Wheeler Seals the Deal on Redcrest Title
Just when you thought Jacob Wheeler’s resume could not be improved, he found a way to burnish it further. With a win at the 2026 Bass Pro Tour Redcrest championship at Missouri’s Table Rock lake, he captured the one title that had eluded him in his exemplary career.
It was a classic Wheeler win, resulting from a purposeful intersection of technical fishing skills and master-level chess strategy. He continues to take calculated risks that pay off, relying on instincts and smarts, and taking chances that no other angler can or will employ.
“It was definitely a thorn in my side,” he said of the fact that he’d yet to win a Redcrest in six prior attempts. “I haven’t won a major title since winning the Forrest Wood Cup. I was 2nd in the Classic and 2nd in a Forrest Wood Cup. In a Redcrest where I finished 3rd I was leading with two minutes to go.”
Now he has hit for the cycle: An All-American win, the Forrest Wood Cup and the Redcrest, to go along with his four Angler of the Year awards. What should scare the rest of the field is that he’s still a few years short of his 40th birthday.
Table Rock Set Up Perfectly
Wheeler has excelled everywhere he’s fished – north, south, east and west – across the seasons and regardless of the type of waterway, but Table Rock sets up particularly well for his particular brand of strategic thinking. It offers all three major species of black bass, and they were in various stages of the spawn. Additionally, it was the site of his first BPT win.
“The biggest thing is that it lends itself to patternable fishing,” he said. “It’s such a pattern lake. If you find a particular bank type or water clarity, you can follow that all over the lake. It allows you to fish by the seat of your pants, which is what I like – fishing on the fly.
“Patterns that you dial in during the tournament are the ones that tend to last. I never win practice. I like it that way. It allows me to run around and fish free.”
He switched back and forth effortlessly between smallmouths and spots, as the conditions changed. He effectively ruled out targeting the lake’s prolific spotted bass because they tend to skew smaller. He’d end up wading through legions of subpar bass rather than meeting the 2-pound minimum.
“I figured that either smallmouths or largemouths would be the key, and it turned out to be both,” he explained. “But I like the fact that we had options. Anything that adds complexity to an event typically helps me. It was a big part of my win. This tournament was about quality, not quality.”
The Master Strategist Prevails
Wheeler finished Day 1 in 3rd place, then used Day 2 to expand his footprint, looking for a largemouth bite. In perhaps the greatest rope-a-dope in fishing history, when he got to 75 pounds, he cut off the hook on his bait.
“My goal is always to get as close to the 10th place qualifying spot without catching too many fish,” he said. “If you set the hook into a fish, you have no chance of catching that fish the next day. I told my boat official to keep me up to date on what was happening. There were a couple I shook off that I knew I could go catch.”
Not only has he improved as a tactician and strategist, but Wheeler said that his occasional missteps have made him more deadly. He’s vowed not to repeat them if at all possible.
“Eventually strategy became my strongest suit,” he said.
Crush City Buffet for the Win
Part of Wheeler’s multi-day, multi-species battle plan involved knowing that he had the right tools to get the job done with each pivot. Because he’s been an integral part of the CrushCity™ team, developing lures to fit not only his own needs, but those of the wider bass fishing universe, he’s intimately aware with how each lure works, and when one works better than the others.
“For the smallmouths, it was a combination that got the job done,” he said. “I used the 4.5” Mooch Minnow® a lot because of the sheer fact of it’s durability. The TPE construction makes it more efficient. And sometimes I choose one over the other because the fish seem to want more tail action versus body roll.”
However, the 4.25” Freeloader® has its advantages. When a 1/8 ounce jighead is preferable, he can throw the Freeloader a longer distance. Both lures excel on a VMC® Redline Series® Tungsten Swimbait Jig and green shad was the best color.
One other member of the CrushCity family that was a “huge player,” but which is often underrecognized, is the Salted Nedroll™.
“On the final day I used it to catch 60% of my fish,” he said. “The bait is great on a VMC Shakey head. It has a different profile than other Ned-style baits. I used it on stumps and little gravel banks. Some of those fish were prespawn. They seemed to want a bait on the bottom generally.”
Key colors were Green Pumpkin Magic and Green Pumpkin Blue.
He also caught several key fish by covering water with a bladed jig tipped with a Freeloader, either in Sungill or Green Pumpkin Magic, depending on whether he wanted to replicate a bluegill or a crawfish.
He also stressed the importance of Sufix lines in his continued excellence.
“Both the Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon and the braids are extremely sensitive with low stretch. I used 17 lb. Advance Fluorocarbon the most on my casting gear. I simply have a ton of confidence in it. For my spinning rod setups, they all had 8# Sufix Revolve in h-vis green paired with an 8# Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon leader”
Next Steps
As Wheeler now turns his attention back to winning his fifth Angler of the Year trophy on top of this latest accomplishment, he reflected on how the development of CrushCity accelerated a career that was already on track to make the Hall of Fame.
“To work with an iconic company like Rapala and to work on a project like this, I almost have more pride in that than even this win. To go out and win a tournament on a product that you created with a team like this one, there’s no greater satisfaction. The success is not only mine. Just look at Dustin Connell, who’s won Redcrest three times, and the success of other anglers who aren’t in position to say anything about it. It’s cool to see how far it has come in such a short amount of time.”
“We’ll continue to push the envelope,” he said. “We’ll never rest on our laurels.”