Alton Jones Jr . caught this trophy 5-pound spotted bass during REDCREST 2023 .
THE BEST OF THE REST
REDCREST
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON PHOTO BY JODY WHITE PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
By Tyler Brinks
AS PREDICTED , spotted bass dominated the catches at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2023 Presented by Shore Lunch and there proved to be many ways to catch them . Plenty of good-sized largemouth showed up , though , and they proved willing to eat a variety of lures .
Overall , the patterns and baits used by the Top 10 were an interesting mix , with some baits not yet on the market and big glide baits appearing for the first time in Bass Pro Tour competition . Here ’ s a rundown of how the rest of the Top 10 caught their fish on Norman .
2nd – Alton Jones Jr . – 42-6 ( 15 )
Jones relied on three primary baits . He located two bedding fish in practice and went to them to kick off the event , eventually catching a whopping 5-7 spotted bass in the first day of Knockout Round competition .
“ I caught those bedding fish on a Geecrack Bellows Shad in AJ ’ s juice rigged on a 4 / 0 straight-shank hook with a 3 / 8-ounce tungsten weight ,” Jones said .
For the rest of the event , Jones focused on specific types of pockets to be more efficient when fishing long stretches of docks . When fishing the docks , he skipped a 6-inch harnessed swimbait in pearl white or a 5-inch green pumpkin soft plastic stick worm on a wacky or Neko rig .
3rd – Edwin Evers – 41-14 ( 15 )
Aside from the Berkley Big Bass of the event on a topwater , a 6-0 on the first day of fishing , Evers ’ primarily fished swimbaits . Both the new 6-inch Berkley Cull Shad in electric shad and a prototype 6-inch glide bait from Mike Bucca , called the Trick Shad .
Evers stuck to the mid-lake section and mainly caught spotted bass , except for the 6-0 largemouth and one more that he weighed during the week . A final bait that contributed was a 1 / 2-ounce Berkley finesse jig in green pumpkin with a brown and orange Berkley Chigger Craw trailer .
4th – Jacob Wheeler – 40-11 ( 15 )
Wheeler ’ s REDCREST came down to a trio of primary patterns : sight fishing , fishing a Neko rig , and throwing a glide bait . He mixed it up and alternated the three approaches throughout the event .
“ I was using a 1 / 16- or 3 / 32-ounce VMC Neko Weight most of the time ( on the Neko rig ) but would go up to a 3 / 32 to get it down quicker on deeper docks ,” Wheeler said . “ I rigged the bait on a # 2 VMC RedLine Series Neko Hook .” He also caught two largemouth that he weighed while sight fishing ; a 6-inch shad pattern glide bait served to land other key fish throughout the event .
38 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2023