POINT HURON, Mich. (Major League Fishing) — After a runner-up finish when they paired up last year in the Fishing Clash Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops, Alton Jones and Alton Jones Jr. arrived at the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by 5-hour ENERGY® determined to take home the trophies. After two wins in as many days on the St. Clair River, they’re now one more day away from doing so.
Representing Team 7Brew Coffee, the father-son duo landed 24 scorable smallmouth weighing 60 pounds, 13 ounces to dominate the first match of the Knockout Round. That earned them a spot in Friday’s Championship Round, where Ron Nelson and Martin Villa of Team O’Reilly Auto Parts will join them. Nelson and Villa combined to amass 42-11 on 18 scorable bass. Eliminated from the competition were Team Kubota’s Edwin Evers and Skeet Reese, who finished third with 15 bass weighing 33-10.
New water, same strategy for Joneses
The arrival of the Knockout Round brought a venue shift for the competitors, with the playing field moving to the upper end of the St. Clair River – a stretch that offered strong current, steep banks, and classic Great Lakes smallmouth habitat. With no largemouth really in play, anglers leaned heavily on finesse presentations, and the Joneses’ drop-shot approach with a 2.8-inch Geecrack Bellows Shad proved once again to be the winning formula.
“Today has been fun,” Jones Sr. said, “One of our greatest strengths as a team is that we trust each other. We fish together so much, and although we certainly do have our father-and-son moments, when he has an idea, I trust his judgment enough to follow it. And when I have an idea, he trusts me enough to follow it. That’s not always easy in a high-pressure environment like this, but it worked really well for us today.”
Jones Jr. said that their ability to stay loose was what allowed them to make good adjustments.
“We didn’t overthink it. We just settled into the current, expanded on what we had going, and built confidence with every fish catch,” he said. “I really liked how we fished today, and I felt like by the second period, we had it made. From ther,e it was about refining things in case we see this water again later in the week.
“The winning bait for us was the 2.8-inch Bellows Shad that actually just dropped everywhere today – available at retailers nationwide,” Jones Jr. continued. “It’s really lifelike – it shimmies a lot in that heavy current, and the bass absolutely loved it. Dad was throwing electric shad, I was throwing my AJ’s Juice green-pumpkin variation, and both colors produced really well.”
Jones Sr., who caught the Berkley Big Bass of the day with a 4-11 smallmouth, said the profile of the bait and presenting it to cover in the strongest current they could find were the final pieces of the puzzle.
“A lot of those smallmouth were spitting up baitfish, and they were exactly that same size,” he explained. “We did a great job of mimicking what these fish were naturally eating. Between the action of the Bellows Shad and the way we presented it on the drop-shot in the strongest current we could find, it gave them something new, and they couldn’t resist it today.”
Two more spots up for grabs
Three more tandems will return to the water Thursday for the second Knockout Match, with the top two finishers earning the remaining spots in Friday’s winner-take-all Championship Round. Fresh off a win in Tuesday’s Elimination Match, Adrian Avena and Dustin Connell of Team YETI will duke it out with Bass Fishing Hall of Famers Mark Davis and Gary Klein of Team B&W Trailer Hitches as well as Jacob Wall and Bobby Lane of Team Star Tron.
Continue to stream all the action on RFD-TV Now from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, or tune in to watch the final period of each day when it airs live on RFD-TV from 2:30-5 p.m. ET.
