Christopher Jones caught a 17-10 stringer on Saturday and finished the Grand Lake Southwestern FLW Series with 47-03, matching Jeff Sprague's three-day total atop the leaderboard.
The tie was broken by day-2 standings – Jones was 4th and Sprague was 5th – and Jones was ruled the winner, earning the Oklahoma angler $88,700, including a new boat and motor package. Sprague had rallied from 61st after catching two fish for 6-15 on day 1. He caught 18-02 on Saturday.
Jones said he focused on the mid-lake area, running pockets and targeting secondary points and docks with a 1/2-ounce BOOYAH spinnerbait (chartreuse/white) with a 3 1/2-inch YUM Pulse swimbait trailer.
“My main deal was fishing areas where the bass were staging, getting ready for the spawn,” said Jones. “I was slow-rolling the bait behind the docks. The key was making precise casts – sometimes multiple casts to the same dock or cable.”
Jones bounced back from a four-fish stringer on day 1 with 17-08 on day 2. He said that he also spent time each day on a stretch of main-lake riprap where he caught a couple of keepers on a YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr. umbrella rig, also with 3 1/2-inch YUM Pulse Swimbaits.
“I had a couple of key bites on the umbrella rig off of a rocky point,” Jones said. “I had a lot of confidence in my areas. There were a lot of boats fishing around me, but the water was really dirty – only about 10-inches of clarity – and most people were fishing too fast.”
Here's how the top 10 finished up:
1. Christopher Jones: 47-03
2. Jeff Sprague: 47-03
3. Troy O'Rourke: 44-15
4. Toby Hartsell: 36-01
5. Blaine Covington: 36-01
6. Sheldon Collings: 34-05
7. Kevin Ledoux: 33-06
8. Curt Warren: 33-05
9. Colby Miller: 32-15
10. Jeff Reynolds: 28-07
Additional details about Jones' victory will be published in the coming days.
