Wheeler Adds to His Trophy Case with another Freeloader Win
When Jacob Wheeler won the Bass Pro Tour event at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville last year with the then-yet-to-be-introduced CrushCity Freeloader, many fans thought it was a one-off. Not the win – Wheeler has proved time and again that he’s a dominant force of nature anywhere that bass swim – but rather the technique. On one of the world’s great power fisheries, he went against the grain, and subdued a winning catch of big fish on a finesse technique.
Well, it was hardly an outlier. This past week Wheeler put on a dominating performance at South Carolina’s Santee Cooper reservoir, another massive, timber-laden big fish factory, and once again he came out on top. It was his seventh BPT win. For someone who wins so frequently, and in so many different ways, it’s hard to call any tournament a signature performance, but more than anything it just shows his extreme consistency and adaptability. Indeed, he seems to be playing three dimensional chess to almost everyone else’s checkers.
A Different Way to Freeload
When Wheeler arrived in South Carolina, the fish were headed to the bank. Most of his competitors stayed there but he left his options open, found a way to mix it up, and came out on top.
“Everything was pointing to shallow water and throwing square bills and vibrating jigs,” he said. “Everything was leading to that deal.” But changing conditions put the fish in a neutral or negative mood. The ones that had moved up hadn’t left, but they weren’t inclined to bite, either.
“I ended up catching fish on the Freeloader in 3 feet of water,” Wheeler said. “It’s just so natural. When they go dormant or inactive, and it’s hard to get bites, this can still trigger them. We’re just scratching the surface of what it can do. I saw some insane things this week. I’d throw a wacky rig into a likely spot and wouldn’t get a bite, then I’d go back in with the Freeloader and a 3 ½ pounder would eat it on the first cast. It’s just the perfect size – not too big, not too small, with a ton of drawing power.”
The Specifics
While Wheeler made it sound easy, he uses a surgeon’s precision when employing the Freeloader, switching up colors and jigheads to adapt to the constantly-changing conditions. Santee’s waterways featured drastically different water clarities from one area to another, and adjusting to them helped him eke out the extra bites he needed to win.
“When it was low light conditions in the morning or stained water, I’d use Pearl White or Albino Pearl,” he said. “Then, in the high sun conditions I wanted something translucent, so I went to Albino Shad. Finally, I also had Gizzard Shad as another option when I’d go back through an area to try to catch the ones I’d missed.”
He fished them on a 3/16 ounce VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jig for mid-depth presentations, and would switch to lighter jigs when he went shallow.
No matter which color Freeloader or jig head he used, his line choice remained critical, and in typical Wheeler fashion, he’s letting another cat out of the bag. I’m excited to finally get the “green light” and announce the new Sufix braid I’ve been tourture testing for well over a year, Sufix Revolve!” He used this premier spinning reel braid in hi-viz green and connected it to 10-pound test Sufix® Advance® Fluorocarbon with an FG knot. He’s consistently been amazed by how incredibly thin, yet strong and versatile this light braid can be. Sufix Revolve will be released in July at ICAST and available at retail later in the year, more to come on that…
“I can cast so much better, it’s supple, and the wind doesn’t blow it around as much,” he explained. It allows for more precision, especially when he sees the bass on his screen or needs to snake a lure into a tight spot and extract a giant.
Freeloading in Heavy Cover
To date, many anglers employing the Freeloader have used it in conjunction with forward-facing sonar in open water. Clearly, Wheeler is a master of using his Active Target, but the eye opener in this most recent win was that the majority of his winning fish came around cover.
“They were on rocks, brush and stumps that I found by side scanning,” he said. “You have to understand how the bass set up on that cover. Some of them were tucked in so tight that you couldn’t see them on your electronics You had to shake that bait over the stump, and the closer you got to the ambush point the better they’d react.”
Indeed, at a time when electronics seem to have taken over the game in many cases, Wheeler knows that fishing at the highest level is still an affair that requires all of the senses, plus the proper tool for the job.
“You can’t always see your bait on the screen in 4 feet of water, but I have so much faith and confidence in the Freeloader that I know I can use it anywhere and catch them. It’s that good, and we’re just starting to figure out all of the different things it can do. It’s like a vibrating jig was in the early 2000s. We’re proving time in and time out that it’s the one bait they will bite when they don’t want to bite anything at all.”
