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Ding! How J-Wheels won his first BPT.
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Unless you’ve been stuck on Mars with this dude…
…you must’ve noticed that Jacob Wheeler is building a dang good career/rep/name/robot factory for himself (okay not the robot factory) because he’s a dude who’s in the dang hunt a LOT…like this year’s Bassmaster Classic, the NC BPT and the previous BPT on Table Rock where he finished 5th. Dude’s also won a few over the years, and he’s still going. Here’s his baits from this win — full pattern deal is on the BassBlaster website:
> “My #1 bait — including day 1 when I had 130 lbs — I caught at least 75% of my fish on was a 3” Storm Largo Shad (pearl) on a 3/8-oz prototype VMC jighead, 12-lb Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon [not yet out], 7′ MH Duckett signature series rod and 6.2:1 reel.
> “When you had a school of fish grouped up offshore, you could catch them almost every cast on that swimbait. You could [catch them] on a dropshot but not as many because you could stay off them with the swimbait.
> “That was the deal throughout the week, but as the pressure got to those offshore places, you had to go more finessey…so I used a dropshot the last day. I had 3 dropshots tied on.
> “Those fish were suspending on timber. The last day the biggest thing is it was so calm and still, the schools of fish on those points ended up suspending around the timber on the outer edge of the points. I figured that out at 10-11 am, and that’s how I caught a lot of my fish.”
> 4″ hand-poured (morning dawn) and Googan Baits Slim Shake (morning dawn) TX-rigged on a 1/0 VMC Neko hook. 1/4-oz VMC tungsten weight, 8-b Sufix NanoBraid to 10-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro: “I pumped [the fluoro] up to 10 because when I fired up a school I didn’t want to retie all the time. Plus I broke off a few earlier in the week on 8-lb….” Rod: 7′ 2″ MH signature Duckett Spinning Rod.
> “When the schools were acting funny and wouldn’t bite a swimbait, I tried to stay off them as much as I could. I cast a 1/4-oz VMC shakey head with a Googan Baits Slim Shake worm (blue baby) on the same dropshot setup.
> “I caught a few fish the last day on a swim-jig on docks like in the first tournament, and also a few fish on on deeper docks with a wacky Neko rig…1/16-oz VMC Neko Weight, #2 VMC Neko hook and a Googan Lunker Log (baby bass).”
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5 Qs with Mr. Wheels hisself.
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Was in a rush so missed my chance to ask him crazy Qs — will have to do it at later. For now, here you go:
1. How’d you get your Wheels nickname? Just your last name or…?
> “Just my last name I guess.”
[His roomie MDJ said it all comes from this vid of Jacob before he became bassin’ famous:]
2. How do you find fish so fast? Can’t tell if you’re a big-time studier or you’re the instinctive type.
> “I try to fish as freely as I possibly can because I got burnt not doing that. When I got 2nd in NC, I’m not going to say I got complacent but it got to where I was ahead a little bit and I almost fished scared with the lead. After that I realized how big a deal it was [to fish the final day].
> “I told myself that if I ever get in that position again, I would never let down no matter what the weights are…never stop hunting. When you get ahead and try to maintain, it messes you up sometimes.”
3. Does that mean you’re always learning?
> “I’m not always [learning] but I definitely try to keep an open mind.
> “I try to never dial it in in practice. It’s never a good deal if you dial into one pattern, especially over a 6-day period. A lot changes in 6 days. So I try to keep an open mind, but try to get enough of an idea of what I need to do from practice.
> “I fish multiple different patterns, and whichever develops throughout the week I continue to try to do that.”
4. What’s the difference between winning one of these vs a best-5 tourney?
> “As far as winning goes, it feels the same. Whenever you win and beat that group fo guys, it a sense of accomplishment that, Hey you’re the best that week. It’s so hard to have that happen. …each win is so special because you don’t know when your next one is going to be. It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve won.
