Rapala Pros Pick Up Right Where They Left Off in 2026
One tournament into the season, it’s clear that the pros using Rapala®, CrushCity™, VMC®, Sufix® and 13 Fishing® products aren’t suffering from any offseason rust. At an earlier-than-usual start at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, it wasn’t just perennial All-Star Jacob Wheeler (3rd) who showed off crazy momentum, but rookie Banks Shaw (5th) also lit up the scoreboard and fans’ interest.
Ott DeFoe finished 11th and Dustin Connell was 17th. That puts all four of them in prime position not just to qualify for the Redcrest, but also to be key players in the Angler of the Year Race as the campaign moves forward.
Wheeler Reverts to “Old School” with a New Tool
While much of Jacob Wheeler’s damage over the past few years has seemingly been achieved with finesse tactics and forward-facing sonar, to dismiss him as one-dimensional would be ridiculous. Over the course of his career, he’s proven that he can win on any water, with just about any technique, with or without the benefit of the latest technology.
And that’s evident in his exceptional performance with a Guntersville staple: A lipless crankbait.
But it wasn’t just any lipless crankbait. It was Rapala’s newly-introduced Snare® 50 in the Classic Craw pattern. It may fit the standard power fishing paradigm, but with some key differences.
“It’s a little smaller in profile than the standard half-ounce bait,” he said. “And it’s a little more subtle. It doesn’t have as many crazy rattles as most others. It’s just not too loud.”
While he did catch some fish with a CrushCity™ Mayor®, his decision to generally abandon finesse in Alabama was calculated. The third lure that played for him was a vibrating jig with a CrushCity™ Freeloader® on the back.
“Trends always come back around,” he explained. “Bass are great at changing their habits. The offshore fish are getting more and more pressured with FFS, while the fish that remained shallow aren’t getting as much attention. It flip-flopped.”
He knew that because Guntersville has “endless amounts of grass,” the key to finding quality fish would be just to “fish for them to find them…and not everyone found them.” The bass were typically grouped up on eel grass edges with some hydrilla and occasionally coontail mixed in.
“It came down to irregularities,” he added. “Where grass was abundant, you had to look for the voids. Where there was not much grass, the thickest stuff produced. And when you had just standard grass beds, it was a matter of finding the points and turns.”
Shaw is No Typical Rookie
Tennessee rookie Banks Shaw showed the poise of a competitor with decades more experience, competing for the win and ultimately landing in a more-than-respectable 5th place. While he focused on the finesse that’s largely gotten him to this point, like Wheeler he wanted to find fish that others could not or did not.
“My strategy going into it was definitely looking for a special place to catch fish in the periods with forward-facing sonar,” he said. “I know how the TVA system works and I knew that would be crucial to having a good tournament. I was able to find a couple of those places. It was all about the baitfish.”
The bait the bass were keying on were right around 3 inches long, which made the 3.5” Mooch Minnow™ in Green Shad exactly right. It wasn’t just the size that convinced so many fish to eat, but also the specific action and color of the bait.
“There’s something about that little split tail,” Shaw said “It doesn’t have as much of a rolling action as some other baits, but it has a lot of action in the tail, and that made a huge difference.”
The bait mattered more than the use of his forward-facing sonar, although he definitely tried to make the most of the periods when FFS was allowed. He saved a particular spot for Day Three, and when he was prohibited from using FFS he still managed to “blind cast a 7 pound 11 ounce bass and also catch a handful of other 4- to 5-pounders.”
It wasn’t just the bait that mattered, either. Shaw has put together an entire system meant to maximize his effectiveness. That started by rigging the soft plastic on a 1/8 ounce VMC® RedLine® Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig with a 1/0 hook. He put it on a 13 Fishing® Myth 6’10” Spinning Rod and rigged up with 10-pound test Sufix 832 Advanced Superline® braid with a leader of 14-pound test Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon.
Why the heavy leader?
“The water wasn’t too clear,” he explained. “I wanted to be able to get five without having to retie, and to be able to swing 2- and 3-pounders if I had to.”
Other Top Rapala Pros
Perennial contender Ott DeFoe credited his success to a Rapala® DT® 6 crankbait. Many other top finishers reportedly used that same lure, which has an exemplary history on Guntersville.
Dustin Connell caught bass on a Crush City™ Freeloader® on a VMC Minnow Shaker Jighead and a vibrating jig with a Freeloader the back. Notably, Connell’s fishing system now also incorporates the 13 Fishing® Myth rods. He used a 7’2” medium-heavy casting rod with the vibrating jig and a 7’1” medium spinning rod with the Freeloader.
Strong Starts Buoyed by Resilience
Wheeler showed his versatility and ability to adapt on the fly by also catching a number of key fish – smallmouth – on a CrushCity™ Mayor® in pro blue red pearl. Where other pros might’ve been happy to have one of those patterns going he had two potential winning options.
While Shaw can’t match Wheeler’s four AOY titles – yet – he showed equal amounts of savvy and focus. “I’m super-stoked to get a top ten finish right off the bat,” he said. “I’m proud that I started off my rookie season with a strong performance.”
Wheeler says he’s not driven by AOY, but rather by going into each tournament with the goal of winning – if that happens occasionally, the standing will take care of themselves.
“I’m fortunate to have won four of the last five,” he said. “It takes so much out of you, especially later in the season. I’m going to have fun fishing every tournament, and if I get into an AOY battle when I’m four or five tournaments in, I’ll deal with that then. Still, it’s critical to get off to this strong start. Even now I deal with doubt and questions. Great runs don’t last forever and I won’t always be at the top of the heap, but to start off with a top five, with a chance to win right off the rip, that revitalizes my confidence.”
