Kevin VanDam

No keeping up with this Jones

February 24, 2008
(bassmaster.com, February 24, 2008)

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In the end, no one else’s catches could keep up with Jones’.

In his 11th Classic, the Waco, Texas, pro came back from 10th place on Day One to claim the $500,000 top prize in the biggest event in bass fishing.

“This is the fulfillment of a dream I’ve had since childhood,” he told a packed house at the 15,000-seat Bi-Lo Center. “I learned to fish from my grandfather in East Texas and I wish he were here to see this.”

He survived a late charge by former Classic and Bassmaster Angler of the Year winner Kevin VanDam (third place, 43 pounds, 8 ounces) and Cliff Pace (second, 44-5), who made 10 out of 11 cuts on the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2007.

Jones’ comeback is all the more impressive considering how weights suffered after a big Day One, when he caught his five-fish limit in six casts. Targeting deep fish, he took the lead with an 18-11 Day Two haul that bumped upstart Charlie Hartley out of the catbird seat. Jones then sealed the win with a 13-7 bag on a Day Three when no angler weighed a sack bigger than 15 pounds.

The Classic victory is the fifth BASS tournament win for Jones, whose highest previous Classic finish before this year was 7th place in 2000 and 2003.

Previously in South Carolina, he won the Megabucks Pro on Lake Murray in 2000. In 2006, he sacked a 35-6 limit — at the time, the fifth-largest single-day weight in the history of BASS — including a 10-1 kicker, on Santee-Cooper Reservoir. He and fellow angler Kevin VanDam were subsequently disqualified from that tournament when both were found to have received help scouting the lake with a non-boater — in Jones’ case, his son — during practice.

The $500,000 that comes with the Classic title will boost Jones’ career winning with BASS by 30 percent.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?id=3262744

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