Mike jones

3/12/17 Results 1st place- Teddy Holt - Mike Jones 21.57 lbs 2nd place- Justin &Billy Upton 20.78 lbs 3rd place- Justin Mounce 19.67lbs Big Bass- Justin Mounce 6 lbs They were chewing today all over the lake...water temps in the low 50's around prairie to low/mid 50's up the river. The water color up around Hickory creek is nice..and they are eating!! A-rigs were a big player today along with a wart. We had around 20 keepers including a couple giant stripers!! Several 14-16lb bags weighed also.

I have never had anyone try to do everything they can to prevent me from catching fish...well, just 1 guy out of a bunch. And it was years ago on the Red river..the guy is in talking about is on the Bassmaster Elites.

I have fish in the back of the boat in many /Costa, FLW tour and BASS opens over the years. 95% of the guys I have drew out with have all been super guys..and I have made some lifelong friends just by sharing the boat at a random draw tournament. Yes, there are some guys out there that have too much money and very little fishing knowledge and really don't belong in the front of the boat but hey, to each his own. If they don't have to qualify through a lower division and can just pony up the entry fee's and fish, that's just the game we play. As far as the pro's turning off their electronics, I totally understand...if it's causing interference on their front graph. My 2nd day pro put his graphs on the console on standby after every move we would make. The couple times he forgot to, there was a ton of clutter and interference on both graphs. Turning the graph around to face the front of the boat is just weird though...never had anyone did that. Thanka again to everyone on this board for the reports and the well wishes. See you on the water!!

Come out and fish the Castmasters club. Our first tournament of the year is this Sunday out of prairie creek. Let me know if you want more info.

I was also up at Champlain last fall for the northern open! I had a couple great pro's up there also..including Alton Jones jr. I've been close a couple times in flw tour tournaments but this one I really felt like it was mine to lose. Still a lot of fun and a good payday!

Thank you again for keeping me in the loop on what was going on on the Rock 2 or 3 weeks ago. I wish I would have went down and practiced in the clear end because Tyler Carriere asked me the last day if I had anything that I wanted to hit.

He was fishing main lake bluffs with timber. Some fish were on the graph and some fish he didn't see. Also, several fish he would pull up to a tree and drop the Damiki rig beside the tree and catch one. We caught a ton of fish on the bluffs just past big cedar also..and my heart breaker 15 1/4" crappie!! He was using the 1/4oz head with the Damiki split tail bait they sell. He had smoked'em pretty good in practice on the Ned fishing the bluff bank between the bluff wall and the trees. I was very impressed with what Tyler had found with his limited practice..he had made the top 50 cut at Okeechobee, drove all day Sunday and Monday and only practiced on TR for 1/2 day Tuesday and 1/2 day Wednesday.

Thank you guys for the encouragement..it was bitter sweet to make it that far and not finish on top.

