By MLF Communications Staff

Although widely regarded as a shallow-water, sight-fishing expert, Texas pro Alton Jones, Sr., demonstrated Sunday that he also knows a thing or two about catching northern smallmouth. Jones caught 25 scorable smallmouth bass weighing 92 pounds, 13 ounces, to pace the field by 27 pounds after Day 1 for Group B at the MLF Bass Pro Tour regular-season finale at Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota.

Jones will bring a comfortable lead over second-place Dustin Connell of Clanton, Ala., into Tuesday’s second day of competition in the Qualifying Round for Group B. Connell landed 17 scorable bass – all smallmouth – weighing 65-13, while reigning Angler of the Year and 2022 points leader Jacob Wheeler of Harrison, Tennessee, rounds out Top 3 with 17 scorable bass weighing 58-13.

The 40 anglers in Group B will now have a day off on Monday, while the 40 anglers from Group A will wrap up their two-day Qualifying Round. Group B will finish their Qualifying Round on Tuesday.

“It’s humbling when you have a day like this,” Jones said in his post-game interview. “It was a great day – better than the other 39 guys today, and better than everyone that was on the water yesterday, too. So, I’m very pleased, and very thankful.

“I had a good practice, but that doesn’t always translate into a good tournament. This week it has so far,” Jones continued. “I was able to move around to a lot of different places today and get bit, so I’m feeling really good with how my day went.”

With a 27-pound lead heading into the second day of Qualifying Round competition, Jones is already eyeing the automatic qualification to the Championship Round.

“I think I’ve got a strong enough lead that I can really try to go for it and win the round on Tuesday,” Jones went on to say. “The negative part is that if you go for it and someone passes you and you don’t win the round, you end up burning a lot of fish that you’ll need in the Knockout Round. We’ll see.

"If someone catches up real quick Tuesday and passes me and I’m struggling, I’ll back off and just start practicing. There is so much strategy that goes into this game. We’ll see how it goes.”

Cliff Pace and Gerald Spohrer tied for Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award for the largest bass of the day – each caught a smallmouth weighing 510. Pace caught his on a Ned rig during Period 1, while Spohrer’s came on a medium-diving crankbait, also during Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day, and a $3,000 bonus to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass of the tournament.

After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the anglers who finish in 2nd through 20th place from both groups advance to Wednesday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Thursday’s Championship Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 38 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round, where weights will again be zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

Anglers launch each day at 7:30 a.m. CT from Eddy’s Resort, located at 41334 Shakopee Lake Road in Onamia, Minnesota. Each day’s takeout is held at the resort beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! livestream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The tournament features 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.

The MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney breaks down the extended action each day of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT. MLF NOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.



Group B Qualifying Round – Day 1

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

1. Alton Jones -- 92-13 (25) -- 5-04

2. Dustin Connell -- 65-13 (17) -- 5-01

3. Jacob Wheeler -- 58-13 (17) -- 4-15

4. Justin Lucas -- 57-04 (16) -- 5-05

5. Adrian Avena -- 53-04 (15) -- 4-06

6. Cliff Pace -- 52-02 (14) -- 5-10

7. Alton Jones Jr. -- 47-13 (15) -- 4-09

8. Ryan Salzman -- 46-11 (14) -- 5-02

9. Jared Lintner -- 46-07 (16) -- 4-05

10. James Elam -- 45-11 (13) -- 4-10

11. Kevin VanDam -- 43-06 (13) -- 4-01

12. Wesley Strader -- 42-12 (12) -- 4-10

13. Shin Fukae -- 42-07 (14) -- 3-14

14. Gerald Spohrer -- 41-03 (11) -- 5-10

15. Jeremy Lawyer -- 39-12 (12) -- 4-02

16. Casey Ashley -- 39-08 (12) -- 5-03

17. Terry Scroggins -- 35-05 (12) -- 4-11

18. Bobby Lane -- 33-15 (11) -- 4-11

19. Randall Tharp -- 33-08 (11) -- 4-10

20. Ott DeFoe -- 32-13 (10) -- 4-04

21. Kelly Jordon -- 30-08 (9) -- 5-00

22. Bryan Thrift -- 30-06 (9) -- 4-05

23. Randy Howell -- 26-02 (6) -- 4-13

24. Jeff Sprague -- 24-03 (8) -- 5-05

25. Jason Lambert -- 23-09 (8) -- 4-00

26. Shaw Grigsby -- 22-00 (6) -- 4-11

27. Russ Lane -- 20-07 (6) -- 4-06

28. Cliff Crochet -- 19-00 (5) -- 5-02

29. Brett Hite -- 17-12 (5) -- 4-14

30. Skeet Reese -- 17-07 (6) -- 4-03

31. Britt Myers -- 16-15 (6) -- 3-09

32. Cody Meyer -- 16-02 (6) -- 3-05

33. Clabion Johns -- 15-14 (5) -- 4-04

34. Dean Rojas -- 14-00 (5) -- 4-00

35. Brandon Coulter -- 13-15 (4) -- 3-13

36. Timmy Horton -- 10-05 (3) -- 4-04

37. Mark Davis -- 6-10 (2) -- 4-10

38. John Murray -- 6-07 (2) -- 3-07

39. Bradley Roy -- 4-00 (1) -- 4-00

40. Keith Poche -- 0-00 (0) -- 0-00