Angling Pros Prep for Alabama Classic at Guntersville

By Frank Sargeant, Editor
from The Fishing Wire

GUNTERSVILLE, ALA. Let the speculation begin.

Among serious bass anglers, prognosticating who will win the Bassmaster Classic to be fished on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville in February is right up there with studying the odds on FSU/Auburn.

Pro basser Alton Jones, veteran of 14 Bassmaster Classics, says the Xcalibur Rattlebait may very well play big in this year’s late February championship on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville.

Lipless crankbaits like the Rattlebait are particularly effective in a red-rust or crawfish color in late winter and early spring at the big lake, locals say.

Suspending jerkbaits like the Smithwick Suspending Pro Rogue might be a good backup choice, especially if tournament days are cold.

Alton Jones uses years of recorded data on prime spots, plus Google Earth, to create a personal map of choice fishing spots for all his tournaments.

Current dock talk seems to be favoring former Classic champ Chris Lane, who has been living on Guntersville the past several years and preparing for just this challenge, and Randall Tharp, a former G’ville area resident who appears on a roll this year with his skills sharpened to the max in both B.A.S.S. and FLW competitions. KVD, of course, is always to be reckoned with, as is new young gun Brandon Palaniuk and Angler of the Year Aaron Martens.

One who can’t be ignored is Texas pro Alton Jones, who has been in 14 Classics, won one, and earned some $2 million on the pro circuits over a long career.

Jones joined a crew from PRADCO, the parent company of Arbogast, Bomber, BOOYAH, Heddon, Xcalibur, Smithwick, Yum and several other brands well-known to bassers at the lake this past week for a practice session and some fine tuning with the new-for-2014 lures.

“Any lure can win any tournament, but if I were betting on one for this event here in late February, I’d bet on the Xcalibur Rattlebait in royal red or royal shad,” said Jones. “If the winter warms up early, the fish will be hanging over the grass shoots where the new beds will grow up in 4 to 6 feet of water or so, and vibrating-type baits let you fish fast and find the concentrations so it’s a good strategy when the fish are in that situation.”

He said he also likes the Smithwick Suspending Pro Rogue jerkbait, both over new grass and around bluff banks where shad schools are visible in late winter.

“If it stays cold, the fish may be deeper and I might go to the new Perfect 10 Rogue, which runs down to 10 or 12 feet,” says Jones. “It’s a bigger lure, and it attracts big fish if they’re around.”

Last but not least, Jones said, if weather is warm he’d probably have a swimjig with a YUM trailer on it to fish shallow pads and primrose beds.

Jones has fished Guntersville many times over the years, and has kept a computerized record of all his spots. He records the locations on the water on his Humminbird GPS systems, then transfers it to computer for storage so that the memory in the GPS does not get overloaded. When he returns to a given lake, he can reload all the results from all his trips back into the machine and have a record readily at hand of the best spots-one that he can also call up on iPad or iPhone.

One of the areas that keep showing up, he notes, is Mud Creek-a spot forecast by several top local anglers to figure in the winning Classic catch.

“I like to use Google to see how the weed patterns change at various times of the year,” says Jones. “You can call up history on satellite views and get a look at the weed growth from every season of the year, and that tells you where there might be some spots that local anglers might overlook. Fishing on a lake like Guntersville where there are so many tournaments all the time, finding a spot that other anglers have not hit recently can give a huge advantage.”

The Classic will be fished Feb. 21-23 at Guntersville, with daily take-offs from the city basin across the street from the Chamber of Commerce. Weigh-ins will be trailered and take place at Birmingham Civic Center, which is also the site of the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo. For details, visit www.bassmaster.com.