Wheeler Employs Full Offshore Rotation to Clinch Record Ninth BPT Win
The fishing world has known for years that once Jacob Wheeler identifies a technique or presentation that he needs to use, he’ll do everything within his power to perfect it.
Now, he’s clearly added the final piece of the puzzle – the mind game. In order to win his record 9th Bass Pro Tour event this week at Kentucky Lake, Wheeler eschewed conventional wisdom – rather than immediately winning the qualifying round, he spent otherwise-valuable time idling around, looking for the additional schools to ensure his dominance. He’s also figured out how best to integrate BPT’s forward-facing sonar limitations into his game plan. Indeed, sometimes he appears to be playing chess while his competition, some of the best anglers in the world, are merely playing an advanced game of checkers.
“It’s very much a chess game,” he agreed. “In order to win at this level, you have to be consistently moving things around, moving pawns around to put you in the final winning position. I felt that at Kentucky Lake I was constantly setting the whole week up for one final showdown at one final day.”
Indeed, while qualifying for a pass to the Championship round would seem to be a no-brainer, he thinks “it has been the kiss of death this season.” He should know. He’d had consecutive 2nd place finishes at Lake Murray and Chickamauga/Nickajack prior to Kentucky Lake.
“You lose touch with the lake,” he explained. “While I was idling I found several new spots and eliminated areas I wanted to check. I eventually had 35 or 40 places that had fish on them, but you can really only fish 8 or 12 or 14 of them during the tournament. It all came down to game-planning.”
The Full Offshore Rotation of Lures
While many of Wheeler’s past signature performances – and there have been many of them for the 34 year-old – have occurred when he’s dialed in one or two lures, his dominance at Kentucky Lake came down to his exceptional versatility. He employed a wide range of Rapala and CrushCity™ baits, many of them of his own design, to compile his winning catch.
On the first day, he caught 18 of 19 fish on a new 5.25” version of the popular CrushCity™ Freeloader® in Green Shad and Gizzard Shad. The new size has more drawing power than the smaller versions, which was critical because the water had a slight stain. It produced a 4-15 smallmouth, a 5-6 largemouth and a 5 pound largemouth power him through. He fished it on a 5/16 ounce VMC® Hybrid Swimbait Jighead, and the pairing combined to maximize effectiveness. Per Wheeler’s tried and true spinning rod setup, he used 8 pound Sufix® Revolve™ in hi-vis green and used 12 pound Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon as his leader material.
“As you go up in size with the Freeloader, you get more rolling action,” Wheeler explained. “When the fish were a little deeper you need that head to get down to them. You can get up to a 3/8 ounce with that head, while the 4.25” Freeloader does better with a 1/8 ounce or 3/16 ounce head.”
Dan Quinn, Director of Field Promotions at Rapala®, has gotten used to Wheeler setting the world on fire before he was officially authorized to do so: “Jake has been instrumental in the success of CrushCity, Rapala®, VMC® and Sufix® and we’re just getting started,” Quinn said. “I’m losing track of how many new products Jake has prematurely launched due to tournament wins.”
Wheeler also relied on a Tennessee River staple, the deep diving crankbait, specifically a DT® - 16 in Big Shad, when it was sunny, and Citrus Shad when it was cloudy or the fish were deeper. While the crankbait bite is certainly not dead on Kentucky Lake, it’s not as wide-open as it was a generation ago, which necessitated the DT series over any other choice. Wheeler spooled up with 12 pound Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon to deploy his crankbaits.
“It’s balsa, which means it’s subtle, and you don’t have all the rattles,” he said. “All of that combines to get more bites under pressure, when the fish are tough to catch.” He’d often mop up the remains of the schools with a CrushCity™ Janitor (green pumpkin magic) rigged with a 3/16 ounce Half Moon Wacky Weight, a #2 VMC® RedLine Series™ Finesse Neko Hook and a #4 VMC® Crossover Ring™, which exerts the exact right amount of tightness to hold the worm in place without impeding its action. Wheeler utilized the same 8 pound Sufix Revolve mainline and 12 pound leader that he did with his Freeloader.
On the final day, when he dominated with 46 bass that cumulatively weighed 110 pounds 113 ounces, to win by over 32 pounds, Wheeler’s key bait was a ¾ ounce football jig, another old school choice that never goes out of style. Two things were critical, though: The various CrushCity Cleanup Craws that he put on the back (green pumpkin blue, green pumpkin watermelon and green pumpkin magic) and also the weight that he fished it.
“They were slack lining this thing,” he said. “A big part of that was the Cleanup Craw. First of all, it has more body, so it holds up better, but it’s also about those little legs that kick at a higher frequency than on some other craws. I wasn’t just dragging it or stroking it. I was snapping it – snap, snap, snap – and as it falls and that craw is kicking they’d eat it. It was like a crankbait bite, just with a jig.”
A Win and an Angler In a Class of Their Own
The accolades continue to pile up for the still-young Tennessee transplant. He’s won at every level of the sport, often multiple times, and currently leads the BPT race. If he holds out, he’ll win the Angler of the Year title for the third consecutive season, and the fourth time overall, another record that no one can touch. Indeed, this is only the BPT’s seventh season, and he’s on the verge of going over fifty percent for titles. It’s unheard of at the top echelon of professional bass fishing.
This victory also marks what Major League Fishing termed the “unofficial Tennessee River Grand Slam” as Wheeler has won major events on Chickamauga, Guntersville, Pickwick and Kentucky Lake. The Tennessee River has become his personal playground and bank. “Especially offshore, I understand why and what they do,” he said. “I feel like I’m part TVA bass. I’ve had so many good tournaments on these bodies of water, events where I figured out every piece of the puzzle.” He takes little pieces of past tournaments on the system and applies them surgically – this week he recalled a lesson he’d learned fishing a Toyota Series tournament on Pickwick and utilized it to catch several key fish. That’s why he’s king of the chessboard.
Quinn, who has closely watched many of the sport’s greatest anglers at their peak moments, remains amazed. “Having the opportunity to work with Jacob for all these years and having a front row seat as he’s making history is hard to put into words,” he said. “I’ve known for a long time that Jake is special. He’s on a different level and to see him continue to dominate tournaments year after year, it’s surreal.”
This trophy is special in other ways, too. After the two runner-up finishes at Murray and Chickamauga/Nickajack, he never doubted himself, but he yearned to return to one of those “zone” moments, the times, when everything goes right and there’s no need to second-guess a single move.
