By MLF Communications Staff

After making the Bass Pro Tour Championship Round six previous times, for the first time in his career Alton Jones Jr. has earned his own big red trophy. The 29-year-old Waco, Texas pro caught 13 bass weighing 46 pounds, 2 ounces Friday to win the event at Lake Fork in Quitman, Texas, and earn the top prize of $100,000.

Going into the third and final period of competition Friday, Jones held a 9-07 lead over fellow Texan Dakota Ebare. However, 10 minutes into the period, Ebare had boated a 4-13 and a 6-08 to seize the lead from Jones with just 50 minutes left in the competition. Five minutes later, Jones managed to catch a 2 1/2-pounder and took the lead back from Ebare by a scant 10 ounces. Neither was able to catch a fish in the final 45 minutes, and although Jacob Wheeler made it interesting at the end to get within 6 pounds, Jones’ total earned him the win by a 10-ounce margin.

I’m so excited – I really didn’t see this coming,” an emotional Jones said at his trophy presentation. “If you’d asked me halfway through our first day if I’d have a shot to win this thing, I would have said absolutely not. Somehow, someway, by the grace of God, it just kind of came together this week. They say when it’s your time, it’s your time and I guess it’s just my time.

"There are so many great anglers here,” Jones continued. “We’ve got a lot of really great anglers that have fished for a very long time and never won one. You see it all the time. I don’t even feel like I’m that good of an angler. I don’t know why it was me, but I just feel so blessed, so fortunate, so lucky and just thankful.”

Jones hunkered down on on Friday in the same drain in Little Caney Creek where he started the event on Day 1. It was an area that he had high hopes for, but it took a while for it to develop.

“I fished the entire first period (of Day 1) in this drain and didn’t get a bite for an hour,” Jones said. “I didn’t come back here until the Knockout Round, but I came in here that day and the magic happened. I was able to get pretty dialed on what the fish wanted.”

What they wanted was a red squarebill crankbait.

“I have to give a huge shoutout to Jordan Lee,” Jones said. “I got onto a crankbait bite in practice, then the second day of the tournament I got onto a squarebill bite, however, none of the squarebills I had were running deep enough. I called Jordan that evening and asked if he had any extra squarebills that ran 5 to 6 feet, and he literally opened his tackle box and said take whatever you want. That helped me out so much – I caught every one of those fish on that bait.”

Wheeler earned Friday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass award with an 8-05 largemouth that bit a jerkbait in Period 2. Bradley Roy earned the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass award for the overall largest bass of the event with his 11-11 giant that he weighed on Day 1 of competition.

The featured anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

Television coverage of the event will premiere at 7 a.m. ET Sept. 17 on the Discovery Channel. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on the Discovery Channel, with additional re-airings on the Outdoor Channel.

Championship Round

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the round)

1. Alton Jones Jr. -- 46-02 (13) -- 6-02

2. Dakota Ebare -- 45-08 (10) -- 6-08

3. Jacob Wheeler -- 40-00 (10) -- 8-05

4. Casey Ashley -- 36-04 (11) -- 5-04

5. Alton Jones -- 29-02 (6) -- 7-05

6. Zack Birge -- 26-00 (5) -- 8-01

7. Jonathon VanDam -- 23-08 (5) -- 6-00

8. Justin Lucas -- 20-14 (5) -- 6-13

9. Jeff Sprague -- 12-07 (3) -- 6-10

10. Cole Floyd -- 4-03 (1) -- 4-03