It has been a pretty good start to the year for Major League Fishing pro Alton Jones, Jr. as he sits in 10th place in the points standings to date. He's also fresh off a second-place showing at Lake Fork and Lake Athens in Texas. He managed that excellent finish using a one-two punch of a frog and soft plastic stickbait.
This is an approach that's worked for him on countless spring days and is something that will work everywhere.
Frogging Around the Spawn
Most people associate frog fishing with the dog days of summer, but Jones says they shine much earlier than that.
"My rule of thumb is when the water hits 58-degrees in the spring during a warming trend; it is time to throw a frog. It is water clarity dependent and I generally like to fish them in dirtier water around shallow grass, bushes, and other heavy cover," said Jones.
This is precisely what he did at Lake Fork and was able to fool several big female bass that were up shallow as they prepared to spawn or were spawning in areas where he couldn't see them.
"This time of year, the bass want a big meal and without wasting energy, so I fish the frog extremely slow," Jones said. "At Fork, I was casting way up shallow into inches of water and would let the rings dissipate before moving the frog. When they are that shallow, you want things to settle down a little before moving it."
During practice for the event, he noticed fish spawning in extremely shallow water, but excessive rains caused the water to muddy up for the event. He still knew the fish were in the area and said that working the bait slowly in these areas was the key to his success in the tournament.
"I couldn't see any fish during the tournament, but I knew they were still there. I wanted to work the bait as slowly and as natural as I could because they were also very spooky with all of the fishing pressure on the lake," Jones said.
He utilized a walking retrieve with the frog and relied on a Booyah Pad Crasher in both Dart Frog and Shad Frog, two colors that he says are a go-to throughout the year. Dart Frog is a black pattern with chartreuse spots on the back and chartreuse skirt material mixed in with black. Shad Frog has a lighter bottom.
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Clear Water Backup Plan
Fishing the Pad Crasher is his approach for dirtier water, but if the water is ultra-clear, he will switch to a subtler lure but still favors topwater baits. These are times when he picks up a topwater popper because of its action on the surface and because it is a good shad imitator.
"If the water is crystal clear, I like to throw the Booyah Boss Pop around sparse cover. I also use it in a little deeper water," Jones said. "The four to six feet zone is a good place because that's where they typically spawn in really clear water. The Boss Pop throws a lot of water, so it does a good job of calling them in."
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Pitching a Stickbait
Another tool Jones utilized at Lake Fork was a soft-plastic stickbait, a YUM Dinger.
"I was making fan casts and pitching to isolated cover and anywhere that I thought a bed would be," he said. "I was rigging my Dinger on a Texas-Rig with a very light tungsten weight and that gave it a natural slow fall."
He opted for a 1/16 or 1/32 ounce tungsten weight, but ups it to a 3/8-ounce weight when visibly fishing for bedding bass.
"With a heavier weight, you can shake that bait and keep it in the bed without moving the bait too far away. Another thing that I do with bedding fish is go from a five-inch to a six-inch YUM Dinger," Jones shared. "Often you will have a really small make and big female and going to that bigger bait will trigger that female. It is like they think the male can't handle taking care of it and eat it first."
Jones keeps it extremely simple when it comes to colors.
"I use a color called Green Pumpkin/Purple Flake about 99% of the time because it works everywhere and I have a lot of confidence in it. I'll use a Junebug if I am in Florida, but other than that, it is always the same color."
The frog and soft stickbait were a perfect one-two punch for Alton Jones, Jr. at his latest event. By relying on these two lures, he was able to finish in second place against some of the best anglers in the world.
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