ON TOUR
COSTA FLW SERIES
COSTA FLW SERIES | GRAND LAKE
GROVE, OKLA.
By David A. Brown
photoS by CuRtIS nIedeRMIeR
WINNING ANGLER
christopher jones
bokoshe, okla.
Winning Weight:
47-03 (14 fish)
details:
March 22-24, 2018
presented by Ranger
boats
c
88
hristopher Jones
caught exactly what
he needed and noth-
ing more at Grand Lake,
earning the win by way of
a tiebreaker over Jeff
Sprague, who also caught
47-3. According to Costa
FLW Series rules, final-day
ties are settled based on
day-two standings. Jones,
who was in fourth after
two days, narrowly topped
Sprague, who was in fifth.
The Oklahoma pro
fished Grand Lake’s mid-
lake area. He spent a little
time each day throwing a
YUM YUMbrella Flash Mob
Jr. with 1/4-ounce heads
and 3 1/2-inch YUM Pulse
Swimbaits along riprap and
rocky points, but his pri-
mary approach to catching
prespawn bass was fishing
docks with a 1/2-ounce
chartreuse BOOYAH spin-
nerbait with a No. 5 gold
Colorado blade and a
Pulse Swimbait trailer.
Cold, dirty water can be
challenging to fish. While
Jones knew he could find
clean water on Grand Lake,
hosted by City of
grove
Southwestern divison
especially if he ventured
down to the Pensacola
Dam area, it wasn’t part of
his game plan. He stuck
with a calculated strategy
based on forecast weather
conditions, and it paid off.
“I was staying in the
dirtier water because I fig-
ured the dirtier the water,
the shallower they would
be,” Jones says. “I knew it
would warm up if we ever
got a break in the weather,
and we did.”
As temperatures
climbed and the shallows
warmed, Jones’ bite
improved. He gradually
pieced together a specific
pattern that revealed the
best docks.
“By day three I had it
dialed in to where I knew
the fish were on the first
dock on the inside of a
secondary corner heading
into a drain,” he says. “I’m
not saying every fish was
there, but I knew if I ran
enough of them I could get
enough bites.”
While the front corners
of docks offer much easier
targets, Jones pushed
himself to fish the most
protected areas where
dock cables, brush and
occasional laydowns cre-
ated significant presenta-
tion challenges, but
offered tremendous
opportunities. The fish
were holding close to the
surface to warm their
eggs in preparation for
the spawn. This meant the
strike zone was narrow
and specific.
“I tried skipping a vibrat-
ing jig in there, but I could-
n’t get them to bite it. I
think it was moving too
fast,” he says. “It would fall
through the water and go
to the bottom too fast.
They wanted something
really slow and high up in
the water column. That’s
why they weren’t biting jigs
very good.”
Careful presentations
to get his spinnerbait in
front of the fish and 20-
pound-test fluorocarbon
to haul them out resulted
in Jones’ first Costa FLW
Series victory.
WINNING CO-ANGLER
steve meador
bentonville, ark.
Winning Weight:
27-03 (11 fish)
Winning program:
Meador built a lead
of more than 7 pounds
over the first two days
by fishing a 1/2-ounce
Bass-X jig with a Zoom
Chunk or a Zoom Baby
Brush Hog trailer. He
spent most of that time
in the mid-lake area.
Day three proved dif-
ficult for Meador, who
caught only one keeper
on a Megabass Vision
110 jerkbait while fish-
ing the lower end.
flWfIshIng.com I may-june 2018