Not too many guys on the Bass Pro Tour have been fishing better than Alton Jones Jr. He's also got a thing for catching bigs and using atypical baits which makes what he's doing more interesting. I'm sure I'm not the only one expecting him to do well again this year, so here we go:
1. Do you care that the BPT is moving back to count 'em all?
> "It's kind of a 2-part answer. I'm gonna say no, I don't care. It doesn't affect my fishing style, and I feel like I fish more effectively under every fish counts, believe or not – even though my best year was last year.
> "But I do hope we keep it this way now. I think changing to 5 fish probably was not the best choice to begin with, hence here we are back at every fish counts. So I'm good with it."
Follow-up: What does "more effectively" mean?
> "I just feel like as an angler, I kinda go with the flow. I've become decent at generating bites and comfortable with a lot of different techniques. I feel like I'm a jack of all trades, master of none.
> "In the every fish counts format, you have to go with the flow and and it has to be fast-paced. Being a little ADD, I don't like to sit still and I feel like that fits the every fish counts format."
2. You've been one of the guys ahead of the curve with FFS. Has your electronics setup changed for this year?
> "It has changed. I am running 1 extra unit, so instead of 2 units up front I have 3. Because last season I ran 2 FFS [transducers] for the first time ever – 1 in Perspective and 1 in Forward mode – but I needed mapping. Now with 3 units, I can look mapping, Perspective mode and Forward all at the same time."
[He's all Garmin and is running 4 Echo Map Ultra 2s: one 16, three 12s and one 10 (not an Ultra 2). At the bow it's the 16 for Forward, the 12 for Perspective and the 10 for the map.]
Follow-up: How do you use your 2 FFS units?
> "It's very situational. Forward is where I'm looking 99.9% of the time. Perspective mode is a little more situational – for shallow. It's more for understanding the landscape of the bottom, like to see what direction the laydown is actually going.
> "It makes everything 3D when you're looking at both. You get the height or depth change with Forward, and you get the lay of the land with Perspective.
> "[Perspective] really excels in shallow water. If I'm deeper than 15' it becomes Forward only.
> "[Perspective] is a live version of that 360 look – obviously it's a 180, not a 360. Also there are times in shallow scenarios if fish are super tight to the bottom you can't see them on Forward but on Perspective you can."
[He also said that having both helps him judge how far and where a fish is sometimes, to help him make the right cast.]
3. Any new Geecrack secret weapons this year?
> "I don't even know if I'm allowed to tell you this but...we've got some off the wall stuff coming. Some stuff is coming out around Classic and Redcrest time, some signature stuff from me. It's gonna be some more of that 'what the heck is that' Japanese stuff."
Bonus Q: Have you fished that Geecrack Supaku Swimmer much?
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