Fishing News - 9/2/00
From BASS
Texan Alton Jones takes Lowe's W.C.F. lead in Richmond, Virginia
Jones retains first in fishing on Lake Chickahominy
Richmond, VA -- September 2, 2000 -- When the sun broke through the clouds
at Lowe's World Championship Fishing event in Virginia, September 1-3, it first put the spotlight on Team Yamaha pro, Alton Jones.Fishing the second round at Lake Chickahominy, Jones turned in the only double-digit limit of the day, a 10-pound, 14-ounce creel boosting his two-day total to 24 pounds and giving himself more than a six-pound lead over Flowmaster/BC Powders' Skeet Reese.
Using the same bait he used a day earlier on Lake Chesdin - a four-inch Riverside Vibra King Tube (watermelon/gold flake) rigged on a 3/0 flippin' hook and 3/16-ounce Lake Fork MegaWeight - Jones found all his bass along a
one-mile stretch where Lake Chickahominy narrows. His pattern was very precise with bass positioned on the up-current side of cypress trees standing on the edge of the river channel where it dropped into as much as 10 feet of water.However, the potential glitch in Jones' program is the James River, tomorrow's angling venue and one that gave the Texas pro the most trouble in practice. In fact, he admitted to having no real game plan for
tomorrow only that he "doesn't know how to go for a conservative limit."Jones also improved dramatically in the boat performance portion of the
competition driving a Yamaha-powered Skeeter, improving from a tenth place time of 1.2.98 minutes yesterday to a third best in round two of 1.1.85. By maintaining his 48 first-place points for angling and adding 24 for his boat performance, the Texan also leads the overall competition with 72 points.Although Stowaway Batteries/Triton team member, Ron Shuffield of Bismarck, Arkansas didn't find a double-digit limit in Chickahominy, he did
produce five bass that weighed six pounds, 14 ounces. It was good enough for fourth place and 39 angling points. His boat handling skills also placed him fourth in that category, adding 26 points to his total for an overall score of 65 points, just seven clicks behind leader Alton Jones.Although Reese only logged in a six-pound limit, the Californian retained sole possession of second place with an 18-11 total that accomplished several things. First, it kept him close for the angling title should Jones stumble and second, it helped the Champion/Mercury driver offset a tough
boating round where a five-second penalty for running over a course buoy bloated his score to 1.6.10 minutes. By the end of the day, Reese found himself in third overall with a total of 63 points.Of course, everything is still up for grabs in both portions of the competition, especially the boating where the final scoring allows one run's time to be thrown out. Lowe's W.C.F. competition continues Sunday with a one o'clock weigh-in at Shirley Plantation. The performance boating will follow with the first runs set to take off at 2:30 p.m. EST.
B.A.S.S. Web site: http://www.bassmaster.com.
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