How Jacob Wheeler won his 11th BPT at Ivie/Brownwood, TX

How bad do you think the guys on the MLF Bass Pro Tour want to beat Jacob? You know the answer. They’re gonna have to wait til Redcrest because he just won another. Here’s how it went down in another BPT 2-laker.

Practice

> “The first day of practice I spent the first 4 hours on Lake Brownwood just because I wanted to see what kind of stage the fish were in there. …I wanted to make sure I was spending the last bit of practice on OH Ivie – things tend to change a lot this time of year.

> “I ran around [Brownwood]…felt like the fish were pretty far along…not a lot of new ones spawning…some fry-guarders up there.

> “Ivie…I spent the next day and a half…flipped trees and bushes. I sort of got dialed in on a Bronco Bug bite and flipping a dropshot around with a Janitor [worm] once I figured out the depth zone. 5-7′ seemed to be the best.

> “…a lot of stuff looked the same there. You had to flip to find them. One stretch was great, the next stretch…wouldn’t have anything.”

Tournament: Ivie

> “On Ivie, day 1 I started on a fish I shook off in practice. My second pitch with a Bronco Bug I caught a 7-lber. So it started off really good. My first 5 weighed 25 lbs [all 1st period, which was his FFS period].

> “The only reason I did that [FFS] is because I had that fish that I shook off and wanted to see if she was still there. I had [FFS] on that period, but wasn’t like it was necessary….

> “2nd period I had to hunker down. I caught 2 more and lost 2 pretty good ones.

> “The 3rd period was really what jump-started what going on. I was flipping a stretch of bushes, and they came up schooling on the inside bush line. I caught 1 on a frog, another on a swim-jig and I took the lead…[the fish] went down and sorta disappeared.

> “I was in the lead after day 1 and now I had the bush thing going and the place where fish were feeding on bait – had a feeling they were staying in that area.

> “Day 2 I started where those fish blew up…a school of bass on the inside edge of that bush line. I’m assuming it was a shad spawn thing…I want to say I caught 30 lbs on a frog and swim-jig, and a couple more on a Bronco Bug.

> “[That bite] died off, then I went running around a little bit and I ended up catching a couple more on a Bronco Bug throughout the day. I had enough to win the round.

> “I was really conflicted on having enough to win the round because no one had ever won the Qualifying Round on a dual-lake tournament [and advanced directly to the last day] and won…. But a dang guaranteed top 10 – I was conflicted. I just decided that if the fish bit, I’d just go ahead and do it.”

Ivie baits

> Flipping: Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug (gp blue), 4/0 VMC RedLine HD Flipping Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Weight, 25-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, Shimano Curado (8.3), 7′ 6″ H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.

> Power shot: Rapala CrushCity Janitor (gp and gp magic), 3/0 VMC RedLine Worm Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Dropshot Weight, 40-lb Sufix 832 Braid (dark green) to 20-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro Leader, KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Reel, 7′ 2″ MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.

> Frog (chart/white), 50-lb Sufix 832 Braid (dark green), Duckett reel, 7′ 6″ H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.

He also caught 1-2 on a 3/8-oz swim-jig (white) with a CrushCity Cleanup Craw (pearl white).

[These are a selection of his baits from both lakes.]

Tournament: Brownwood

> “…with the fish being further ahead …I really felt like I could catch ’em on a ChatterBait, I thought I could catch a few spawners that were spawning a little deeper – 3-5′ of water on some flats – and then I felt like I could frog if I needed to up in the day….

> “[Day 3 which he didn’t fish was a catch-fest but] it also was cloudy all day, misty rain, a really good fishing day. Championship day it was sunny and windy as all get out – cold in the morning….

> “I hit the docks first. I went down a stretch of docks and caught 1…I just wasn’t feeling it. I left to fish [his] other stretch of docks, and I hit a stretch where I caught 1 on basically every dock. The 1st 5 I caught weighed 18-14. …with a 2-lb minimum it was all about quality.

