really good with how my day went.”
With a 27-pound lead heading into the second day of Qualifying Round competition, Jones is already eyeing the automatic qualification to the Championship Round.
“I think I’ve got a strong enough lead that I can really try to go for it and win the round on Tuesday,” Jones went on to say. “The negative part is that if you go for it and someone passes you and you don’t win the round, you end up burning a lot of fish that you’ll need in the Knockout Round. We’ll see.
"If someone catches up real quick Tuesday and passes me and I’m struggling, I’ll back off and just start practicing. There is so much strategy that goes into this game. We’ll see how it goes.”
