How Jacob Wheeler won his first Redcrest Championship

Yep, Jacob won MLF’s Redcrest Championship. No one’s surprised, not even people born in 2027. 😁 Because it’s Jacob, and he also won the most recent MLF Bass Pro Tour regular season event, and he’s got the most-ever BPT wins and AOY wins.

But look at the guys he was fishing against that last Redcrest day (weights zeroed so it’s 1-day shootout):

2. Takahiro Omori

3. Zack Birge

4. Brent Ehrler

5. Drew Gill

6. Alton Jones Jr

7. Mark Daniels Jr

8. Spencer Shuffield

9. Jeff Sprague

10. Dustin Connell

A pretty dang stout group! Here’s how Jacob won it.

Going in and practice

> “[His history there is] I won a BPT event there [2019], I got a top 5 in the one that Aaron won there, I had a 2nd in a B.A.S.S. Open there, and I had a top 30 or something there [in his first-ever time competing on that lake].

> “…I’ve always had really good finishes there. I don’t know the lake extremely well, but I’ve fished around it enough.

> “All that being said, I was excited. …springtime, the fish will spawn, there’ll be post-spawners, pre-spawners…and the great thing about Table Rock is…it’s a very good pattern fishery which suits my style a lot.

> “In practice…I don’t like to dial things in crazy amounts…especially in a multi-day event in springtime. 4 days in the month of Apr is like a month’s time going by. [It changes] so much day to day that you really do not want to be super dialed in in practice. Especially day 1 or day 2 of practice.

> “I found some pre-spawn smallmouth on secondary points [and] some spawning smallmouth, but a lot of those were not the bigger ones. And…a main area where I was gonna go wind a ChatterBait around and flip a Bronco Bug around…a little bit more stained water…shallow.

> “…being a 2-lb minimum really made it to where spotted bass more than likely were not going to play that big of a deal. 10% of your spots out there are probably over 2 lbs. Where largemouths might…might be 4 out of 10 [and] smallmouth probably about the same – 4 out of 10.

> “So focusing on better-quality fish was gonna be a major player. Table Rock does not have a shortage of bites, but 2+ lbers…you’re fishing for a better than average bite. I caught a largemouth in practice that was 16.5 inches long and it was 2-04.

> “…I was fishing for 2.5, 3.5 – those were the ones I wanted to focus on because you didn’t have to catch as many. If you could figure out how to catch a better-quality average you’d be a lot better off.”

Tournament

For the first time in MLF history, this Redcrest was a 3-dayer.

> “Day 1 I started on smallmouth. I had a really good [FFS] period, caught some that were still pre-spawn on a Mooch Minnow, caught some spawners…actually expanded in some areas rather than trying to force it.

> “Then I had to make a decision. I had a little bit of cushion from the cut, and I had a place I wanted to to check that was 50 miles away, way up the White River. …I needed to get an understanding of how good it is up there, and if it’s worth it or not to go.

> “…I ended up running all the way…in the back of this creek. I fished there the next 2 periods and caught some fish, but it was not nearly what I thought it could be.

> “I felt like I spread myself too thin anyway [with fishing up there] and I needed to get that out of my mind right off the rip. I knew I wasn’t gonna win the tournament doing that.

> “Day #2…the biggest decision I had to make…do I go use my forward period to catch enough fish to make the cut and have 2 periods of practice…or do I go [where] I had 1 bite in practice on the lower end [in a creek] or do I go and just fish.

> “I said, ‘You know what, we’re gonna chance it. Period 1 I’m gonna go…just practice, I’m gonna run around [and fish] the pattern that worked for me in the other creeks, and run with it.’

> “The first hour I hadn’t caught a scoreable and finally got on a stretch where I caught ’em really good throwing a ChatterBait. I caught enough fish just going down the bank…I was able to save my forward period for practice [in the 3rd period].

> “I knew there were a lot of smallmouth leaving…pre-spawn smallmouth that were leaving, spawning smallmouth that were leaving…and coming. So there were a lot of things I needed to know to set myself up….

> Day 3, we had a little bit of a fog delay…it was cold, the 2nd day of the front…the 2nd day of a front is always the toughest fishing.

> “I started with my [FFS] period…I catch a 4-lber really quick on a salted Ned Roll. I catch another good fish, another good fish…like 20 lbs the first hour. Then the next 45 minutes I don’t even put a scoreable in the boat [a lot of shorts]. I shook fish off the day before I thought were good ones and they just were not.