[If you don’t know the ins and outs of the BPT, a 2-lb minimum is common but doesn’t happen 100% of the time.]

> “[Justin] Lucas was leading after period 1…we were sort of jawing back and forth….

> “Period 2 the wind got up. It was…only supposed to blow 10-15, but it was blowing 20 with gusts to 30. I turned on FFS and went to go fish spawners I found in practice. The first place I cast out there with a dropshot [and caught] a 2.5 lber. There were 2-2.5′ waves…boat position was really difficult.”

He caught another 2.5 and an almost 5, then pretty much the entire field went the rest of period 2 without boating a fish.

> “3rd period, I know I gotta catch them. In the back of my mind I wanted to go to my [backwater] frogging stretch, but it was really hard to get to…gonna be locked in and I didn’t want to lock myself in.

> “I started on a stretch of docks with the vibrating jig again. I made a cast at a dock, got to the back of it – it looked so good. So I made another cast and nothing. I made the exact same cast the 3rd time and I catch a 3-lber. A huge lightbulb went on….

> “With an hour and a half to go I’m in the teeth of the wind – 2′ waves are crashing on the docks. I went from a 7 3 MH rod to a 7 0 because I could make those roll casts so much easier in that wind.

> “It was literally like playing putt-putt golf with the windmill going around – you would have to time it perfectly between waves to get your bait underneath a dock in an opening. …probably the most challenging conditions to fish boat docks I’ve ever fished in.

> “I ended up locking in and fishing that way [til the end].”

Brownwood baits

> 1/2-oz Z-Man JackHammer with a 4.25″ Rapala CrushCity Freeloader: white with a ‘sight flash’ Freeloader on docks when it was really blowing and the water got dirtier, and in clearer water a ‘natural shad’ or ‘spot remover’ JackHammer with an ‘albino shad’ or ‘green shad’ Freeloader.

> 17-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Reel, either a 7′ 3″ MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod or 7′ 0″ MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod (for the dock bait).

> Flipping for fish spawning on stumps and brush using FFS: Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug (gp blue), 4/0 Rapala VMC RedLine Straight Shank Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Weight, 20-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, Shimano Curado (8.3), 7′ 6″ H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.

> Dropshot: Rapala CrushCity Janitor (gp and gp magic), 2/0 VMC Finesse Neko Hook, 1/8-oz VMC Tungsten Dropshot Weight, 8-lb Sufix Revolve Braid (neon lime) to 14-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro Leader, Shimano Vanford Spin Reel (2500), 7′ M Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Spin Rod.

Electronics

> “I definitely caught some of my fish throughout the week on [Lowrance] ActiveTarget 2. It helped me a lot, especially on Brownwood when there was a major lull…in the 2nd period. I put my range back to like 70′ and bumped the contrast down a little bit.

> “…helped me on OH Ivie finding the bushes that were underneath the water. Everyone was fishing the bushes that were topped out and super full above the water. Some of the bushes that were under the water that just had a couple little sprigs sticking out, you could see how full they were [under the surface] with forward.

> “I would just make a pitch to that. Not see a fish, just go pitch in there.

> “Power-Poles were huge in that wind on Brownwood. Power-Poled down, the wind was so strong it wanted me to bump me [over] like a foot per wave….

> “I covered a lot of water on Brownwood, having lithiums. 3 people following me had AGMs and lead-acids and they were like, ‘Our batteries are shot.’ So Millertech was a huge part of it – being able to cover enough water…to go against the wind….”

Shoutouts

> “Shoutout to my mom and 2 sisters..for coming out. They’ve been to 3 tournaments that I’ve won: the All-American, the Forrest Wood Cup, might have been a BassFest back in the day. It’s been a while since we’ve all been together at a tournament, and to have them up on stage, to be able to celebrate the win…it was cool to do that….”