First of all, thanks to everyone on here for the well wishes and congrats for the tournament. It was a blast leading the tourney going into the last day but a kick in the gut when I couldn't seal the deal. Day 1--I drew a young Iowa pro Greg Vance. Great young angler and was very happy for me at the end of the day. He fished the Bassmaster Classic last year through the BASS nation qualification. He was on a pattern of swimming a grub and swimbait out over deep water. We would sit in 50-80 feet of water, make a cast, count down to 6, 8, 10 or whatever and work that desired zone. We were on our second spot and had caught 1 short a piece when we looked across the lake and the gulls were diving hard core! He said 'We have got to get over there!' We raced across the lake and I caught bass on my first 3 casts with one of them being a keeper. We followed the bait around for the next couple of hours off of that flat, gravel/chunk rock point as they moved out over deep water and then back up shallow(1-15 feet of water) Most of my fish came on a 4" swimbait on a Arkie lures 1/4oz jighead with a light wire hook. The light wire hook was key because they were coming up behind the swimbait to eat it and your rod would just load up. The light wire hook would pierce the lips easily. 1 of my big fish came on a underspin also. I had 6 keeper largemouth there and culled a couple times. We were in the white river all day. 3 fish limit weighed 11lb 2oz..good for 1st place after day 1. Day 2-- I drew Elite series pro Brian Snowden. Brian is a class act...not only one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but when he found out that I was in 1st, he said he would take me to some smallmouth spots to make sure I get my limit. We fished around Kimberling city on wind blown main lake and secondary points. I caught 4 keeper smallies and culled once, all on the 4" swimbait on the 1/4oz head. Again, he worked hard for me to get my 3 fish. And then he showed up to the weigh-in because he said he was sitting at home and he told his wife 'Let's go over to the weigh-in and watch Mike win the non-boater side.' But I didn't hold up my end of the deal!! Lol 3 fish limit weighed 6lb 5oz..good enough for 1st place heading into the final day. Day 3--I drew Elite series pro Tyler Carriere. Tyler also was a pleasure to fish with and tried his best to get me around fish, he had caught around 15 keepers on day 2. He said we would go catch our limits and then he would need to go crankin' to catch a big fish and try to catch up. I told him if I caught my 3 fish limit, I was sure that it would wrap up the win for me. We went out and caught tons...I mean tons...probably between 60-70 shorts. Tyler had 2 keeper spots and I couldn't manage a keeper all day. We stayed within 4 miles of take off all day. He had just burned through his fish the first 2 days and there wasn't anything left but shorts. He was dropping a Damiki rig on them...I was doing that, swimbait and ned rig behind him. Went to the weigh-in and the tournament director saw I had no fish and knew I was bummed. He asked me if I would still come across the stage to talk about my week and I said 'Of course.' I got up on stage and told the crowd that just a few hours earlier, I had caught one on my swimbait, measured it and it went 15 1/4" and I threw it back in the lake. Chris asked me why I did that...I said 'Because I didn't think you would let me weigh in a crappie!!' It got a good laugh from the crowd and Chris. It was one of the biggest black crappie I have caught in a long time! After that, I thanked my pro's individually and gave them thanks for helping me for the finish. I came off stage and my daughter brought our Yorkie over to me...the Clunn's were standing a few feet away and I found out quickly that they were Yorkie lovers as they have one also. I spent several minutes talking with Rick about the tournament and then went to find my family. I ended up falling to 6th place and finished exactly 2 pounds out of 1st. All I needed was 1 good keeper on the last day. 1 keeper would have won the tournament and a new Triton. It sucks being that close to the win without closing it out and it runs through your mind constantly...but it makes the fire inside burn hotter to win a major tournament one day!!

First of all, thanks to everyone on here for the well wishes and congrats for the tournament. It was a blast leading the tourney going into the last day but a kick in the gut when I couldn't seal the deal. Day 1--I drew a young Iowa pro Greg Vance. Great young angler and was very happy for me at the end of the day. He fished the Bassmaster Classic last year through the BASS nation qualification. He was on a pattern of swimming a grub and swimbait out over deep water. We would sit in 50-80 feet of water, make a cast, count down to 6, 8, 10 or whatever and work that desired zone. We were on our second spot and had caught 1 short a piece when we looked across the lake and the gulls were diving hard core! He said 'We have got to get over there!' We raced across the lake and I caught bass on my first 3 casts with one of them being a keeper. We followed the bait around for the next couple of hours off of that flat, gravel/chunk rock point as they moved out over deep water and then back up shallow(1-15 feet of water) Most of my fish came on a 4" swimbait on a Arkie lures 1/4oz jighead with a light wire hook. The light wire hook was key because they were coming up behind the swimbait to eat it and your rod would just load up. The light wire hook would pierce the lips easily. 1 of my big fish came on a underspin also. I had 6 keeper largemouth there and culled a couple times. We were in the white river all day. 3 fish limit weighed 11lb 2oz..good for 1st place after day 1. Day 2-- I drew Elite series pro Brian Snowden. Brian is a class act...not only one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but when he found out that I was in 1st, he said he would take me to some smallmouth spots to make sure I get my limit. We fished around Kimberling city on wind blown main lake and secondary points. I caught 4 keeper smallies and culled once, all on the 4" swimbait on the 1/4oz head. Again, he worked hard for me to get my 3 fish. And then he showed up to the weigh-in because he said he was sitting at home and he told his wife 'Let's go over to the weigh-in and watch Mike win the non-boater side.' But I didn't hold up my end of the deal!! Lol 3 fish limit weighed 6lb 5oz..good enough for 1st place heading into the final day. Day 3--I drew Elite series pro Tyler Carriere. Tyler also was a pleasure to fish with and tried his best to get me around fish, he had caught around 15 keepers on day 2. He said we would go catch our limits and then he would need to go crankin' to catch a big fish and try to catch up. I told him if I caught my 3 fish limit, I was sure that it would wrap up the win for me. We went out and caught tons...I mean tons...probably between 60-70 shorts. Tyler had 2 keeper spots and I couldn't manage a keeper all day. We stayed within 4 miles of take off all day. He had just burned through his fish the first 2 days and there wasn't anything left but shorts. He was dropping a Damiki rig on them...I was doing that, swimbait and ned rig behind him. Went to the weigh-in and the tournament director saw I had no fish and knew I was bummed. He asked me if I would still come across the stage to talk about my week and I said 'Of course.' I got up on stage and told the crowd that just a few hours earlier, I had caught one on my swimbait, measured it and it went 15 1/4" and I threw it back in the lake. Chris asked me why I did that...I said 'Because I didn't think you would let me weigh in a crappie!!' It got a good laugh from the crowd and Chris. It was one of the biggest black crappie I have caught in a long time! After that, I thanked my pro's individually and gave them thanks for helping me for the finish. I came off stage and my daughter brought our Yorkie over to me...the Clunn's were standing a few feet away and I found out quickly that they were Yorkie lovers as they have one also. I spent several minutes talking with Rick about the tournament and then went to find my family. I ended up falling to 6th place and finished exactly 2 pounds out of 1st. All I needed was 1 good keeper on the last day. 1 keeper would have won the tournament and a new Triton. It sucks being that close to the win without closing it out and it runs through your mind constantly...but it makes the fire inside burn hotter to win a major tournament one day!!

