Wheeler Takes His 11th Win on BPT
Jacob Wheeler’s utter domination of the Bass Pro Tour continues. Fresh on the heels of back-to-back Angler of the Year titles, and four in the past five years, he earned his first win of 2026 in the season’s Stage 4 tournament and heads into Redcrest with a 3-point advantage over second in the AOY standings.
This most recent multi-day win – at O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood in Texas -- his 11th victory in just over seven seasons on the BPT, may become a signature achievement in a career that’s already full of statement wins.
Wheeler’s ability to outdistance the competition resulted from a purposeful and atypical practice schedule, a decision to punch through to the Championship Round, and sparing use of forward-facing sonar. On top of that, he relied on a broad range of specific Rapala and CrushCity tools, several of his own design, to attract more and bigger bites.
Big Fish Energy
“Any time you’re in Texas, you know there are going to be big ones,” Wheeler said. “No matter where you launch there’s probably a 10-pounder nearby. For me, I knew that I had to fish for quality instead of quantity, especially with a 2-pound minimum size for this particular BPT event. The average fish down there is about a pound and a half or a pound and three quarters, so I had to focus on methods that would get bigger bites.”
That worked out well as his first five bass on Day 1 at OH Ivie totaled approximately 25 pounds. His first five at Brownwood cumulatively weighed 18-14. Those provided him with the type of cushion that he needed to establish an insurmountable lead. During the qualifying round, he led on Day 1 by over 8 pounds, and on Day 2 by more than 12. The Championship round produced 42-13, with his closest competitor more than 5 pounds back, and the third-place angler had less than half of Wheeler’s weight.
He attributed the big differences to his mental state and strategic plan.
“In a two-lake tournament like this, there’s always a fine line, like playing poker,” he said. He practice more on Brownwood than most of the field, assuming that he would get to fish there. But that meant less time on Ivie, which might have meant he never got to fish Brownwood at all. That latter fear proved unfounded.
“I spent my time intentionally,” Wheeler said. “I knew that a lot could change on Ivie and I wouldn’t make it to the final poker table, but I had confidence that I could adjust on the fly.”
A Complete Tool Box
As he approaches his 36th birthday, Wheeler is still young, but he’s seen an entire generation come in behind him. They’re students of the game, and especially talented with emerging technology. Wheeler hasn’t given an inch – the AOY titles are proof of that – but he knows that he’s at his best using traditional methods and tackle.
“My strength is fishing conventionally,” he explained. “Everything I have is a tool. All of my lures are assets, tools in a tool box.”
Indeed, he dug into that master set of tools repeatedly and purposefully throughout the event. Everything from hollow bodied frogs to dropshots came into play and Wheeler adjusted accordingly.
On Brownwood he targeted docks with a vibrating jig, and while of course the jig itself mattered, so did his choice of trailer: A CrushCity™ Freeloader®.
“The biggest thing, especially around boat docks, is that it skips so well,” he said. “It fits that jig so well and represents both a threadfin shad and a small gizzard shad with that action in the tail. It’s the perfect size to trigger big fish, but it’s not overpowering so it can still get bites from smaller fish.” He alternated between Albino Shad, Sight Flash and Green Shad depending on the water clarity.
The other thing that was critical was making multiple casts to key spots.
“Those fish on the docks, sometimes it required several casts to the same place to get them to bite,” he explained. “I just had a gut feeling about the right times to slow down. I figured that if it looked too good, there had to be one there. Those key gut feelings were huge.”
He also went old school with a flipping stick, but utilizing the hottest new soft plastic on the planet: The CrushCity Bronco Bug®, the same lure that helped Kyle Welcher set margin-of-victory records on the Pasquotank River last year
“Whether you’re bed fishing or fishing bushes, when big females go shallow this creature simply triggers big bites,” Wheeler said. “It has that big profile which can imitate bluegills, crawfish, even little turtles – essentially anything bass don’t like near their nests.”
He fished the Bronco Bug on a 4/0 VMC® RedLine Series® Heavy Duty Flippin Hook, behind a 3/8 ounce VMC tungsten weight at Brownwood and a ½ ounce weight at Ivie. With the former he used 20-pound test Sufix fluorocarbon and with the latter he used 25 to extract fish from thick bushes. Key colors were Green Pumpkin Blue and Black/Blue.
“They simply want it gone,” he added.