> “…a really important time [was] about 35 minutes left in that 1st period – I had 6 more [smallmouths] that I’d marked [on beds] and shook off. If I could catch those fish, I could set myself up for a great day.

> “In the last 30 minutes I ran like 10 miles. I would pull up, make 3 casts, catch the fish, put him on the scale, pick up my trolling motor, they’d call the weight, I’d put the fish in the water, put my life jacket on, zip it up, take off. It was all about efficiency….”

He had about a 10-lb lead going into the 2nd period. He caught another spawner on the Salted Ned Roll, then ran to a “long creek,” to his ChatterBait stretches. A bunch of local boats were there but he was able to go down the best stretch he had – and didn’t get a bite:

> “The conditions were not right. It was flat, the sun was up high, I was like – I gotta go run new water. I look and…man that banks’s still shaded…the wind’s blowing on it, let me just run over there.”

He caught 4-5 good ones there, was up 18-19 lbs and had confidence that pattern was still holding up. He caught some more, but then the wind died so he decided to run to the lower end where there was some “tea-color”/tannic water – and caught some keeper fish there.

> “It made it to where that lower end fished more like an upper end because the water was more stained and those fish weren’t set up as deep.

> “…shallower, dirtier water, throwing a ChatterBait, fishing wind-blown banks. I was fishing shade because the sun was up – that was a big deal for generating a couple bites.

> “It was just really tough fishing. It was a tough fishing day. I needed to lock in….

> “When you’re up a decent amount of weight, every single fish is so important. It adds so much more distance between you and the rest of the field.”

Baits

> “Early in the tournament I caught fish on a [Rapala CrushCity] Bronco Bug (gp blue) flipping laydowns, but it didn’t really happen the last 2 days.” 4/0 VMC RedLine Straight Shank Hook, 3/8-oz weight.

> Rapala CrushCity Salted Ned Roll (gp blue and gp magic), 3/16-oz shakey head, 8-lb Sufix Revolve Braid (neon lime) to 12-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, Shimano Stradic Reel (3000), 7′ M Duckett JW 2.0 Spin Rod.

> “That really played a big role the final day. …little rockpiles, stumps, any little isolated piece of cover. A lot of times I didn’t see the fish…cast it out and just drag it. It was probably the biggest bait the final day for generating bites.”

> Minnows: 4.5″ Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow (green shad) on a 3/16-oz head and 4.25″ Rapala CrushCity Freeloader (green shad) on a 1/8-oz head. “I could throw [that] Freeloader…way better…about 30% further in the wind than [the Mooch because the Freeloader is a heavier bait]. The bait was not blown around as easily.” VMC RedLine Tungsten Swimbait Jighead and unnamed jighead.

> 1/2-oz Z-Man JackHammer (bluegill – “in that tannic water I wanted a gold blade”) with a Freeloader (sungill and then gp magic because he ran out of sungill), 17-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Reel (7.2), 7′ 4″ MH Duckett JW Select Rod (“that’s my favorite ChatterBait rod”).

Electronics

> “I used FFS to catch ’em, but it just made me more efficient during that time I was using it to be as dialed in as possible. I’m finding little rockpiles, little places fish were setting up…need to parallel this bank a little differently. It was not a 1-trick thing….

> “Shoutout to Wieda’s Marine – they sent me an extra [Lowrance] Active Target 2 XL Transducer so I had 2 XLs on my boat this week. That new transducer has a higher frequency [which is better] when picking put the bottom. Lowrance has always been really good overall, but Garmin had better target separation. With the XL there’s a lot better target separation – you can see the detail, you can see what’s going on…a really big deal [the] shallow-water target separation. I could see a lot of subtle details in the bottom with Forward – even Scout mode was cleaner and crisper.”

> “Power Brakes are unbelievable. Not for just Scope. …when going down bluff walls…get a bite, I’d have the Poles down halfway and just reverse it, back up, pitch back in there and catch that fish.

> “I just like the extra things you can do with trolling motors in the back of the boat. I toyed around with the idea [of brakes] for 3 years but I didn’t know if I really wanted to do that. I put them on the first tournament of the year…found more uses out of them just general fishing than I ever thought I would.”

Shoutouts

> “I really want to shout out the whole Suzuki family. They had a big party last night after the win. Things happen for a reason…it has been unbelievable.

> “My wife, my kids – my daughter Olivia, she’s my biggest fan and expects dad to win a lot. Nothing’s more important than my family. There’s a satisfaction and fulfillment you get out of [family moments]…you can’t earn through tournament wins.”