Teddy and I haven't talked about when we will start the Tuesday night jackpots out of hickory creek. I will post on here when we get a date set.

Thank you everyone for all the kind words and well wishes. I will post a full report tomorrow...I slept about 2 hours last night and am beat!!! I couldn't seal the deal today but the experience and well wishes from some of the pro's was humbling. Plus the paycheck wasn't bad either! Lol!!

Full report to follow guys..hoping to win this sucker tomorrow!!! Had some great draws...had 3 for over 11 pounds the first day!!

Nice job!!

Well, we were bass fishing down a bank with jerkbaits and got into a school of crappie! I have never released big ol' crappie like that before..it was killing us! Lol!! A jig or minnow under a bobber would have done some damage!

Stump- I believe next Saturday is the first solo elite tourney..they will draw around 70 boats or so. Crappie are on fire..we had 8 or 9 big black crappie yesterday while bass fishing!

Oh cool...how did you guys do?

18.40 won it!!! They said they caught that weight in about a 20 minute span!

We fished the first Everett tourney of the year and had a pretty decent day. Had 14.42 and finished 9th out of 166 boats. Had around 15 keepers total. Water temp was in the low 50's about everywhere we were around prairie creek. Crankbait did most of the damage with a few on a grub and jerkbait.

WPS!!! I grew up in Missouri and moved to Fayetteville a few years ago. I was never a big Mizzou fan but since moving here, being a Razorback fan is contagious! Most college programs have their ups and downs...we are just having a few 'downs' right now!

I have around 30 Falcon boxes for sale. They are the 300 and 700 series in the thin boxes for jerkbaits, etc and deep boxes for bags of plastics, etc. $10 per box and located in Fayetteville. If anyone around Table Rock wants any, I will be in town from Feb.27-Mar4 for the BASS Open. Thanks. Shoot me a text at 417-531-1144

You are exactly right!!! Morgan and Thrift would be big time sticks on the Elites! Matt Arey came in during the last Walmart shareholders meeting to work for Quaker State. He called one evening and we went out for dinner...I asked him if he had the opportunity, would he flip to the Elites. To my surprise, he said 'No, I wouldn't. Just look at all the hammers that leave FLW for the Elites each year. My chances of cashing a big check get better and better every year.' And he is exactly correct with that way of thinking!

He is a good dude..I practiced with Arey and my buddy practiced with Wheeler last year before the flw on Beaver. Jacob will be a force on the Elites for many years!!!

Lol..well, after the first flw tourney, I am in 2,614th place in tackle warehouse!! What was that about a fantasy ringer?!?! Lol!!!!

I've got 3 in the top 15 right now..I tried to pick smallmouth guys. I finished like 13th in the tackle warehouse flw fantasy fishing last year. But as we all know, they only give prizes to the top 10!?