Alton Jones Jr. initially thought the bass at Sam Rayburn Reservoir were on their way out to deeper water in anticipation of the coming warmer summer months.
As it turns out, many fish were still stationed around deeper grass nears drains in the backs of pockets. After catching a below-average 13-07 on day 1 that had him in 82nd place, Jones switched up his strategy on day 2.
“I thought the fish were starting to move off shore,” he said. “I think 11 of the top 12 spent most of their time shallow. I tried shallow grass on points and breaks, thinking the fish were moving out. What I noticed in practice is the grass was growing deeper in these drains in the pockets. They were in the deepest grass back in the drains in the pockets.”
He focused on said drains on day 2 and started getting bigger bites the further back he went.
“I noticed as I got back so far it was a mat on both sides and there’d be a drain wide enough for a boat,” he said. “Those fish were keying on gizzard shad.”
Prior to the tournament, the water at Rayburn had come up slightly and was dropping a little during practice. He thinks that played a role in keeping a lot of fish shallow.
“It was scrapping everything I knew about summer time and going into the backs of spawning bays,” he said. “I definitely think the shallow fish stayed shallow longer because of that.”
He slung a big, soft-body swimbait around and wound up with 26-10 on day 2, the biggest stringer of the tournament, to rocket up to 11th place.
“When I was able to throw a swimbait, it matched what they were eating,” he added.
He also picked off some fish keying on bream beds with a hollow-body frog.
“I wasn’t marking them in practice, but I’d remember from practice seeing them and I would make long casts with a frog and work it slow,” he said.
Over the final two days, he was surprised he wasn’t able to connect with more bigger fish. He still managed to move up three more spots to complete a 74-position improvement to log an 8th-place finish, the best of his rookie season so far.
“On day 3, I had the bites to have a comparable stringer,” he said. “I lost one that was every bit of 7. They weren’t committing to the bait. I’d watch them come get and engulf the bait, but I wouldn’t hook them. I’m not sure why.”
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