> “For me, it’s so hard to fish this format. It makes you work harder. In the past…if I caught 4-5 big ones in the morning…I’d just pitch around and catch another big one throughout the day, and I’m good. This deal you have to continue to catch them. You’re always going. You have to be fishing for that next bite and next pattern coming up.
> “In my mind it’s more intense day in and day out — more intense for me than any other format I’ve fished by far.”
5. What’s this whole “um, ding” deal?
> “[Dustin] Connell, MDJ [Mark Daniels Jr] and I have been rooming together the last 3 yrs. It started off with us fishing on the Elites…we’ve always roomed together. We’ve always said…a ‘ding’ when we catch one that’s a good one or take the lead. It’s like Iaconelli and ‘Never give up,’ Chris Lane with ‘Pow — it’s basically our little deal we’ve always said.
> “It was an inside joke. Last year when Mark won [the Elite] in SD, he’s like, ‘Um…ding’ when he caught a big one. So ‘um..ding?’ is like a happy moment…and inside joke between all of us.”
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If you ain’t derpin’, you ain’t bassin’!
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Wow the derps have been pourin’ in. Lead-off basser is Jeff R, who smashed this angry Eagle Lake, MN derp on a dang 110-size Whopper Plopper (“I know it”):
‘Nother nice MN derp, this time a 4-02 Mille Lacs brown one, caught by Alex A on what looks like a pink Rapala X-Rap Deep but he says it’s a different, old Rapala bait:
Lovin’ this chunk derp Jason A dragged outta the Rocky Mountain PFA, GA on a black TX-rigged worm:
Mike C black hair-jigged this Door County, WI derp — said, “I was so pumped to finally get a good derp.” Lol heck yeah!
Kelly B fooled this KY Lake derp with a Carolina-rigged lizard (gp):
Brady H baaaaarely squeaked into Club Derp with this Lay Lake, AL specimen. Flipped him up on a Missile Baby D Bomb (gp3):
Bug-eye = burp derp? Layne E caught it in NJ (yo!!) on a Big Sexy Baits Mayhem HD (gp/black):
BEEG NEWS: Gettin’ stickerz made for all bass-heads fortunate to catch a derp and want to brag about it to the world — more deets coming but can tell you this: It’ll be the most prestigious sticker EVER in the history of bassin’.
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When’s the last time you saw this?
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Do you love bassin’ this much?
Wild! That’s Jason C and a bud “about 3 miles off Crystal Beach in Canada,” on Erie. The bergs “ran for about a 4-mile band towards NY side of the lake.”
Smallies don’t care about the ice mang! So they caught ’em on Freedom Tackle Football Heads with 3.8″ Jackall Rhythm Wave Swimbaits (new goby), and Set the Hook tubes (piñata):
Nice ones fellers!
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News
Apparently Jordan Lee went to the tanks and talked to ’em before they were let go, not sure what he said….
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Quote of the Day
“…you can gain so much perspective by watching how bass are positioned and noting what different species look like.”
– Elitist Cliff “Divin'” Pirch talkin’ ’bout how he’s spending his off time, namely gettin’ his nerd on by readin’ ‘lectronics manuals and then goin’ out on the lake and just starin’ at his graph.
THAT is a fo sho Bass NERD, and once again that insane obsession with the deets is what makes these dudes so dang good. One reason, anyhow. In Cliff’s case another reason is:
Not sure why he feels so strongly that fishin’ armadillos for channel cats helps his bassin’, but hard to talk to him about it so….
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Shot of the Day
Here’s former pro angler Art Ferguson bassin’ someplace that looks like the Caribbean and way up north at the same time…and wish I was there, how ’bout you:
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Ya got me
Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup
of the best, worst and funniest in bassin’, as curated by me — Jay Kumar. I started BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a bunch more in bassin’. The Blaster is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass so thanks for readin’!
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Sign up another bass-head!
If you’re forwarding every Blaster to other bass crackheads, tx much — or you can email me the addys and we’ll take care of it! We’ll never send spam or sell the list or anything else crazy….
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