But while heavy line and big baits played an understandably outsize role in his success, Wheeler is convinced that he would not have won this tournament had he not also employed a dropshot throughout the week. In particular, he used a CrushCity Janitor® with several key rigging techniques that made it extra-effective.
“It was straight black, which is probably one of the most underrated colors in the sport of bass fishing” he said. “It’s a great clear water color and also worked well in the dirtier water at Brownwood. It’s probably my second most-used color after Green Pumpkin. It’s more versatile than black and blue, which isn’t as good in clear water.”
He also went to a 1/8 ounce VMC tungsten dropshot weight, far lighter than the ¼, 5/16 or 3/8 ounce versions that most anglers use, and he’s convinced it was a different-maker.
“One of the things people overlook is that this time of year, around the spawn, you need to slow down,” he said. “That 1/8 ounce weight has a much slower rate of fall, and that got me more bites.” He fished the dropshot on a main line of 8 pound test Sufix Revolve paired with a leader composed of 8 pound test Sufix fluorocarbon.
“The biggest thing, especially around boat docks, is that it skips so well,” he said. “It fits that jig so well and represents both a threadfin shad and a small gizzard shad with that action in the tail. It’s the perfect size to trigger big fish, but it’s not overpowering so it can still get bites from smaller fish.” He alternated between Albino Shad, Sight Flash and Green Shad depending on the water clarity.
The other thing that was critical was making multiple casts to key spots.
“Those fish on the docks, sometimes it required several casts to the same place to get them to bite,” he explained. “I just had a gut feeling about the right times to slow down. I figured that if it looked too good, there had to be one there. Those key gut feelings were huge.”
He also went old school with a flipping stick, but utilizing the hottest new soft plastic on the planet: The CrushCity Bronco Bug®, the same lure that helped Kyle Welcher set margin-of-victory records on the Pasquotank River last year
“Whether you’re bed fishing or fishing bushes, when big females go shallow this creature simply triggers big bites,” Wheeler said. “It has that big profile which can imitate bluegills, crawfish, even little turtles – essentially anything bass don’t like near their nests.”
He fished the Bronco Bug on a 4/0 VMC® RedLine Series® Heavy Duty Flippin Hook, behind a 3/8 ounce VMC tungsten weight at Brownwood and a ½ ounce weight at Ivie. With the former he used 20-pound test Sufix fluorocarbon and with the latter he used 25 to extract fish from thick bushes. Key colors were Green Pumpkin Blue and Black/Blue.
“They simply want it gone,” he added.
But while heavy line and big baits played an understandably outsize role in his success, Wheeler is convinced that he would not have won this tournament had he not also employed a dropshot throughout the week. In particular, he used a CrushCity Janitor® with several key rigging techniques that made it extra-effective.
“It was straight black, which is probably one of the most underrated colors in the sport of bass fishing” he said. “It’s a great clear water color and also worked well in the dirtier water at Brownwood. It’s probably my second most-used color after Green Pumpkin. It’s more versatile than black and blue, which isn’t as good in clear water.”
He also went to a 1/8 ounce VMC tungsten dropshot weight, far lighter than the ¼, 5/16 or 3/8 ounce versions that most anglers use, and he’s convinced it was a different-maker.
“One of the things people overlook is that this time of year, around the spawn, you need to slow down,” he said. “That 1/8 ounce weight has a much slower rate of fall, and that got me more bites.” He fished the dropshot on a main line of 8 pound test Sufix Revolve paired with a leader composed of 8 pound test Sufix fluorocarbon.
Next Steps for the Champ
Having taken the lead in the AOY race, Wheeler is now at a critical juncture in his season. He knows that making the final push for number five and his third in a row will require a herculean effort – even for the pro who is arguably the best in the world.
But before he can start that effort, he has to take care of business at home. With the ink on his $125,000 check barely dry, he killed a turkey to scratch that itch, and now will focus on giving his family the best Easter possible. But then it’s back to business.
“I’m grateful and thankful for all that I have,” he said. “And that includes adding another trophy to the trophy room and spending time with the family. But next week I’ll start thinking about Redcrest, about how I’ll fish Table Rock and the weather patterns that we’ll encounter.”
He never truly rests, never stops strategizing, and that’s why Wheeler keeps on crushing the competition en route to becoming the greatest tactician and angler of his generation.